Nationwide, the urgent need for more affordable housing has become crystal clear. The United States is grappling with a housing crisis, and building affordable housing has become increasingly difficult. Developers face high construction costs, ongoing supply chain issues, and skyrocketing prices for land, especially in some of the country’s largest cities. Even when a project comes together and gets financing, the process to obtain permitting, gain city approvals, and actually construct a project can take years.
However, developments are getting done that not only provide much needed affordable housing for residents but also are designed to be energy efficient and sustainable, offer crucial programming for the community, and ideally have a positive impact on communities. In New York City, one of the country’s most expensive housing markets, several standout affordable housing projects that are underway or recently completed offer a glimpse of what the future of affordable housing might look and feel like.
1. La Central A & B
The Hudson Companies oversaw the development of two 100 percent affordable, mixed-use buildings in the Bronx. Located in the borough’s Melrose neighborhood, the buildings have 496 apartment units and are situated near a train station. Development of the properties has taken more than a decade already. Hudson won an RFP put out by the city in 2013 for a massive piece of vacant land owned by the city.
La Central includes a total of five buildings, three of which have been completed. Once the project is fully complete, it will have a total of 992 units. “We’re turning vacant land into something so powerful,” says Marlee Busching-Truscott, managing director at Hudson Companies. “I think it’s been really transformative for this little pocket, and when we are done it will be close to 1,000 units, which is tremendous. You don’t get many opportunities in New York City to bring that many units online in a small neighborhood.”
The two residential buildings are LEED Gold and have solar on the roof. Both properties have electric cooling and heating systems using variable refrigerant flow (VRF) as well as cogeneration. Building D was built by Breaking Ground and Comunilife. Building C is designed to Passive House standards and will be fully electrified.
The first phase of La Central, the A & B buildings, comprises 496 units and currently is fully leased. Vacancy has stayed low at the two buildings, and the owner is not seeing turnover of units. “I think it’s a place where people want to live and stay,” says Busching-Truscott. It also unexpectedly became a lifeline for people in need. Last year, a devastating fire at another residential building in the Bronx left hundreds of families displaced. Hudson was able to connect with the developer of that project and the city, and worked quickly to provide permanent housing for families in nearly 100 units at the project.
East Harlem’s Sendero Verde, the nation’s largest Passive House residential development, being completed by L+M Development Partners, Jonathan Rose Companies, and Acacia Real Estate Development, has more than 700 residential units intended to serve households with moderate to extremely low incomes.
Handel Architects
2. Sendero Verde
In East Harlem, L+M Development Partners, Jonathan Rose Companies, and Acacia Real Estate Development are behind the nation’s largest Passive House residential development, Sendero Verde. The permanently affordable development has more than 700 residential units intended to serve households with moderate to extremely low incomes.
The project’s name is a nod to its sharp focus on sustainability: Sendero Verde translates to “green pathway.” The Passive House design includes triple-glazed windows, filtered outdoor air for each individual apartment, and an airtight facade that greatly reduces noise—a big benefit, as the project stands adjacent to the elevated tracks where the Metro-North Railroad runs. “The acoustical performance is outstanding,” says Deborah Moelis, principal and founding member of Handel Architects, which designed the project. “You barely hear [the train].”
The development’s 709 residential units are split among three buildings. Phase 1 of the development has already been completed and has 361 units. Apartments at the project range from studio to three-bedroom layouts, and unit interiors have a focus on efficiency.
Homes are equipped with high-efficiency HVAC systems, electric stoves and ovens, Energy Star–rated appliances, and eco-friendly LVT plank flooring. Sendero Verde features a landscaped courtyard, a fitness room, and a rooftop terrace. The development has space for a K-5 charter school and several spaces for the community, including a community center for seniors and youth, and more than 11,000 square feet (1,022 sq m) of community gardens. The second phase of the project is underway and features a 34-story tower with 348 apartments.
Sendero Verde’s first phase was financed through construction loans from the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). The project got additional Resolution A funding from the New York City Council and grant funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Other funding came via a letter of credit from Bank of America, various federal low-income housing tax credits, solar investment tax credits, and New York State Brownfield Tax Credits to Goldman Sachs. “This project is now a demonstration to us and the country of how Passive House can work,” Moelis said.
3. Bronx Point
One of the most anticipated mixed-use developments in the Bronx opened officially last fall. Bronx Point is a 530,000-square-foot (49,000 sq m) project that took shape on an underused waterfront site in the South Bronx that now has 542 units of permanently affordable housing. Other amenities—a brand-new public park and esplanade, retail space, and an early-childhood space—will be run by a nonprofit.
Like the La Central development and many other affordable projects around the city, this one came about through an RFP from the city in 2016. In planning the project, developer L+M Development Partners recognized that the building’s somewhat isolated location meant that it needed to bring a lot to the table. “There’s no residential around there, so basically we were [constructing] a standalone building,” says Josue Sanchez, senior vice president at L+M. “We wanted to put something there that would be a magnet.”
