NEW YORK (PIX11) -- City Hall has taken a big leap to deal with a major problem facing New York City: affordable housing.
In his State of the City address, Mayor Adams pledged to create thousands of new homes on two dozen public sites this year.
On Thursday, the city moved forward to develop 116 affordable new homes in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Known as Bergen Green, the project will take over the site of a vacant, unused former field office of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
A minority and women-owned development and construction team has been selected to convert the age-old field offices of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development into two and three-bedroom apartments for low-income families.
Lee Brathwaite, the CEO of Apex Building Group, is a member of the team.
"This is fantastic,” he says. “We have a fantastic team of predominantly minority and lead organizations to bring much-needed affordable housing to the Brooklyn community."
The apartments will be part of the 12,000 units Mayor Adams has pledged to create this year. And the aim is to keep them affordable.
"The average rent will be under 60% of mean income, and 15% of the units will be set aside for homeless families,” Kuza Woodward, Vice President of Apex Group, explained.
"The project is also going to have commercial and recreation space," Architect Rodney Leon said.
The development will include an amphitheater named in honor of George Floyd, who was killed in an act of of police brutality.
The selection of the development team is just another step in a long process. The project now goes to city agencies and the city council before a shovel is finally dug into the ground sometime later this year. It'll be about two years before the first tenant can move in.
English (US) ·