Nonprofit plans 200-unit Harlem supportive housing project

Bowery Residents’ Committee filed plans for 181K sf at 1721 Amsterdam Ave.

BRC's Julie Salamon with 1721 Amsterdam Avenue (Bowery Residents’ Committee, Google Maps)
BRC's Julie Salamon with 1721 Amsterdam Avenue (Bowery Residents’ Committee, Google Maps)

Nonprofit housing provider Bowery Residents’ Committee is planning a nine-story replacement for a Harlem medical building.

A 181,000-square-foot residential building with subsidized housing is slated for 1721 Amsterdam Avenue, according to an application submitted this month to the Department of Buildings.

The project, located at the corner of 145th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, will replace an existing four-story building operated by Heritage Health Care Center, a provider of community health services including pediatrics, HIV/AIDS testing and dental care.

The project is expected to bring approximately 200 new supportive and deeply-affordable residential units to the neighborhood, according to the Manhattan Community Board where the project is located. Crain’s reported Martin Kapell is the architect of record for the project, which includes space for a health facility on the first floor.

The site is owned by NYC Health + Hospitals, a public benefit corporation that operates public hospitals and health clinics. Medical care providers currently onsite are not expected to renew their leases in the new building.

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Some 80 units are expected to be reserved for individuals with a maximum income of 60 percent of the city’s median income, and 120 units will go toward those in need of supportive housing — to be filled by referrals from city social service agencies.

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Supportive housing is intended to provide permanent, as opposed to transitional, accommodation for individuals who have experienced homelessness, hospitalization or incarceration, or are youths aging out of foster care, according to the city.

Residents of the supportive housing will be eligible to receive services to help them find employment, reunite with family and receive medical treatment.

BRC’s real estate projects elsewhere in the city include Liberty Homes in East New York, the Apartments at Landing Road in the Bronx’s Fordham neighborhood and the Glass Factory on the Lower East Side.

— Orion Jones