The team elevated the site to guard against flooding and other natural disasters and put the building’s electric room on the second floor. As the land was a brownfield site, an environmental cleanup was done.
The project has cogeneration equipment, and amenities include a children’s playroom, a community lounge, and a terrace on the building’s third floor. The property also connects to, and extends, Mill Pond Park, adding new playground, running paths, and seating areas. Phase one was funded through a mix of both public and private capital, including financing from HPD, HDC, Empire State Development, Wells Fargo, and other private funding.
The most distinctive element of the project is one that has nothing to do with housing. Bronx Point will also house the Hip Hop Museum, which was established more than a decade ago and had been searching for a permanent home. During the planning of the project, Sanchez, a Bronx native himself, wondered why there wasn’t yet a hip-hop museum in the Bronx, where the genre was born. After he connected with the executive director of the museum, they were finally able to find a place that the institution could call home. The Hip Hop Museum had a groundbreaking in 2021 that was attended by several stars of the genre. The facility is anticipated to open to the public in 2025, a milestone that Sanchez expects will be a major event. “It’s going to be one big party,” he says.
4. The Alloy Block
Downtown Brooklyn has been a magnet for new development over the last few years, especially housing. One project long in the works is the Alloy Block, a major development in the heart of downtown that both preserves and repurposes historic buildings, and will bring 850 units of housing, 200 of which are to be permanently affordable.
Situated on a full block along main artery Flatbush Avenue, the project consists of five buildings total, with the first phase of the development comprising two buildings—505 State Street and 489 State Street. In addition to the residential component, the project will have 100,000 square feet (9,290 sq m) of office space, 50,000 square feet (4,645 sq m) of retail space, and two Passive House public schools.
Brooklyn-based Alloy Development is the firm behind the Alloy Block. The company has been assembling parts of the project, which sits on a triangular site, since 2015. After Alloy acquired about three quarters of the block, the remaining piece of the site was a public high school owned by the city.
Although the city wasn’t interested in a limited transaction that would involve Alloy purchasing just the air rights above the building, the company floated the idea of building a new facility for the school. The school, which dated to the 1800s, was originally built for
elementary-age students and lacked a gym and an auditorium, and had bathrooms on some floors but not all, among other issues.
Over time, talks between the developer and the city led to an agreement that Alloy would own 75 percent of the land, the city would own 25 percent, and the entire block would be rezoned to allow greater density, including two new public school facilities and affordable housing.
Sustainability plays a major role. 505 State Street, part of the first phase, will be New York’s first all-electric skyscraper. Alloy has enrolled the building into community solar programs, ensuring the building will be operated using 100 percent renewable sources. The two public schools will be the first schools built to the Passive House standard in New York City, a milestone for the city and one that, at first, was not easy to get the city’s School Construction Authority on board with, says David McCarty, vice president at Alloy Development.
“We’ve really pushed the boundaries on the sustainability front across the block, and I think that has an industry-wide impact,” McCarty says. The first phase of the project is nearing completion, with leasing having already begun for the residential units and, if the schools meet expectations to be completed this spring, with students starting at the new facilities this fall.
Silverstein Properties 5WTC in Lower Manhattan will have 1,200 residential apartment units, 400 of which are to be permanently affordable. The homes will be for low- and middle-income households, and 80 units will be reserved for individuals who were living or working in Lower Manhattan during the 9/11 attacks and in their immediate aftermath.
Silverstein Properties
5. 5WTC
Last year, a deal was struck between New York state lawmakers and a group of developers including Silverstein Properties and Brookfield Properties to designate a portion of the apartment units at the forthcoming 5 World Trade Center tower as affordable.
Last July, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the Lower Manhattan skyscraper will have 1,200 residential apartment units once completed, 400 of which are to be permanently affordable. The homes will be for low- and middle-income households, and 80 units will be reserved for individuals who were living or working in Lower Manhattan during the 9/11 attacks and in their immediate aftermath.
The new tower will be built on the same site where the previous 5WTC building—which was heavily damaged during the terrorist attacks and demolished two months later—once stood. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey own the land where 5WTC will rise, and they awarded the development rights to Silverstein, Brookfield, and additional partners Omni New York and Dabar Development.
“This site was always a great opportunity to bring large-scale affordable housing to Lower Manhattan, a community that has lost affordability at a particularly high rate for decades,” said New York State Senator Brian Kavanagh when the affordable deal was announced last year.
Designed by architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), the new tower will also include roughly 190,000 square feet (17,650 sq m) for retail and office space. New York State is contributing $60 million in funding for the project, and an additional $5 million contribution will come from the Battery Park City Authority’s Joint Purpose Fund.
The all-glass tower is being designed for high energy efficiency, and it will have minimized thermal bridging, superior insulation, and an air infiltration barrier, according to KPF. Details on amenities have not yet been released, but there will be community and amenity spaces, and the tower will link to Liberty Park via a pedestrian bridge.
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