Socialist YIMBY Tiffany Caban approves luxury public housing towers in Astoria

New York Focus 

 New York City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán on Tuesday announced her support for a proposed rezoning that will allow a three-tower, 1300-unit housing development in Astoria known as Halletts North, in a shift from how other progressive lawmakers have approached recent land use decisions.

Cabán’s support for Halletts North likely ensures the full City Council’s approval of the project, since the council traditionally follows the lead of the local councilmember in deciding whether to give the go-ahead. 

One in four units in the development will be earmarked for affordable housing. Cabán and local community organizations negotiated with the developer to increase the number of two- and three-bedroom apartments in order to accommodate local families, she said.

The most deeply affordable units will be the 10 percent reserved for tenants making 30 percent or less of the New York City area median income, or $35,790 for a family of four. Overall, the development will nearly double the number of local units available to renters making less than 50 percent of the area median income, Cabán noted.

The developers have also invested $16 million in cleaning up the site from toxins left by its former industrial use, and agreed to contribute $1 million to the neighboring public housing development, build a community space that local nonprofits will be able to use rent-free, and incorporate a public waterfront green space into the development, Cabán said.

Cabán framed her choice to support Halletts North as “harm reduction.”

“The best we can hope for without rezoning this lot is a last mile [trucking] facility where some massive corporation like Amazon would pay our neighbors garbage wages for backbreaking work,” Cabán said. “A no vote today would be a vote for that.”

In recent years, New York has built less housing per capita than almost any other large city in the country. Cabán’s support for the project comes as various factions of New York’s left attempt to work out their approach to housing supply, and decide how to respond to developers seeking city approval to build largely market-rate housing on privately-owned land. 

“There’s currently no consensus on what a progressive land use approach should be,” said Samuel Stein, housing policy analyst at the anti-poverty nonprofit Community Service Society. “Because there’s a debate or diversity of approaches, that leaves individual council members with a bit of latitude in terms of defining their own position.”

Cabán’s decision to support the Halletts North rezoning sparked significant and heated debate among members of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), said DSA member and housing organizer Andrew Hiller. The Queens DSA housing working group tweeted that the decision “is an insult” to nearby public housing residents who likely won’t be able to afford the new units. Cabán is a DSA member and received the group’s coveted endorsement during her 2021 run for city council.

By supporting the Hallets North development, Cabán is taking a different approach from other progressive members of the City Council who in recent months have blocked, opposed, or threatened to block major developments in their districts.

More luxury public housing towers are coming to Hallets Point

  

 

LIC Post

The public will get an opportunity next week to weigh in on a developer’s proposal to build a 1-million-square-foot complex – with 1,400 apartments – on the Halletts Point peninsula in Astoria.

The Department of City Planning is holding a virtual public scoping meeting (this sounds like it's straight from planning together-JQ), where attendees can make comments about the planned development – called “Halletts North.” The meeting is scheduled to take place Monday, March 22 from 2:00 p.m. until 5 p.m.

The Halletts North project is planned to go up just a block away from the Durst Organization’s massive Halletts Point project. Both projects are by the East River, near Astoria Houses.

The developers behind the Halletts North project need a series of zoning changes as they look to transform the existing 3.8-acre industrial site at 3-15 26th Avenue into a giant apartment complex.

The development would consist of three residential towers – one 22 stories, another 31 stories and a third 35 stories, according to an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) filed with City Planning last month by Astoria Owners LLC.

More than 300 of the estimated 1,400 units would be set aside for affordable housing. The project would also include 3,600 square feet of retail space, a 9,700-square-foot community facility and a 525-space parking garage, the EIS stated.

The project, which is being designed by Studio V Architecture and Ken Smith Workshop, would also transform 40,000 square feet of industrial space into a public waterfront promenade, which would be accessible through a new road at 3rd Street.

The developers touted the promenade as a way to connect one of the last stretches of previously inaccessible waterfront with the rest of the peninsula.

“For too long, this site blocked families from accessing and enjoying the waterfront,” said Jim Hedden, a representative of the development team, in a statement. “Now, we look forward not only to connecting our Halletts Point neighbors with this resource, but to creating new economic, educational and environmental opportunities and revitalizing a disused portion of our shoreline.”

Hallets Point development suspended until de Blasio is gone so it can exclude affordable housing

Politico


A long-simmering feud between one of the city’s most prominent real estate dynasties and the de Blasio administration has boiled over on the Queens waterfront.

