New York City may have a solution on the real estate crisis right under his nose.
A new working group made up of representatives from all city authorities will examine the city’s real estate portfolio to identify potential opportunities for new residential construction, according to a statement. an implementing decree signed by the mayor Eric Adams TuesdayThe committee will be chaired by the Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce, Maria Torres-Springer.
The idea is to “bring new innovative ideas to the table” to help the city fulfill the mayor’s wishes. “Moon goal”: build 500,000 new homes by 2032, Adams said in a statement.
“If there is a piece of land under city control that has even the slightest potential for creating affordable housing, our administration will take action,” Adams said.
A spokesman for Adams said the city does not currently have a definitive inventory of all properties it owns or controls, but the Department of Citywide Administrative Serviceswhich acts as the city’s real estate agent, lists a database of almost 17,000 properties owned by the city.
Even without a complete list of municipal properties, the mayor already has several sites in mind that could be considered for development. These include land owned by branches of the New York Public Library And Department of Hygiene Garages on Staten Island and the Bronx, the spokesman said.
The creation of housing on urban land is not a new idea, as the city Ministry of Housing Preservation and Development Currently, five such projects are underway, including 850 units in 5421 Center Boulevard in Queens, 570 units at 4095 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, 116 units at 516 Bergen Street in Brooklyn and 220 units at two locations in the Bronx, after announcements about the projects.
The freshly baked “The City Housing Activation Taskforce will build on that while also helping the city think like a private developer, according to a housing expert who has been promoting the idea of building housing on city-owned land for several years.
“This type of activity – the search for real estate opportunities – should be entrusted to a committee made up of professional real estate people who know what they are doing,” said Charles MoerdlerA New York Housing Association Board member and long-time chairman for land use for Bronx Borough Council 8.
Moerdler pointed to a nearby sanitary facility St. Barnabas Hospital in the Belmont district of the Bronx as a prime example.
The garage “has been empty for years,” Moerdler said. “There is a need for housing in the Arthur Avenue area, and there is a perfect location that is not being used.”
Adams is not the only politician focusing on her own portfolio to address the housing crisis. In her recent budget Governor. Kathy Hochul 500 million US dollars allocated 15,000 homes on state-owned land and announced plans last month to convert the former Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan into a 170-unit apartment building.
You can reach Abigail Nehring at [email protected].
