New York City is exiting the real estate business.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced in late August that the city would take bids for affordable housing to be built on the last 248 city-owned vacant lots.
Once a mighty landlord owning more than 5,000 vacant lots in all five boroughs, the announcement marked the end of an era for the city and the beginning of new opportunities for developers.
The city acquired many of these lots through tax defaults or just plain abandonment, reaching its peak of ownership in the 1980s. By the early 1990s, however, the city was rapidly selling off its vacant lots, closing deals on hundreds of sites, creating a lucrative pipeline for developers looking for ever-scarcer land upon which to build. Now, the city owns just over 248 lots most of them in eastern Brooklyn neighborhoods like Brownsville and East New York and in Upper Manhattan.
The Bloomberg administration expects no trouble finding developers for the lots. Why? The city is offering each lot at what it calls “a nominal price.” The only catch is that the bidding process has been set up to reward developers not based on how much return they can get on a lot forget luxury condos but how much affordable housing they can supply.
About 3,200 units are expected to be built, according to the Department of Housing and Preservation Development, which is overseeing the proposal process through its citywide multifamily construction initiative called the Cornerstone Program.
Below is a list of the addresses of the lots in Brooklyn and Manhattan. (Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx, which have far fewer sites, are not included.)
Manhattan
East Harlem
155 East 109th St
53 East 110th St
77 East 110th St
64 East 111th St
66 East 111th St
169 East 111th St
315 East 111th St
505 East 118th St
507 East 118th St
127 East 119th St
162 East 122nd St
168 East 122nd St
176 East 122nd St
180 East 122nd St
50 East 131st St
54 East 131st St
56 East 131st St
58 East 131st St
60 East 131st St
Site on East 131st St
1612 Lexington Ave
1879 Lexington Ave
1881 Lexington Ave
1887 Lexington Ave
1891 Lexington Ave
1893 Lexington Ave
1895 Lexington Ave
Site on Lexington Ave
1651 Madison Ave
1659 Madison Ave
1663 Madison Ave
1781 Madison Ave
1816 Madison Ave
1818 Madison Ave
1822 Madison Ave
Harlem
312 West 112th St
215 West 115th St
Site on West 117th St
203 West 119th St
205 West 119th St
61 West 130th St
34 West 131st St
131 West 133rd St
130 West 134th St
197 West 134th St
203 West 135th St
136 West 137th St
311 West 141st St
281 West 150th St
407 Lenox Ave
409 Lenox Ave
415 Lenox Ave
Brooklyn
Bedford-Stuyvesant
51 Albany Ave
53 Albany Ave
278 Bainbridge St
179 Chauncey St
187 Chauncey St
189B Chauncey St
187R Chauncey St
189R Chauncey St
191 Chauncey St
191R Chauncey St
197R Chauncey St
1598 Fulton St
1600 Fulton St
1937 Fulton St
Site on Fulton St
494 Gates Ave
560A Gates Ave
562 Gates Ave
562A Gates Ave
Three sites on Gates Ave
772 Halsey St
110 Hart St
110A Hart St
112 Hart St
114 Hart St
118 Hart St
467 Herkimer St
469 Herkimer St
477 Herkimer St
529 Herkimer St
816 Herkimer St
697A Jefferson Ave
512 Lafayette Ave
544 Lafayette Ave
716 Lafayette Ave
718 Lafayette Ave
720 Lafayette Ave
790 Lafayette Ave
792 Lafayette Ave
794 Lafayette Ave
Site on Lafayette Ave
53 MacDougal St