Negotiations broke down recently over the stalled Halletts Point project in Astoria following the latest in a string of pointed and occasionally bizarre disputes between City Hall and the Durst Organization. The development firm, now in its third generation and run by Douglas Durst, said this week it plans to hold off on the remainder of the 2,002-unit rental complex rather than stay at the bargaining table.

“We are postponing the project until the next administration in the hope they will share the enthusiasm that the local community and we have for the development,” Durst spokesperson Jordan Barowitz said in an interview.

The point of contention is a $21.6 million city financing package promised in 2015 to offset infrastructure costs at the sprawling, seven-building project on the East River waterfront. Between the time the project was planned and now, changes to a state tax abatement baked into the project’s financing required an additional 5 percent of units to be enrolled in the city’s affordable housing program.

Barowitz said the developer and city officials came to an understanding years ago that the additional requirement would throw the project’s balance sheet into the red, and that an alternate way of awarding the financing was needed to get the money without having to provide the added affordable housing.

But when Durst proposed such a mechanism last year, the city declined to move forward with it.

“A project as large and complex as Halletts Point requires a partnership between the developer and the city,” Barowitz said. “Unfortunately, we have never been able to forge this partnership, and without it, the project is impossible to build.”

City Hall, however, said it was always understood the developer would have to comply with existing requirements under the tax break, in whatever form the program ended up. City officials still reviewed Durst’s proposed financing method last year, but determined the additional affordable housing requirement wouldn’t have as dire an effect on the project as the developer claimed, per the mayor’s office.

“We will not cut special deals that result in more profit for developers and less affordable housing for New Yorkers,” mayoral spokesperson Jane Meyer said in an email.

Rose Asscociates purchases Mitchell-Lama apartment building

NY Post
  
Jonathan Rose, a descendent of the real estate dynasty behind the Rose Associates empire, has bought a Mitchell-Lama property on Halletts Point by Astoria Cove for around $35 million.

Rose’s firm, Jonathan Rose Cos., will maintain the Astoria property as an affordable rental project under the so-called Mitchell-Lama law passed in the 1950s to create affordable housing for NYC’s middle class.

 “We have come up with a program to protect current tenants,” advised Nathan D. Taft, managing director of acquisitions, for Jonathan Rose Cos.

The purchase of the 202-unit Goodwill Terrace Apartments — by a fund operated by Rose’s company — is being accomplished through a $28.5 million mortgage from the New York City Housing Development Corp. The building has income restrictions and below-market rents along with a tax exemption.

Rose, whose family name adorns many NYC institutions including the New York Public Library, expects to invest $18 million in equity that includes $10 million in renovations. These are targeted toward upgrading the lobby and hallways, along with energy efficiency and modernization.

Temporary cultural center coming to Hallets Point site

From The Real Deal:

While part of the project remains stalled over a funding squabble with the city, the Durst Organization plans to temporarily make use of another site at its Hallets Point development in Queens.

The developer plans to set up a temporary cultural center where the final phase of the mixed-use project will eventually rise, at 27th Avenue and 1st Street, said Durst spokesperson Jordan Barowitz. The 30,000-square-foot space will include a stage and a fenced off area for film, dance, music and other events, he said.

“Hallets is something of a blank slate, and we want to start to highlight the cultural and arts community in Astoria,” Barowitz said. “It’s the final phase of the project so construction is a few years away. The views it has of Lower Manhattan, it would be a shame not to activate it.”

The cultural center is expected to open sometime this summer.

Meanwhile, a 163-unit affordable housing project planned for the development’s second phase is being held up by a lack of funding. In January, the city Housing Development Corporation pulled $43.5 million in bond financing for the project.

Halletts Point funding yanked by BDB

From Politico:

Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration abruptly and inexplicably halted funding for an affordable housing project in Astoria last fall, months after he and the developer, Douglas Durst, had a public argument over campaign donations.

The city's Housing Development Corporation was planning to issue $43.5 million in financing for a 163-unit development that is part of the sprawling Hallets Point project Durst is constructing in Queens. This particular building is planned for tenants earning up to 60 percent of the area median income, which amounts to $51,540 for a three-person household.

But the corporation pulled it from its agenda just days before its Nov. 17 meeting and reallocated the bonding authority, POLITICO recently learned.

