$25B affordable housing plan shows early returns under Hochul

A five-year, $25 billion investment into affordable housing initiated by Gov. Kathy Hochul is beginning to take shape through two developments in New York City’s outer boroughs.

Last week Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams celebrated construction milestones for two new affordable housing products, financed in part by $25 billion the governor secured in her April budget agreement. Hochul and Adams announced construction had begun on the first phase of Edgemere Commons, a $100 million, 11 building mixed-use affordable housing complex in Far Rockaway, Queens. Edgemere Commons will eventually produce more than 2,000 affordable housing units with new retail, parking, community centers and outdoor public space.

“By investing in this $100 million mixed-use development, we are creating high-quality housing, medical services, commercial activity and public space that [will] re-energize neighborhoods and build a more inclusive, safe and vibrant community for all,” Hochul said in a statement.

The governor and mayor also announced the completion of the TrinityReverend William James Senior Apartments in the Bronx, a 153-unit affordable housing development for seniors in the Morrisania neighborhood near Yankee Stadium.

The first phase of Edgemere Commons will include a 17-story residential tower with nearly 200 units of affordable housing , 23,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and 24,000 square feet of new parking. The 11-phase project is the result of a rezoning of the former site of Peninsula General Hospital Center, which closed in 2012 and sat on roughly 9 acres.

RuthAnne Visnauskas, commissioner of Housing and Community Renewal, the state’s division supervising affordable housing development and maintenance, called Edgemere Commons “a game changer” for the Far Rockaway community. She expects the project to become an “economic engine” for the neighborhood, Visnauskas said.

The Trinity-Reverend William James Senior Apartments project features 144 apartments for seniors with incomes at or below 60% of the area median Income, and 57 apartments for seniors who were formerly incarcerated, with on-site services provided by a nonprofit out of a 5,400-square-foot social services center on the ground floor of the building.

“Thanks to this $84 million dollar investment by Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams, we are another step closer to ensuring all seniors in our borough have access to the decent, affordable housing they need and deserve,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents the neighborhood of Morrisania, the project’s home.

While not funded by the $25 billion state initiative, completion of the Bronx development for seniors complements the governor’s affordable housing agenda , Hochul’s office said.

Big plans in Queens

The $100 million Edgemere Commons development is a public-private project that includes management from three real estate groups. The Arker Companies and Slate Property Group will construct tower one and the first phase of development.

Tishman Speyer, which purchased 10 of the 11 building sites from Arker for $90 million in November 2021, will develop the remaining phases totaling more than 2.2 million square feet. These include 38,000 square feet of public outdoor space, 77,000 square feet for community spaces, and 72,000 square feet of retail that includes a supermarket and fitness center.

“We’re hoping to bring in a supermarket, which is really needed there,” said David Schwartz, co-founder and principal of Slate Property Group. “All types of neighborhood retail, anything you’d normally need: coffee shops, nail salons, groceries and sit-down restaurants—it’s really under-retailed, that part of the Rockaways.”

The state’s financing for Edgemere Commons includes $14.7 million in taxexempt bonds and $47.7 million of equity in federal low-income tax credits from the Division of Housing and Community Renewal. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development contributed nearly $23 million in subsidies.

The state contributed most of the funding for the Morrisania affordable housing development in the Bronx. Housing and Community Renewal generated roughly $62.5 million in financing through tax-exempt bonds and tax credits, among other subsidies. Housing Preservation and Development contributed $13 million in funding through an affordable rental program for seniors.

More units needed

The two affordable housing projects are only the earliest steps in Hochul’s plan to create or preserve more than 100,000 units of affordable housing across the state in the next five years.

While roughly 2,300 new units will be developed in Far Rockaway and Morrisania, housing advocates note that the need is greater and that developers are running out of time.

“I can tell you that close to 1 million renters in New York City are rent burdened, and tens of thousands of New Yorkers are experiencing homeliness on any given night,” said Brendan Cheney, director of policy and communications at the New York Housing Conference, an affordable housing nonprofit.

Cheney said the New York Housing Conference didn’t have an exact number in mind when it came to overall new unit production , but he emphasized that the city constructed an average of 8,000 new units of affordable housing per year under former Mayor Bill de Blasio and that that should be the benchmark under Adams.

Adolfo Carrión Jr., the Housing Preservation and Development commissioner, testified earlier this month that HPD would add more than 20,000 units per year and perhaps close to 30,000. He added, however, that HPD defined housing production as both new construction and preserving existing units.

Cheney said that most of the new HPD financing will go to cover increased costs, namely higher interest rates and the rising price of construction materials, rather than building new units.

“From our analysis, the new money won’t help them create more units above what they’ve done in the recent past,” he said.

There’s also the issue of timing. Schwartz said that construction of phase one at Edgemere Commons was expected to take 24 to 30 months.

Jessica Katz, the city’s chief housing officer, defended the impact more than 2,000 units at Edgemere Commons would eventually have on the housing crisis, “Not only is this a major housing investment,” Katz said, “but Edgemere Commons represents the type of holistic community development projects that are helping us provide all New Yorkers with the amenities, jobs and resources they deserve to have locally.”