Hochul Doles Out Nearly $300M To 4 NYC Housing Projects

The office of Gov. Kathy Hochul gave some developers an early Christmas gift, announcing funding of more than $430M toward housing-related projects via executive actions, with more than half the sum going to housing developments in New York City.

Four NYC projects are among a handful of developments across the state that will receive a combination of tax-exempt bond and subsidy funding from Hochul’s office, including the first conversion of a hotel into permanent supportive housing.

The funding, which is expected to preserve or create 1,500 homes, comes from a bond issued by the state’s Homes and Community Renewal agency in December, which provided $131M in tax-exempt bonds and $302M in subsidies. Another $6M came from the Clean Energy Initiative, which will be combined with $360M from private funding and resources toward the projects.

“The lack of housing in New York is an urgent crisis, and we can't afford to wait for legislative solutions,” Hochul said in a statement. “Until the Legislature is ready to come back to the table with a real plan to increase housing supply, I'll continue fighting for New Yorkers using every tool I have as Governor.”

Approximately $283M went to projects in Brooklyn and Queens, according to a release from the governor’s office. The projects are slated to bring a combined 749 new units of housing to the boroughs and preserve a further 139 units.

A housing development in Queens from Slate Property Group and RiseBoro Community Partnership is one of the recipients of the state’s funding push, scoring $47M for the acquisition and adaptation of the JFK Hilton Hotel. It also secured a $50M senior loan from the NYC Housing Development Corp.

The developers’ project, the Baisely Pond Residences, is expected to add 318 housing units to the area, including 191 for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness. Slate and RiseBoro acquired the former hotel for $68M, and the total project is expected to cost $167M.

“Working with our non-profit and government partners, we have cracked the code of converting former hotels into permanently affordable homes,” Slate Property Group principal David Schwartz said in a statement. “As we face down a national housing and homelessness crisis, this project is a model that points the way to rapidly bring new apartments online more than a year faster than ground-up construction.”

Also receiving funding is Utica Crescent, a housing development from Monadnock Development and CB Emmanuel Realty set to rise on the site of a former East Flatbush parking lot. The project notched $128M for a 322-unit development across two towers, featuring 89 senior housing units and space for a grocery store and a medical facility.

L+M Development Partners nabbed $57M toward building an eight-story, 109-unit residential development called the Marcus Garvey Extension, with 55 units set aside for chronically homeless New Yorkers. 

A former Mitchell-Lama building in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, 753 Classon Ave., also landed $51M for the preservation of 139 units, with the Smith & Henzy Affordable Group overseeing the development.

The announcement followed a hard year for Hochul’s housing promises. In her first speech as the state’s elected governor in January, she laid out plans for 800,000 new homes statewide — and then failed to garner enough support to carry any of her housing measures through the legislature.

Those proposals included an attempt to mandate housing production in transit-oriented suburbs, a replacement for the 421-a rental housing tax abatement and lifting the density cap for housing projects in NYC.

Following the fruitless legislative session, Hochul's administration announced a new program that would act as an extension of 421-a in just the Brooklyn neighborhood of Gowanus.

Despite doubts about whether the proposal would gain any traction, Hochul's office announced Monday that developers submitted 19 applications for projects to Empire State Development. The applications propose a total of roughly 5,500 units, including 1,400 affordable apartments.