NYCHA seeks developers to build hundreds of new affordable apartments

The controversial NextGeneration NYCHA plan has taken a big step forward, reports the Wall Street Journal. This week, NYCHA authorities released an RFP seeking developers to build up to 850 affordable apartment units over four public housing sites.

Those four sites include Harborview Terrace in Midtown Manhattan, the Sumner Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Twin Parks West in Fordham Heights, and Morrisania Air Rights (pictured above), also in the Bronx. NYCHA seeks to transform two parking lots, a trash compactor and a lawn across those developments into new rental buildings.

At Harborview Terrace, a 44-spot parking lot will be replaced with a new 200 to 250-unit building with a community facility on the ground floor. The parking spaces will also be replaced. In fact, each of the projects will include only affordable housing and either a community facility on the ground floor or retail space.

It’s a different plan than what’s moving ahead at Holmes Towers in the Upper East Side and at Wyckoff Gardens in Brooklyn, also part of NextGen Neighborhoods. Those two housing projects are slated for mixed-use development that includes new market-rate housing, an issue that’s caused controversy.

Through NextGen Neighborhoods, NYCHA hopes to develop underutilized space at two to four sites per year over the course of the 10-year strategic plan. NYCHA says that 10,000 more affordable apartments will be included in that redevelopment.

• NYC Seeks Developers to Build Affordable Housing on Four Sites [WSJ]
• All NYCHA coverage [Curbed]