Greenpoint Landing celebrates groundbreaking of three 100 percent affordable housing buildings on site
Half-mile, 22-acre stretch along the East River to include approximately 1,400 affordable housing units, a new 640-seat public school, four acres of resilient public green space along the waterfront
BROOKLYN – June 29, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Greenpoint Landing Associates and L+M Development Partners, together with New York City’s Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen, Housing, Preservation & Development Commissioner Vicki Been, Housing Development Corporation President Gary Rodney, Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Deputy Brooklyn Borough President Diana Reyna, and Council Member Stephen Levin today marked the progress of Greenpoint Landing, the mixed-income 22-acre development along the East River set to transform a section of long-underutilized Greenpoint waterfront. Of the 5,500 units expected to be built at Greenpoint Landing, approximately 1,400 will be affordable and the first 300 affordable units will be delivered to the community over the next two years.
“For the last decade, we have been a part of the wonderful Greenpoint community and we are so proud to be delivering quality affordable housing to the neighborhood as part of this transformative project. L&M Development Partners has been an excellent joint-venture partner on these first three affordable housing sites and we are truly grateful to the City, HPD and HDC for their partnership as well.” said Marian Klein, Senior Vice President of Greenpoint Landing Associates.
“Our work on the affordable housing sites at Greenpoint Landing is the epitome of our efforts to create dynamic mixed-income housing and amenities that drive neighborhood growth in New York City,” said Ron Moelis, CEO of L+M Development Partners. “With a wide array of low-, moderate- and middle-income units, larger units for families and 13,000 square feet of open space for residents, our affordable buildings will help establish a vibrant community on the Greenpoint waterfront. This development would not have been possible without the help of the de Blasio administration and the local community, who partnered with us to bring this exciting project to fruition.”
“We have worked hard to make this the best project it can be. It will ultimately mean more than a thousand affordable apartments in a neighborhood where fast-rising rents are putting pressures on working families. And what’s remarkable—and a sign of our commitment to getting the most affordable housing for our dollars—is that the City succeeding in reducing the projected subsidy per unit by half. This is a good deal for taxpayers and a great project for this community,” said Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen.
“It is fitting that this large-scale development begins with three buildings dedicated to affordable housing, a critical priority of this administration and a long-standing commitment to the community,” said HPD Commissioner Vicki Been. “Greenpoint Landing provides a blueprint for neighborhood planning that is grounded in community engagement and sees rezonings as a tool to achieve not only high quality affordable housing, but to ensure the plans are in place for the parks and open space, retail and jobs, schools and institutions that are the essential building blocks of livable neighborhoods. I want to thank The Park Tower Group, L+M Development Partners, Wells Fargo, all of our development partners, and our elected officials for their vision and commitment to fostering a dynamic neighborhood, shored up by affordability.”
“Housing development guided by meaningful community engagement and coordinated public investments in infrastructure and services is a major focus of Housing New York,” said Gary Rodney, President of HDC. “Greenpoint Landing reflects the administration’s commitment to creating livable, diverse neighborhoods anchored in affordability. By designing the waterfront open space to serve as a resilient storm barrier for the community, we are also helping to ensure the sustainability and resiliency of this neighborhood. I would like to thank all of our partners and our elected officials who have worked so closely with the City and the community to transform this stretch of the waterfront, one of the City’s greatest assets.”
“The innovative Greenpoint Landing project will promote housing equity in this community and bring the City closer to reaching the Mayor’s 200,000 unit affordable housing goal, while incorporating necessary resiliency design enhancements into the waterfront space,” said DOB Commissioner Rick Chandler. “I want to thank Deputy Mayor Glen and her team for their efforts on this project. As the Department of Buildings assembles our Affordable Housing Acceleration Team, we look forward to enhanced collaboration with HPD and other city agencies that will ensure timely review of applications in order to achieve the Administration’s Housing New York goals.”
Greenpoint Landing Associates has collaborated with L+M Development Partners to construct the first three 100 percent affordable housing buildings, totaling nearly 300 units:
5 Blue Slip: Scheduled to open in 2017, 5 Blue Slip will have 103 deeply affordable units available to residents who earn between 30 percent and 60 percent of the area median income.
21 Commercial Street: Scheduled to open in one year, 21 Commercial Street will have 93 units available to residents who earn between 40 percent and 60 percent of the area median income.
33 Eagle Street: Slated to open in late 2016, 33 Eagle Street will include 98 units available to residents who earn between 40 percent and 120 percent of the area median income.
Fifty percent of the affordable housing units are two-bedroom apartments, providing more affordable options for families in the community. These permanently-affordable units will contribute to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s goal to preserve and create 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next 10 years. Consistent with the de Blasio administration’s commitment to stretching every dollar to produce more affordable housing, the administration worked with the developer to reduce the projected per-unit subsidy by half, from a projected $136,000 per unit to $65,000 per unit.
Gary Handel of Handel Architects designed all three affordable buildings in a style that incorporates Greenpoint’s industrial and historic past. Handel Architects is known for its innovative residential developments such as the Cornell University Residences underway on Roosevelt Island.
Greenpoint Landing has hired James Corner Field Operations, designer of The High Line and Cornell Tech, to design the four acres of publicly accessible open space across the entire site. For the first time in generations, this portion of Greenpoint will have unencumbered access to the waterfront, including a great lawn, picnic area and the Green Street Pier, providing vantage points for the community and residents to enjoy an unobstructed view of the Manhattan skyline.
The new green space will also serve as a resilient storm barrier for the Greenpoint community. Greenpoint Landing was one of the first waterfront sites in New York to integrate new FEMA flood regulations and has incorporated innovative resiliency into its design. The flood barrier to protect the community against a potential flood is concealed within the terraced topography of the public esplanade. Plantings in the area will be salt-tolerant and materials will be used that are able to withstand tidal surge.
Greenpoint Landing’s four acres of new park space will complement the five acres of public park land the City is redesigning at neighboring Newtown Barge Park (for which Greenpoint Landing Associates has contributed $5.5 million for immediate park enhancements) as well as Greenpoint Playground and Box Street Park. A new ferry landing is contemplated at Greenpoint Landing, which will be constructed adjacent to Newtown Barge Park.
Each of the first three affordable housing buildings will feature retail spaces on the ground floor, smaller spaces geared towards local retailers. There will be approximately 9,000 square feet of retail space in the first three buildings.
Greenpoint Landing Associates has gifted land to the School Construction Authority (SCA) to build a 640-seat District 14 public school serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students within the community. Approximately $45 million has been allocated for the design and construction of this school.
In 2014, the City of New York demolished the East River Sludge Storage Tank – a concrete structure on the corner of Commercial and Dupont Streets previously used to store sludge from the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. The demolition of the tank fulfilled a longstanding promise to the Greenpoint community.
