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The row of 4½-story buildings at 45-65 Malta Street. |
City officials and community-based
developers broke ground today on
six 4½-story apartment buildings
that will rise back-to-back on
Malta Street and Alabama Avenue
in East New York. The buildings
will provide 48 affordable
apartments with rents ranging
from approximately $660 to $920
per month. They will be built on
a vacant, formerly City-owned
lot in an area already
substantially revitalized by the
construction of 700 new
affordable single family homes.
The City’s transfer of the land
for use as affordable housing is
part of Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg’s newly expanded New
Housing Marketplace Plan to
invest $7.5 billion over 10
years to build and preserve
165,000 units of affordable
housing. The new buildings, to
be located at 45-65 Malta Street
and 662-8 Alabama Avenue,
between New Lots and Hegeman
Avenues, will rise on land
formerly owned by the New York
City Department of Housing
Preservation and Development (HPD),
which transferred the land to
East Brooklyn Congregations last
year for $1.
The New York City Housing
Development Corporation financed
the construction of the
buildings by issuing $4.85
million in tax-exempt bonds and
by lending $2.64 million from
its corporate reserves to a
partnership comprised of East
Brooklyn Congregations, which
will own the buildings, and CPC
Resources, Inc., which is
developing them. “Our record
volume of activity in recent
years is the result of
innovative public-private
partnerships like this one,”
said Emily A. Youssouf, the
president of the Housing
Development Corporation. “We’re
looking forward to doing more
work in East New York.”
Shaun Donovan, commissioner of
the Department of Housing
Preservation and Development and
chairman of the Housing
Development Corporation, said:
“New York City’s success in
reducing crime, reforming our
schools, and building our
economy is creating a major new
challenge: providing affordable
housing for all those who want
to share in that success. To
meet the affordable housing
challenge, the Mayor has
launched the largest affordable
housing initiative ever
undertaken by any city in the
nation. We will build and
preserve 165,000 units of
affordable housing over ten
years, enough housing for half a
million New Yorkers. Today we
celebrate the continued
transformation of East New York
and neighborhoods across the
city through the construction of
housing like the Malta Street
apartments. Not only will these
apartments contribute to the
continued revitalization of East
New York, they will also provide
much-needed affordable housing
for hard working New Yorkers.”
Over the past quarter century, East Brooklyn Congregations
has been responsible for the transformation of many vacant
blocks in East New York with the construction of 2,900 townhouses
through its Nehemiah Plan.
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Officials broke ground on Tuesday on six buildings in East New York that will contain 48 affordable apartments. From left to right: Elliott Hobbs, vice president of the Chase Community Development Corp.; Shaun Donovan, commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development; Emily A. Youssouf, president of the New York City Housing Development Corp.; City Councilman Charles Barron; the Rev. David K. Brawley of East Brooklyn Congregations and assistant pastor of the St. Paul Community Baptist Church; Michael D. Lappin, president and chief executive of the Community Preservation Corporation; Earl L. Williams, chairman of Brooklyn Community Board 5; Kirk Goodrich, vice president for the northeast region, Enterprise Community Investment.
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“When we began building single-family homes in 1983,
there were scores of acres of land, thousands of abandoned
units, and no need for higher density construction,”
said the Rev. David K. Brawley of East Brooklyn Congregations.
“Today, there is almost no vacant land, no vacancy, and a desperate
need for affordable rental housing. Working with the City and the
Community Preservation Corporation, we have changed the landscape
over the past two decades. The Malta Street apartments will be just
the first of a series of affordable apartment efforts in East Brooklyn
and elsewhere.”
CPC Resources, Inc., as the development arm of The Community Preservation
Corporation, is lending its broad expertise in affordable housing development
and will oversee all aspects of the development and construction of the project
until the apartments are fully leased. This is the Community Preservation
Corporation’s second collaboration with East Brooklyn Congregations.
The Community Preservation Corporation financed nearly 700 units of affordable
housing under the Nehemiah program for an investment of more than $34 million.
“We are really pleased to work with East Brooklyn Congregations once again to
create affordable housing in East New York, right in the heart of the
Nehemiah homes, one of our most successful affordable home ownership projects,”
said Michael Lappin, president and chief executive of CPC Resources and the
Community Preservation Corporation. “Our flexibility as both a lender on
the nonprofit side and as a for-profit developer increases our ability to
significantly impact low-income communities.”
The development was designed by Curtis + Ginsburg Architects, LLP, and will include 17 parking spaces in the rear yard. The buildings are being built by the West Manor Construction Corporation, an affiliate of the Bluestone Organization.
During construction, the bonds are backed by a letter of credit from JPMorgan Chase. The tax credit equity is syndicated through the Enterprise Social Investment Corporation.
Rents are set to be affordable for low income households, who can earn no more than 60% of the New York City median income. (Under income guidelines, an individual could earn no more than $26,400 and a family of four no more than $37,680, at today’s figures, to be eligible to live in the apartments.)
Slightly more than half of the 48 apartments will two-bedroom units, as follows.
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Number of Units |
Size/Type |
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12 |
One-bedroom |
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23 |
Two-bedroom |
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4 |
Two-bedroom duplexes |
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8 |
Three-bedroom duplexes |
A lottery will be held to select tenants for the apartments. Lottery applications are projected to be released in the fall of 2006. Residents of Brooklyn Community District 5 will be granted preference for half of the units.
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