News

In partnership with developer Gotham Organization, the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) has broken ground on two new developments at 55 Suffolk Street and 64 Norfolk Street on New York City’s Lower East Side. The 55 Suffolk Street development will be home to a new, 40,000 square-foot CPC headquarters; 378 rental homes, 25% of which will be affordable, and 18,000 square feet of retail space.

The 84,000 square-foot new construction development at 64 Norfolk Street will create 115 affordable housing units for senior citizens and a new 4,000 square-foot congregation and cultural heritage center for the Beth Hamedrash Hagodol (BHH) synagogue. You can read more about the groundbreaking on CPC’s website.

As covered in Real Estate Weekly, the groundbreaking for the new Bronx Point development brought L+M Development Partners together with hip hop luminaries and New York City officials. The 22-story Bronx Point development will provide 542 affordable apartments, an early childhood space, outdoor science programming, and the home of the Universal Hip Hop Museum.

The groundbreaking was also covered by ABC4 News and New York YIMBY.

Construction will begin this month on a $36 million senior housing complex at 811 Lexington Avenue on the site of a former parking lot in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Developed by IMPACCT Brooklyn, the four-story building will provide 63 apartments reserved for low-income seniors, who will also receive rental subsidies. Twenty of the units will be reserved for seniors at risk for homelessness. The development will also include a dedicated apartment for a live-in superintendent, a community room, and a roof-level recreation room that opens onto a planned green roof and garden. Read more about this project in BKReader.

The development team behind Cooper Park Commons recently presented new renderings and more details about the project to Brooklyn Community Board 1. Sited on the former Greenpoint Hospital grounds in East Williamsburg, Cooper Park Commons will consist of four buildings: two renovated existing historic buildings and two newly constructed buildings. Three of the buildings will provide a total of 557 units of affordable housing, 20% of which will be reserved specifically for senior citizens. The fourth building will serve as a 200-bed homeless shelter, replacing the current shelter that has existed since 1982.

In addition to housing, the two new buildings will provide a cafe, a business and workforce development center operated by development partner St. Nicks Alliance, a walk-in health clinic, and a senior center, along with amenities like solar panels, playrooms for children, resident lounges, laundry rooms, fitness centers, bike storage, and rooftop terraces.

Cooper Park Commons is being developed through a joint venture with Hudson Companies Inc., St. Nicks Alliance, and Project Renewal, and designed by Magnusson Architecture and Planning and Architecture Outfit.

As reported by Brownstoner, the development plans “were enthusiastically embraced by local residents.”

As reported in YIMBY, construction on the mixed-use development at 145 West 108th Street in New York City is nearing completion. Developed by the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, the 200,000 square-foot, 11-story building will include 199 residential units for low-income families and senior citizens, as well as a new facility for Valley Lodge that will serve 110 seniors. The development will also feature community facility space, a new home for the Central Park Medical Unit, and public restrooms for the adjacent Anibal Aviles Playground.

Excavation has begun on the Lower East Side at the site of what will become the Broome Street Development. The mixed-use project developed Gotham Organization will include 488 rental units, 43% of which will be affordable housing. The 387,223 square-foot development is scheduled to be completed by June 2023.

Next City recently profiled the upcoming Universal Hip Hop Museum, which will be part of the Bronx Point development. The in-depth article is part of Next City‘s “For Whom, By Whom” series that explores “how creative placemaking can expand opportunities for low-income people living in disinvested communities.”

The new Urban League Empowerment Center Project has officially broken ground in Harlem. The $242 million project will bring to life the 42,000 square-foot national headquarters for the National Urban League, a 19,500 square-foot National Urban League Institute for Race, Equity and Justice conference center, and a 21,500 square-foot Urban Civil Rights Museum Experience.

Bedford Union Armory will be officially renamed the Major R. Owens Health and Wellness Community Center when it opens later this year. BFC Partners, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and Majority Leader Laurie A. Cumbo announced the renaming in honor of former U.S. Congressman Major Robert Owens. Congressman Owens was a renowned civil rights and social justice leader, beginning his career as an information librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library and eventually serving 25 years in the United States House of Representatives.

The joint venture behind the affordable housing Sendero Verde development was praised in “Building Climate Resilience in Cities Worldwide,” a report authored by the Urban Land Institute and the Centre for Liveable Cities. “Inclusion is best achieved when all communities have effective voices in decision-making processes,” write the authors. “In addition to direct public outreach, stakeholders can also identify and partner with organisations and individuals in the community and position them in roles with meaningful influence.” The report cites the joint venture of L+M Development Partners, Jonathan Rose Companies, and the community organization Acacia Network and its development of Sendero Verde as an example of how this aspirational goal can be achieved.