Governor Andrew Cuomo is trying to put Bronx mega-complex Co-op City on the public transport map.
Cuomo re-endorsed building a rail offshoot of the New Haven Metro-North line that includes a stop at the largest housing cooperative in the U.S., which houses about 57,000 residents on 330 acres along the Hutchinson River, in his State of the State address. Currently, it takes an hour by bus or a 20-minute walk to the nearest subway stop from to get to Penn Station from Co-op City. The new rail would cut commute times by more than half, according to the New York Times.
Better public transport could put this part of the Bronx on the real estate map as well, where a three-bedroom co-op costs about $27,000 to buy and less than $1,500 a month in maintenance fees, according to the Times. The middle-income housing complex will likely stay affordable for years to come, as its board negotiated a $621 million loan with Wells Fargo in 2012 to stay in the Mitchell-Lama program, which restricts sales and prices based on income, as The Real Deal reported.
If it were an incorporated city, Co-op City would be the 12th largest in New York state. [NYT] — Angela Hunt