NYCHA Plans to Build Market-Rate Housing in East Williamsburg

East Williamsburg will be among the first Brooklyn neighborhoods to experiment with market-rate housing on NYCHA land. The housing authority will lease a lot at the edge of the Cooper Park Houses Property to a private developer to build a 50-50 market rate and affordable housing complex with about 250 units, after first consulting with current residents about the details, according to the Wall Street Journal.

This is the neighborhood east of Bushwick Avenue where French filmmaker Michel Gondry reportedly lives and neighbors have been fixing up wood frame houses while others are demolished to make way for apartment buildings. The most notable to meet the wrecking ball was the Second Empire mansion at 59 Orient Avenue that starred in Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” then was taken over by squatters.

A similar plan in Boerum Hill to bring in half-market-rate housing generated controversy because residents felt that the city was trying to force them out over time with tenants paying higher rents nearby. NYCHA also said back in 2014 it plans to sell an interest in its senior housing on Saratoga Avenue in Ocean Hill to a private developer.

This is the fourth NYCHA property to be developed as 50-50 market rate and affordable housing, according to the Journal. What do you think of the plan?

[Source: WSJ]

Related Stories

• NYCHA Tenants in Boerum Hill Balk at Plans to Build Market-Rate Apartments
• NYCHA Senior Housing in Bed Stuy to Be Sold, Possibly Go Market Rate
• Mayor Plans Thousands of New Apartments on NYCHA Land in Brooklyn

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