Arker Companies seeks up to $90M to finance East New York megacomplex

Arker Companies is looking to the state for up to $90 million in tax-exempt bond financing to develop a pair of rental buildings on the site of a decommissioned health facility in East New York.

The affordable housing developer filed applications with the state’s Housing Finance Agency seeking up to $62 million in bond financing for the 200-unit 10 Schroeders Walk, and another $28 million for the 144-unit 881 Erskine Street, public records show.

Representatives for Queens-based Arker and the state agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The buildings are part of a planned development that will eventually bring 1,169 units, 397 of which will be set aside as affordable housing, on 6.7 acres of vacant land at the site of the former Brooklyn Developmental Center. The state decommissioned the facility in 2015 and sold to the property to Arker for $10 million through a request for proposal issued by Empire State Development, the state’s economic development arm.

Arker filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings for the two buildings earlier this summer.

When the project is complete, it will span eight buildings with retail, commercial and community space. Rents will range from $328 to $913 per month for a studio and $582 to $1,292 per month for a three-bedroom.

East New York is seeing a surge in affordable-housing developments after the neighborhood went through a controversial rezoning last year, though market-rate developers have yet to jump into the area in a meaningful way. Monadnock Development earlier this month filed plans for a complex of 21 buildings with 240 affordable units. Phipps Houses is planning a 403-unit complex at 3301 Atlantic Avenue, and B&B Urban is developing a 100-unit complex at 315 Linwood Street.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, meanwhile, is seeking a rezoning study for East New York’s neighbor, Brownsville.