The de Blasio administration has singled out two NYCHA developments where they plan to sell or lease land to private entities for the development of new market rate and affordable housing. The Daily News reports that Wyckoff Gardens in Boerum Hill and Holmes Towers on the Upper East Side have both been pinpointed by the city to launch its controversial NextGeneration program, in which vacant or underutilized space within NYCHA developments will either be sold or put on a 99-year lease for the development of buildings that are half market rate and half affordable.
Under the plan, two underutilized parking lots at Wyckoff Gardens will give rise to 550 or 650 apartments. At Holmes Towers, a playground, which NYCHA will relocate, will become the site of one 350- to 400-apartment building. The plan will create 1,000 new units of housing in the "high value" neighborhoods while also generating revenue for NYCHA.
Earlier last week, a NYCHA official attending a Community Board 3 meeting revealed that the Lower East Side might also be singled out for the plan, which will unfold over the next ten years and bring as many as 17,000 new apartments to the city. NextGeneration shouldn't be confused with the failed Bloomberg-era Land Lease policy, in which the city proposed leasing land to private developers for buildings with 80-percent market rate apartments and 20-percent affordable housing. The de Blasio administration claims that NextGeneration will entail a more inclusive planning process in which the input of the communities and public housing tenants are weighed. NYCHA also says that a "significant portion" of the funds garnered from the two new developments will be used to fund upgrades to Wyckoff Gardens and Holmes Towers, which both each need nearly $50 million of improvements.
· Hundreds of market-rate apartments to be built at NYCHA developments in Brooklyn, Manhattan under plan by Mayor de Blasio [NYDN]
· NYCHA Eyeing Lower East Side For Market Rate Apartments [Curbed]
· All NYCHA coverage [Curbed]
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