The shift doesn't only impact the building in question and the seven-building, mixed-income Hallets project. It also stalls Durst's agreement to spruce up the grounds of the New York City Housing Authority's Astoria Houses development on which the building would be erected, and retrofit four boilers.

"Three days prior to HDC board approval for our 100 percent affordable building's bond financing, we were notified that the bonds were no longer available to us," Durst spokesman Jordan Barowitz said on Tuesday. "We have not heard from City Hall since then, and until we do, the future of the project is unknown."

Asked for an explanation, a city spokeswoman said projects are competing for tax-exempt bonds that many fear are under threat from federal cuts. The financing tool is always, however, a limited resource sought by competing projects.

She also pointed out this particular project would support other market-rate apartments in the Hallet’s development, even though this building would be entirely for low-income tenants.

Similar project, different fate?

From the Times Ledger:

The Durst Organization is moving forward with its Hallets Point mega-project in Astoria now that a replacement for the 421-a tax abatement for developers is in place. The newly branded Affordable New York housing program will provide tax breaks to developers in exchange for desperately needed affordable housing.

When the original program expired in January 2016, one day after Mayor Bill de Blasio helped break-ground for the $1.5 billion complex, Durst scaled back its plans for seven buildings with 2,400 units, 484 of them affordable, to just one building with 163 units. The latter amount was what had been financed before 421-a expired. With a new deal hammered out by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, The Real Estate Board of New York, and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York that expands the production of affordable housing and provides fair wages for construction workers, Hallets Point has received the green light.

“The passing of ‘Affordable New York’ allows the Hallets Point project to continue,” Durst Organization spokesman Jordan Barowitz said. “We are full steam ahead.”

Hallets Point power plants off the table

From DNA Info:

The developer behind the massive Hallets Point development is scrapping plans to build a complex, stand-alone power system to service the buildings — citing the lapse of the state's 421-a program, which they say has left future phases of the project in jeopardy.

The Durst Organization originally planned to build three power plants along the Astoria waterfront to service the seven buildings in its Hallets Point project, creating its own "micro-grid" for the development, according to spokesman Jordan Barowitz.

The facilities would have provided a more efficient, stand-alone power system for the complex, powering its heat, hot water and air conditioning systems separate from Con Edison's service, he explained.

Shocking news: Developers head streetcar organization

From LIC post:

Some of the names behind the push for a new streetcar system between Queens and Brooklyn will sound familiar to western Queens residents, due to major projects they are developing here.

The Friend of the Brooklyn-Queens Connector (BQX) – which has been working on the Connector plan since 2014 – has released its board of directors list (online here).

That list includes some big players in Astoria and Long Island City development.

Tishman Speyer is represented on the Friends of the BQX board by public affairs managing director Michelle Adams, who is also a member of the Long Island City Partnership board. Tishman Speyer is the developer behind 2 Gotham Center at Queens Plaza South and 28th Street and is also working on a two-tower commercial building next door.

Jordan Barowitz of the Durst Organization, which is developing the Hallets Point megaproject on the Astoria Waterfront, also sits on the BQX board. The $1 billion project involves more than 2,000 units of housing, plus a supermarket and a school. The development broke ground in January.

Hallet's Point a bust

From DNA Info:

The $1.5 billion Hallets Point project broke ground last month promising Astoria a new mini-neighborhood with 2,000 apartments — 483 of them affordable — along with a supermarket, school and waterfront esplanade to rise over the next 7 years.

A day later, key pieces of the project stalled.

With the expiration of the state’s 421-a tax abatement program the day after the Hallets Point groundbreaking, the project’s developer, the Durst Organization, said it would cost too much to build.

“Without a new 421-a or a replacement program, we can't continue with the project. Nothing can be done,” Durst Organization spokesman Jordan Barowitz said. “Without the abatement, the economics for the project collapse and we couldn’t get a construction loan.”

The first building in the multi-phase project started construction before the tax abatement program expired, so that component — which will include roughly 400 units with more than 80 affordable units, as well as the supermarket — will move forward as planned, Barowitz said.

2 huge Astoria projects may never happen

From the Queens Tribune:

But was this really done right? No less than a week after the ground breaking of Hallets Point affordable housing, the developer said that most of the project is effectively on hold because of the expiration of the tax break known as 421-a, according to reports.

Jonathan Durst, the president of The Durst Organization, was quoted in a NY1 article saying, “We’re cleared with 421-a on the first phase, but if 421-a becomes unavailable, those remaining four or five phases won’t be built.”

