Housing Starts: 16,000 Affordable Units | Momentum on 125th Street | New York for the One Percent?

Plan for East River Plaza on 117th St (Photo Credit: Forest City Ratner and Blumenfeld Development Group/New York Daily News)

1. De Blasio Expects 16K Affordable Housing Units by Year’s End Mayor Bill de Blasio said today his administration is aiming to finance a total of 16,000 units of affordable housing by the end of the year. There have been 10,800 apartments financed so far, the mayor at the groundbreaking of the Artsbridge senior housing complex in the Bronx. Another 5,200 apartments are on pace to be completed in the next few weeks. [The Real Deal – 12/11/14]
2. Public Advocate Letitia James Blasts Airbnb for Making Brooklyn “Least Affordable” Housing Market in Nation A week after Brooklyn was ranked the “least affordable” housing market in the nation, Public Advocate Letitia James is blaming skyrocketing rents in part on the popular apartment-sharing website Airbnb.com—and calling for the site to “self-police” users breaking the law. The median rent in Brooklyn was $2,858 in October, 2013, up almost 6% over the previous year, according to a report by report, by RealtyTrac. [New York Daily News – 12/12/14]
3. Harlem’s 125th Street Picks Up Momentum The pace of transformation of Harlem’s 125th Street is picking up speed, attracting developers and retailers who want to be part of the thoroughfare’s ascent. Earlier this month, developer Greystone & Co. paid $11.5 million through a bankruptcy auction to buy a group of lots facing East 125th Street and a parcel on East 126th Street. Greystone said it intends to build a mix of about 75 market-rate and affordable apartments with retail on the ground floor. [Wall Street Journal – 12/14/14]
4. Seaport Historic District Changes Met With Mixed Feelings There was a sea of Howard Hughes supporters at St. Paul’s Chapel on Wednesday as Community Board 1’s special Landmarks Committee heard from the developer about its controversial plan for the South Street Seaport. All aspects of the redevelopment were discussed, except for the new Pier 17, which is already under construction, and the much-maligned 42-story tower, which sits outside the historic district. The main discussions centered on a new building on Schermerhorn Row and the changes to the Tin Building. [CurbedNY – 12/11/14]
5. Opposition Mounts Uptown Against Trio of Skyscraping Towers Atop East River Plaza Mall An East Harlem residents group stirred up opposition to a trio of skyscraping apartment towers as the developers were preparing to solicit community support for the plans. “It is offensive and out of scale, requiring numerous variances that will truly make this an out-of-context project,” El Barrio Unite wrote of the project in a petition circulated last week. The Blumenfeld Development Group and Forest City Ratner want to build the towers, which range from 32 to 48 stories, atop the East River Plaza mall. The plan calls for 1,100 apartments including 275 that would be below market rate. [New York Daily News – 12/11/14]
6. Mayor’s Mandate: Experts Fear Affordable Upzoning Plan Will Fall Short Last month, City Council members gathered in the cold gray afternoon to applaud the Council’s impending approval of Queens’ massive Astoria Cove waterfront development—a hard-fought test case for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new mandatory inclusionary zoning program, the centerpiece of his ambitious affordable housing plan. But experiences in other cities suggest that the policy—which requires developers to set aside below-market-rate units in order to build—may be insufficient to stop, and could even contribute to, a spiraling crisis of unaffordability and homelessness. [New York Observer – 12/10/14]
7. Income Inadequacy on Staten Island Compares Favorably to Other Boroughs, Study Shows While income inadequacy reaches households in all five boroughs, its effects aren’t felt as strongly on Staten Island when compared to other parts of the city, researchers say. A study released last week by United Way of New York City reveals that more than 40 percent of households in the five boroughs lack enough income to meet families’ basic needs, including the cost of housing and food. [SI Live – 12/14/14]
8. [Opinion] Why New York Shouldn’t be a City for the One Percent What would a city owned by the one-percent look like? New renderings for CityRealty get us part way there, illustrating how Manhattan may appear in 2018. The defining feature will be a bumper crop of especially tall, slender skyscrapers piercing the skyline like postmodern boxes, odd stalagmites, and upside-down syringes. What they share in common is sheer unadulterated scale and a core clientele of uncompromising plutocrats. [ArchDaily – 12/12/14]
9. Rent Up 7 Percent in Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens Since 2013 Prices for apartments in Brooklyn overall increased from last year, but at a more modest rate. The average cost of an apartment rose from $2,616 in November 2013 to $2,677 in November of 2014, a 2 percent increase, MNS found. Boerum Hill had the highest price jump in Brooklyn from this year to last year, with an 11.5 percent spike, the report found. Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, the neighborhood located directly south of Crown Heights and east of Prospect Park, came in second in the borough, with a 7.2 percent rise in rental prices this November over last year, according to the report. [DNAinfo New York – 12/11/14]
10. Pricey Apartments are on the Rise Around City Hall Park An old city park is becoming a new hotbed for development. As the real estate market in lower Manhattan heats up, hundreds of pricey new apartment projects are set to debut by 2016. The new developments will form a ring around City Hall Park, the often-overlooked green space running from Chambers to Barclay Sts. Real estate pros have their eyes on the middle of lower Manhattan. [New York Daily News – 12/12/14]