As city officials and real estate execs streamed into the lobby of the handsome new apartment building at 35 Commercial St. in Brooklyn on Wednesday morning for a ribbon-cutting, Jason Wright headed out for his job as a security guard.
Wright recently moved into a two-bedroom apartment in the 22-story tower along the Greenpoint waterfront with his partner and their 1-year-old, a step up from their previous residence in a family homeless shelter.
His is one of nearly 400 low- and middle-income families that now get to call the building home. Every apartment at 35 Commercial St. is income-restricted — a rare opportunity amid a housing crisis and in one of the pricier neighborhoods in New York City.
The new building features studios, and one- and and two-bedroom apartments for households earning within 30% and 110% of the area median income (AMI), or between $38,130 and $139,810 for a family of three. Nearly 60 apartments are set aside for people who formerly lived in homeless shelters.
“I came from the projects, so to live in something like this, it’s like the old saying: ‘moving on up,’” he said, in a nod to the 1970s TV show “The Jeffersons,” adding “this is one of them East Side in the sky type situations.”
The all-electric building with an industrial, exposed brick design is part of Greenpoint Landing, a sprawling 22-acre project that runs along the East River waterfront in north Brooklyn, abutting a well-appointed public esplanade.
It’s the fourth completely affordable-housing apartment building in the development and the biggest yet, containing more units than the other three combined, with rents ranging from $410 for the cheapest studio to $2,572 for the highest-tier two-bedroom.
During the ceremony, Councilmember Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) pointed outside the window panes to an apartment building east of 35 Commercial St., asserting that a three-bedroom apartment there rents for over $9,000 a month.
“We’re living through a housing emergency. We have a 1.4% vacancy rate,” said Adolfo Carrión, commissioner of the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, also at the ribbon-cutting. “If you’re a low income person in this city, your chances of finding affordable housing anywhere in the city are near zero.”
The Path to 35 Commercial Street
Making the building all-affordable speaks to what it takes to build apartments for low- and middle-income people in a new luxury neighborhood
Greenpoint Landing includes plenty of pricey luxury housing. Park Tower Group, the main development company behind the project, has already constructed 11 buildings.
Perhaps the most recognizable is the partnership with Brookfield Properties for Eagle + West, a luxury 745-unit tower pair that zig-zag off each other. Park Tower Group has meanwhile teamed up with Rockefeller Group for a 40-story rental tower, expected to be completed next year.
Ultimately, Greenpoint Landing will result in about 5,500 apartments, with income-restricted affordable units comprising some 1,400 of the about 3,000 already built, Park Tower Group representatives said.
The road to affordable housing started with the 2005 rezoning of the Williamsburg and Greenpoint waterfronts, spurred by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. That turned the industrial and largely dilapidated area to a bustling destination with apartment buildings, stores and a stroll-friendly esplanade.
Bloomberg resisted requiring affordable housing mandates but community organizing ultimately led the city to grant bonus development rights for projects that include income-restricted apartments.
The new building at Commercial Street also has an exemption from property taxes. And benefits from HPD’s Extremely Low and Low-Income Affordability Program, also known as ELLA, which channels subsidies into new construction with at least 80% of units designated as low-income.
Residents of 35 Commercial are being selected through the city’s housing lottery, with about a third of units already occupied.
Leila Bozorg, the city’s executive director of housing, pointed to the need for state lawmakers in Albany to lift certain roadblocks to developing projects like 35 Commercial St. — particularly for the revival of a development tax break known as 421-a.
“Part of the headlines, the doom and gloom headline right now, is about gridlock in Albany, and we really cannot afford this ongoing gridlock around the tools that we need to be able to build places like this,” Bozorg said during the presentation.
Also needed from Albany, she said, are permission for increased density of residential buildings, more flexibility in converting office spaces to apartments, and tenant protection laws.
“There’s a deal to be made and we think it should be made,” she told THE CITY.
Wright, who grew up in public housing in Harlem, said that while he and his partner had applied to other affordable housing projects in the lottery, they decided not to move to those because they were in rough neighborhoods for raising their son.
He’s contemplating leaving New York City, saying that it’s getting too expensive and that “not everybody is on your side.” However, he did say that that could change now that his living situation has changed.
“The building is pretty much brand new,” No problems, neighbors is even friendly,” he said. “Everybody, it’s like a whole big family here. Nobody complains about anything.”