The 421-a tax break creates a real estate tax break and property tax break in exchange for providing a significant amount of affordable housing.

Jordan Barowitz, vice president and director of external affairs for The Durst Organization, confirmed Durst’s statement saying that the first phase of the project is under an old 80/20 housing program, which the Housing Finance Agency offers as a tax exempt financing to multi-family rental developments in which at least 20 percent of the units are set aside for very low-income residents by using funds raised through the sale of bonds.

Barowitz explained that the project can not go through until this issue is fixed because there is currently no plan covering the next few phases.

Another affordable housing project that was supposed to be under the 421-a tax break is Astoria Cove. While there have been rumors that the Astoria Cove project is no longer in the works, Alma Realty – the developers of the project – say that the project is still moving forward and the land will continue to be used for Astoria Cove. There is still no date on when the project will be completed.

A different Hallet's Point perspective

From DNA Info:

City officials celebrated the start of construction on the Hallets Point project Thursday, hailing the future development as a means of transforming the isolated Astoria waterfront.

The development, to be built by The Durst Organization and Lincoln Equities, will bring 2,400 new apartments to the Hallets peninsula, a parcel of land on the East River south of Astoria Park that officials describe as largely cut off from the rest of the neighborhood.

The area is home to the Astoria Houses but is otherwise mainly industrial, lacking in retail options and — with the exception of a baseball field — public green space.

"A community that’s not only underutilized, but a locked waterfront," City Councilman Costa Constantinides said. "This project changes the entire paradigm here."

It certainly does.

Massive Astoria waterfront project gets underway

From DNA Info:

The massive Hallets Point development will break ground this week on the Astoria waterfront after years of planning, according to the developer behind the project.

The Durst Organization will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for the $1 billion project that will be built over the next seven years on a 7-acre parcel of land along the East River near 26th Avenue, First and Second streets.

It will have seven buildings containing more than 2,000 apartments, 20 percent of them affordable, as well as 68,000-square-feet of retail space with a supermarket, a waterfront esplanade and space for a school, according to the plans.

Astoria megaprojects in jeopardy

From the Daily News:

Councilman Costa Constantinides said that he doesn’t support the luxury Astoria Cove project in its current form, as the project moves toward a vote that hinges on his support.

“The current proposal includes ‘affordable’ apartments that will actually be too expensive for the area and doesn’t capture what real Astorians need,” Constantinides said Wednesday. “I cannot support the proposal as it currently sits with the Council.”

Due to New York’s high average incomes, rents for "affordable" one-bedroom apartments in the complex could go as high as $2,700.

“That is an option under the existing zoning text that I find is a poision pill,” said Constantinides.

Constantinides said Alma Realty has yet to up the quotient of affordable housing in the course of their negotiations.

"We’re continuing to talk to them," he said. "There is an opportunity for us to get there."

From The Real Deal:

A real estate investor that owns the last of three pieces that the Durst Organization needs to develop a $1.5 billion project in Astoria known as Hallets Point is holding out beyond the original September closing date, casting a shadow of uncertainty over the megaproject.

In 2007, The Isaac Deutsch-led Astoria Equities 2000 signed a contract with New Jersey-based Lincoln Equities Group to sell the property, located at 1-02 26th Avenue between First and Second streets, for $7.5 million. The sale was slated to close on September 15 of this year, but is yet to close.

The dispute could delay the massive 2.5 million-square-foot project that the Douglas Durst-led Durst Organization is spearheading at Hallets Point, where it plans to develop residential towers with 2,400 market-rate and affordable units.

Giant Manhattan developer takes over Astoria megaproject

From Curbed:

Earlier this week, the Durst Organization bought the long-awaited development site at Hallets Point, paying "well over $100 million" for a 90 percent stake in the Astoria megaproject.

The Hallets Point development has been in the works for years, and developer Lincoln Equities finally got the greenlight from the city last fall. All told, the project will have 1,921 apartments (plus 483 affordable units), spread across seven buildings. The plans also call for an esplanade, a school and retail space, including a supermarket. Interestingly, the New York City Housing Authority struck a deal that will allow the developer to build and operate two affordable buildings on the grounds of Astoria Houses, the nearby public housing complex.

So the affordable housing will be on the grounds of the projects and the council went for this?? ROFLMAO!!!