$400M affordable housing project approved in East Flatbush

Development on psychiatric hospital campus will create 900 affordable units, 2 homeless shelters

A rendering of the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center with Breaking Ground CEO Brenda Rosen, Almat principal Donald Matheson and Douglaston Development chairman Jeffrey Levine (Photos via LinkedIn, ESD, Breaking Ground, Douglaston Development)
A rendering of the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center with Breaking Ground CEO Brenda Rosen, Almat principal Donald Matheson and Douglaston Development chairman Jeffrey Levine (Photos via LinkedIn, ESD, Breaking Ground, Douglaston Development)

UPDATED, July 15, 10:08 a.m.: Nearly 1,000 affordable housing units are coming to East Flatbush.

A newly approved $400 million project will redevelop 7.2 acres of the campus of the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center at 681 Clarkson Avenue to provide affordable housing, public green spaces and a supermarket, among other things.

Part of the state’s $1.4 billion Vital Brooklyn program, the project will be led by a consortium of developers and nonprofits, including Almat Urban, Breaking Ground and Douglaston Development, according to an announcement from Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The state first solicited proposals for the site in August 2020. The winning project is expected to provide approximately 900 affordable, supportive or senior housing units, as well as two homeless shelters.

The project will also include a basketball court, space for urban farming and a community center with space for classrooms, Cuomo said. The project is expected to create approximately 3,700 construction jobs, the state said, as well as 200 permanent jobs.

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“[The project] will bring more affordable housing to a community that desperately needs it, and the opportunities for healthier and greener living,” said Brooklyn Borough President and Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams in a statement.

Gov. Cuomo launched the Vital Brooklyn program in 2017 to address health care and housing inequalities in the borough. Previous projects funded by the program include The Hart in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which received $8.4 million in funds, as well as the 400-acre Shirley Chisholm State Park on the site of a former landfill near Jamaica Bay.

A total of $563 million was allocated in the initial budget of Vital Brooklyn for affordable housing. It’s not clear how much of the $400 million for the East Flatbush project will be disbursed from state funds.

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Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified one of the developers involved in the project, Douglaston Development, as Douglas Development.