Mayor Bill de Blasio Reached New Proposal For Senior Affordable Housing
Photo Source: NBCNews.com
New York — The de Blasio administration and City Council Member, Corey Johnson announced Hudson River Park Trust will assist in saving the deteriorating Pier 40 by creating affordable housing for working families and seniors. This transaction is set to undergo a full public review process and it is estimated that $100 million will be generating in repairs for Pier 40. The purpose of this newly announced proposal is to transfer development rights to the nearby St. John’s site, located across the West Side Highway from Pier 40.
To date, there has been an estimated that St. John’s Center Partners will include 30 percent affordable housing dedicated to seniors out of the 500 affordable apartments constructed under a transferring development rights agreement. The funds are subjected to approval by the Hudson River Park Trust’s Board of Directors after an independent appraisal process is conducted. Pier 40 is one of the largest park’s pier that has portions of aging stemming concerns for public safety. The Pier was constructed between 1958 and 1962 and was being used as a project office and maintenance facility for the Hudson Park Trust, a public parking facility, and various other uses.
Mayor Bill de Blasio stated, “This is a tremendous opportunity to save Pier 40 and to build the permanently affordable housing this community so badly needs. Council Member Johnson’s leadership has helped maximize the amount of permanently affordable housing created by this rare opportunity. It’s a win-win, and we look forward to working with everyone in the neighborhood through the process ahead.”
This announcement came to the NYC Department of City Planning (DCP) and the St. John’s Center Partners started after a mirrored agreement with the State legislation that was signed into law in November 2013 to transfer the development rights from sisters within the Park to create revenue for the Trust. This development is projected to create 1,800 new construction jobs, 1,400 new non-construction jobs, and 1,500 direct full- and part-time jobs from the project’s annual operation. According to the de Blasio reports, the project’s construction is estimated to be $2.2 billion in the NYC economy and subsequently contribute $400 million in new tax revenues for New York City and New York State will then get $21.8 million from its annual operation. The project will also be designed for extreme weather and storm resiliency with state of the art flood mitigation.