Contested Broadway Triangle sites gets developers for affordable housing

The long, complicated saga of the Broadway Triangle, an eight-block area at the nexus of Bed-Stuy and Williamsburg, is finally wrapping up and moving into its next phase—one that will lead to the creation of hundreds of units of affordable housing.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Department of Housing Preservation and Development has selected a group of stakeholders to develop a three city-owned parcels into nearly 400 units of affordable housing. That group, known as United Neighborhood Partners, is made up of a for-profit developer—Mega Contracting Group—along with United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, which was involved in the original Broadway Triangle plan, and advocacy groups, including St. Nick’s Alliance and RiseBoro.

The latter groups were part of a larger consortium, the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition, that previously sued the Bloomberg administration, charging that the development as it was originally planned would serve to further segregate the adjacent neighborhoods.

A bit of brief backstory, as we’ve previously reported:

The fight over that land began back in 2009, when former mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration rezoned what it called the Broadway Triangle Urban Renewal Area to foster the development of affordable housing on the long-dormant industrial site. Two nonprofits, United Jewish Organizations and the Ridgewood Brooklyn Senior Citizens Council, were chosen to put forth plans to bring hundreds of below-market-rate apartments to the site. But charges of racial discrimination were levied by the area’s Latino and black residents and several community groups.

That led to the lawsuit, which halted development in the area but was eventually settled in 2017. The settlement called for the creation of affordable housing for low- to middle-income New Yorkers, along with “investment in counseling and legal representation for local residents who believe they were discriminated against while seeking housing.”

The deal struck between the developers and HPD will create those units of housing—a range from studios to four-bedrooms—along with a community center and a coffee shop. Assuming all goes according to plan, construction will begin next year and wrap up by 2025.

“The selected development team has deep ties to the area, and has proposed a plan that not only provides 380 deeply affordable homes, but responds to the diverse needs of the broader community,” acting HPD commissioner Eric Enderlin said in a statement. “I want to congratulate the development team on this innovative and exciting proposal, and look forward to working together to create a lasting asset for the community.”