Rents to Range from $723 to $1,007 per Month for Low-Income Families
Brooklyn, September 27, 2007 – City officials and community-based developers announced the completion today of six 4½-story apartment buildings that have been constructed on Malta Street and Alabama Avenue in East New York.
At present, more than 30 tenants have moved into the 48 affordable apartments with rents that range from $723 to $1,007 per month, and the balance will be moving in shortly. The new housing was built on a vacant, formerly City-owned lot in a neighborhood that had been part of a substantial revitalization in the East Brooklyn community by the construction of 2,900 new affordable single family homes, developed by East Brooklyn Congregations (EBC) through their Nehemiah Program. The newly completed apartment buildings will be the low income rental complement to those efforts.
CPC Resources, Inc. (CPCR), as the development arm of The Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), developed the Malta Street apartments on behalf of East Brooklyn Congregations. This exciting project was developed using CPCR’s Infill Housing Model, a cost-effective model to build quality, affordable housing. CPCR contributed its broad expertise in affordable housing development and oversaw all aspects of the development and construction of the project. EBC will own the buildings. The Malta Street apartments are CPC’s second collaboration with East Brooklyn Congregations. CPC has also financed the nearly 700 out of 2,900 Nehemiah units for an investment of more than $34 million.
“We are really pleased to work with East Brooklyn Congregations once again to create affordable housing in East New York, right in the heart of the Nehemiah homes, one of our most successful affordable home ownership projects,” said Michael Lappin, president and chief executive of CPC Resources and CPC. “Our flexibility as both a lender on the nonprofit side and as a for-profit developer increases our ability to significantly impact low-income communities.”
The new buildings, which are located at 47, 51, 55, & 61Malta Street and 662 & 668 Alabama Avenue, between New Lots and Hegeman Avenues, were built on land formerly owned by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which sold the land to East Brooklyn Congregations in 2005 for $1 as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s 10-year New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing for 500,000 New Yorkers.
“By developing vacant City-owned land over the past two decades, we have helped revitalize neighborhoods like East New York that were once written off and abandoned. Now that the challenge of abandonment has been met and the supply of City-owned land is nearly exhausted, we are faced with the challenge of affordability. The City is addressing affordability through new tools in the Mayor’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, which lead to the creation of units such as these, which are serving New York’s low-income families” said HPD Commissioner Shaun Donovan. “The City will continue to invest in East New York to ensure that its life-long residents can experience the neighborhood’s revitalization and hardworking New Yorkers can afford homes to raise their families.”
The New York City Housing Development Corporation financed the construction of the buildings by issuing $4.85 million in tax-exempt bonds and by lending $2.64 million from its corporate reserves. “Our status as the nation’s leading issuer of affordable housing bonds is made possible by great developments like the Malta Street project,” said Emily A. Youssouf, president of HDC. “We are very proud to have played a role in the financing of these great buildings.”
Over the past quarter century, East Brooklyn Congregations, in collaboration with HPD, has been responsible for the transformation of many vacant blocks in the East Brooklyn community with the construction of 2,900 single family homes through its Nehemiah Plan and 1,525 additional units, which are currently under construction.
“When we began building single-family homes in 1983, there were scores of acres of land, thousands of abandoned units, and no need for higher density construction,” said the Rev. David K. Brawley of East Brooklyn Congregations. “Today, there is almost no vacant land, no vacancy, and a desperate need for affordable rental housing. Working with the City and the Community Preservation Corporation, we have changed the landscape over the past two decades. The Malta Street apartments will be just the first of a series of affordable apartment efforts in East Brooklyn and elsewhere.”
The development was designed by Curtis + Ginsburg Architects, LLP. The buildings were built by the West Manor Construction Corporation, an affiliate of the Bluestone Organization. Wavecrest Management Team, Ltd. is the managing agent.
During construction, the bonds were backed by a letter of credit from JPMorgan Chase. The tax credit equity was syndicated through Enterprise.
“Having a place to call home is the crucial first step for people to move up and out of poverty,” said Abby Jo Sigal, the new Vice President and Director for the Enterprise New York Office. “Yet for many people in this city, an affordable home seems an unattainable dream. Enterprise’s involvement in the Malta Street homes, part of our Billion Dollar promise to create and preserve 15,000 affordable homes for 45,000 people, reflects our commitment to make affordable housing accessible to all New Yorkers.”
Rents are set to be affordable for low income households, who can earn up to $29,760 for an individual and $42,540 for a family of four to be eligible to live in the apartments. Slightly more than half of the 48 apartments will be two-bedroom units, as follows.
Number of Units / Size-Type / Monthly Rent
12 One-bedroom $723
23 Two-bedroom $871
4 Two-bedroom duplexes $871
8 Three-bedroom duplexes $1,007
CPC and CPC Resources, Inc.
CPC Resources, Inc. (CPCR) is the for-profit development subsidiary of The Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), a not-for-profit mortgage lender that finances multi-family affordable housing throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. CPCR has developed and owns more than 7,500 units in New York, while the parent company, CPC, has financed more than $6 billion for more than 141,000 units of housing since its founding in 1974.
