The city is finally redeveloping the long-vacant Prospect Plaza housing project in Ocean Hill, a massive ghost town where it has been promising to tear down the existing buildings and build new ones for 14 years. In 2000, NYCHA relocated all 1,500 tenants from the 368-unit public housing development, which consisted of four buildings spread across a 4.53-acre complex. However, NYCHA filed new building applications last week for 1765 Prospect Place, detailing plans for a four-story, 32-unit residential building with 107,551 square feet of space. It also filed demolition applications in August for two of the Prospect Plaza high rises.

The housing agency had originally planned to renovate Prospect Plaza with $21,000,000 it received from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1999. But as delays piled up and years passed, the 40-year-old buildings have become too dilapidated and expensive to save. The new plan is to raze all four of the towers and build 360 units, including 80 public housing apartments and 280 affordable housing units, according to a presentation given to Community Board 16 in September.

The affordable housing units will target tenants with up to 60 percent of the city’s median income, which is still more than double what the average public housing tenant makes, as The New York Daily News points out. There will also be ground-floor retail that will likely become a supermarket and 10,000 square feet of community space. GMAP

 


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