633 Madison St
924 Madison St
928 Madison St
358 Malcolm X Blvd
84 Marion St
86 Marion St
92 Marion St
94 Marion St
96 Marion St
98 Marion St
110 Marion St
124 Marion St
261 Marion St
140 Patchen Ave
142 Patchen Ave
1007 Putnam Ave
1013 Putnam Ave
1023 Putnam Ave
1052 Putnam Ave
Site on Putnam Ave
35 Rochester Ave
37 Rochester Ave
17 Sumpter St
19 Sumpter St
175 Sumpter St
18 Suydam Place
20 Suydam Place
22 Suydam Place
47 Van Buren St
49 Van Buren St
51 Van Buren St
Site on Van Buren St
659 Willoughby Ave
821 Willoughby Ave
Brownsville
2156 Atlantic Ave
2160 Atlantic Ave
546 Amboy St
1915 Bergen St
1938 Bergen St
1940 Bergen St
1969 Bergen St
1973 Bergen St
1973A Bergen St
Site on Bergen St
89 Blake Ave
438 Bristol St
569 Christopher Ave
2164 Dean St
2178 Dean St
2325 Dean St
2326 Dean St
2328 Dean St
2331 Dean St
2338 Dean St
235 Herzl St
237 Herzl St
250 Herzl St
254 Herzl St
408 Hopkinson Ave
414 Hopkinson Ave
416 Hopkinson Ave
753 Hopkinson Ave
Site on Hopkinson Ave
398 Howard Ave
402 Howard Ave
404 Howard Ave
412 Howard Ave
638 Howard Ave
87 Legion St
Site on Legion St
38 Liberty Ave
220 MacDougal St
273 Mother Gaston Blvd
281 Mother Gaston Blvd
299 Mother Gaston Blvd
93 New Lots Ave
95 New Lots Ave
99 New Lots Ave
101 New Lots Ave
103 New Lots Ave
152 Newport St
154 Newport St
156 Newport St
2040 Pacific St
2095 Pacific St
2097 Pacific St
2103 Pacific St
2105 Pacific St
2277 Pacific St
2281 Pacific St
2283 Pacific St
2283A Pacific St
2285 Pacific St
2287 Pacific St
2291 Pacific St
2293 Pacific St
2295A Pacific St
2299 Pacific St
2301 Pacific St
Site on Pacific St
1612 Park Place
Site on Park Place
1687 Prospect Place
156 Riverdale Ave
166 Riverdale Ave
168 Riverdale Ave
Two sites on Riverdale Ave
615 Saratoga Ave
658 Saratoga Ave
791 Saratoga Ave
1794 St Johns Place
1796 St Johns Place
1436 St Marks Ave
1459 St Marks Ave
1461 St Marks Ave
1465 St Marks Ave
1467 St Marks Ave
1471 St Marks Ave
1473 St Marks Ave
1633 St Marks Ave
Coney Island
2425 Mermaid Ave
2427 Mermaid Ave
3216 Mermaid Ave
2816 West 16th St
Crown Heights
1662 Bergen St
1625 Prospect Place
East New York
650 Alabama Ave
330 Ashford St
323 Atkins Ave
675 Barbey St
743 Blake Ave
806 Blake Ave
848 Blake Ave
9 Chestnut St
617 Cleveland St
Site on Doscher St
943 Dumont Ave
980 Dumont Ave
426 Fountain Ave
428 Fountain Ave
Site on Fountain Ave
437 Glenmore Ave
513 Glenmore Ave
515 Glenmore Ave
519 Glenmore Ave
Site on Glenmore Ave
285 Hinsdale St
287 Hinsdale St
289 Hinsdale St
291 Hinsdale St
642 Hinsdale St
653 Hinsdale St
655 Hinsdale St
315 Jerome St
984 Lincoln Ave
988 Lincoln Ave
1745 Linden Blvd
Site on Linwood St
840 Livonia Ave
591 Logan St
597 Logan St
21 Malta St
178 Milford St
277 New Jersey Ave
283 New Jersey Ave
287 New Jersey Ave
461 New Jersey Ave
659 New Lots Ave
661 New Lots Ave
669 New Lots Ave
Two sites on New Lots Ave
306 Pennsylvania Ave
644 Pine St
666 Snediker Ave
668 Snediker Ave
996 Sutter Ave
182 Wyona St
430 Wyona St
329 Van Siclen Ave
335 Van Siclen Ave
371 Van Siclen Ave
36 Vermont St
467 Vermont St
510 Vermont St
668 Vermont St
480 Warwick St
482 Warwick St
Two sites on Wortman Ave
Greenpoint/Williamsburg/East Williamsburg
239 Grand St
59 Java St
112 Seigel St
Red Hook
199 Columbia St
202 Columbia St
204 Columbia St
294 Columbia St
307 Columbia St
309 Columbia St
155 Union St