New York, NY – July 31, 2008 – (RealEstateRama) — The New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) will celebrate the opening of Granville Payne Apartments, a seven-story mixed-use apartment building located in East New York, Brooklyn. The building contains 16,700 square feet of ground floor commercial space, which will be home to a Key Food supermarket. Located at 626 Sutter Avenue, between Sheffield and Pennsylvania Avenues, the building will be named after East New York community activist and musician Granville Payne.
The development was built on City-owned land that was conveyed through HPD’s Cornerstone Program, a multifamily new construction initiative designed to facilitate the construction of mixed-income housing. HDC financed the construction phase, issuing $12.25 million in tax-exempt bonds through its Low-Income Affordable Marketplace Program (LAMP).
Marc Jahr, President of the New York City Housing Development Corporation said “HDC is grateful to be part of East New York’s transformation and continued revitalization. The creation of these affordable units is a testament to the far reaching nature of the New Housing Marketplace Plan, and the Mayor’s commitment to ensuring that all neighborhoods benefit from the plan.”
“By developing City-owned land over the past two decades through innovative programs such as Cornerstone, we have helped revitalize neighborhoods like East New York, which were once neglected and abandoned,” said HPD Commissioner Shaun Donovan. “Through programs like Cornerstone, the City can utilize the remaining tax foreclosured properties for the development of mixed-use buildings, like Granville Payne, that incorporate affordable housing and critical retail to create viable neighborhoods. These developments are a key part of Mayor Bloomberg’s ten year, $7.5 billion New Housing Marketplace Plan to create and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing for 500,000 New Yorkers.”
The Granville Payne development contains 103 affordable units reserved for families and individuals earning up to 55% of the HUD Income Limits, which is equivalent to $42,240 for a family of four or $29,590 for an individual. Available in the development are: twelve three-bedroom units, sixty two-bedroom units, twenty one-bedroom units and ten studio units. Additionally, there is a commercial space located in a separate condominium. The commercial condo will be developed by a separate development entity and will be financed by Citibank.
The developer, borrower and owner of Granville Payne Apartments is a joint venture partnership between Jackson Development Group and the East NY Urban Youth Corp. – a long standing community-based organization that focuses on supporting the residents of East NY. Jackson Development Group is a New York-based development company that specializes in residential construction, and has developed approximately 979 affordable existing units in total, and is currently constructing 1,362 affordable units in the Bronx. Jackson Development Group is a repeat borrower of HDC and closed on several HDC loans as a co-developer, as well as acting as the primary developer for Morrissania Terrace, a LAMP project in the December 2005 Open Resolution.
Neil Weissman from Jackson Development Group said “We are very excited about the opening of this project. While every development is special in that it helps working New Yorkers find much needed affordable housing, this project brings something really special to this neighborhood – a new 17,000 square foot Key Food Supermarket. We made a promise to both the agencies and local officials that we would try to attract a grocery store to the site and we made sure that we did so. Too many times developers make half-hearted promises about the retail that they hope to bring to a site in order to garner support – only to then finally put in a dollar store or nail salon. It was not easy, but we are very proud of this accomplishment. Housing alone does not rebuild neighborhoods – the residents need quality retail services.”
The New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) is the nation’s leading issuer of bonds for multi-family affordable housing. Established as a public benefit corporation by the State of New York in 1971, HDC is responsible for financing the creation and preservation of affordable housing in New York City. The financing provided by HDC is in the form of low-cost mortgages made through the sale of tax-exempt and taxable bonds. These mortgages are provided to developers for the construction and preservation of affordable housing. In addition, through our own corporate reserves, HDC provides second mortgages from its own corporate reserves usually at a 1% interest rate.
About the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development
The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s (HPD) mission is to promote quality housing and viable neighborhoods for New Yorkers. The department is the nation’s largest municipal housing development agency and is implementing Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing over ten years. The New Housing Marketplace Plan is the largest municipal affordable housing effort in the nation’s history. As part of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC, HPD is working to create homes for almost a million more New Yorkers by 2030 while making housing more affordable and sustainable. HPD also encourages the preservation of affordable housing through education, outreach, loan programs, and enforcement of housing quality standards.
Contact:
Christina Sanchez
csanchez (at) nychdc (dot) com
(212) 227-2644
