Hochul, HCR award $1B Bonds, Subsidies for New York Projects

New York State awarded $1 billion in housing bonds and subsidies in the latest push from Governor Kathy Hochul as part of her broader $25 billion five-year housing plan.

The funds were awarded by New York State Homes and Community Renewal to 12 housing development projects that aim to create or preserve 2,754 apartments across the state.

Seven of those projects are in New York City, including the preservation and rehabilitation of two existing structures in Harlem and on the Upper West Side, the adaptive reuse of a former correctional facility in Chelsea and new construction across four different sites in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.

The New York City projects claim a total of $652 million in combined bonds and subsidies from the overall $1 billion.

More than $193 million will go into demolishing four former hospital buildings to make way for a new 14-story building at Vital Brooklyn’s Kingsbrook Estates. The complex, located on a portion of the Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center site in East Flatbush, is slated to deliver 402 affordable apartments allocated to residents earning 70 percent of area median income or below. Supportive services for older tenants and veterans will be offered across 142 apartments in the new build, slated for development by Monadnock Development and CB Emmanuel Realty.

Vital Brooklyn, an initiative launched in 2017 aimed at creating a new model for community development across Central Brooklyn, has already identified at least 9 sites, selected development partners and started construction on five projects. The state has already allocated $578 million toward the goal of building 4,000 affordable housing units through the initiative.

“Today’s announcement marks another significant step forward in fulfilling the promise of the Vital Brooklyn initiative and building on the momentum of recent investments in our community,” Assembly member Monique Chandler-Waterman said in a statement. “Together, we are transforming underutilized spaces into thriving community assets and creating stronger, healthier, and more resilient neighborhoods for generations to come.”

Another project comprising part of that initiative, Vital Brooklyn Alafia Phase 3, involves two new six-story buildings with 273 affordable apartments for residents at or below 70 percent AMI and will be built by Apex Real Estate Development. HCR will invest $124 million in the project on the former Brooklyn Developmental Center campus in East New York, adding to the $387 million Alafia Phase 1 project completed in December with 576 affordable units and Alafia Phase 2, which received $326 million in state bonds and subsidies last year.

The largest Manhattan investment, $63.9 million for the Chelsea Beacon project, broke ground last week, with Gov. Hochul announcing that the project would create up to 131 permanently affordable homes for residents earning at or below 80 percent AMI, including at least 79 supportive housing units on the site of the former Bayview Correctional Facility.

In addition to funding from New York State Homes and Community Renewal, Empire State Development chipped in $20 million from its NY RUSH program for redeveloping the underutilized Chelsea Beacon site and the state Office of Mental Health added nearly $14 million in capital funding. Bayview Reentry Owner LLC, a joint venture between Camber Property Group and The Osborne Association, will develop the site.

Additional Manhattan preservation and rehabilitation projects receiving state bonds and subsidies include the Narragensett on the Upper West Side, developed by Housing and Services Inc., and Columba Kavanagh in East Harlem, to be developed by Sisters of Charity Housing Development Corporation.

The St. Joseph Apartments in the Bronx will receive more than $147 million in HCR funding to build a new eight-story building with 251 affordable units for residents at or below 70 percent AMI, with 125 apartments offering supportive services, to be developed by Catholic Homes New York and affiliate New York Institute for Human Development.

“These investments represent another major step forward in our mission to expand housing opportunities in every corner of the state and make New York more affordable,” Hochul said in a statement.