Energy-efficient affordable housing approved

Brooklyn apartment building will comply with “Passive House” standards designed to dramatically reduce energy costs. On April 29, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council to build an energy-efficient, affordable apartment building at 803 Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The six-story building, known as Knickerbocker Commons, will provide 24 dwelling units, affordable to households earning between 30 and 60 percent of … <Read More>


Four-building affordable housing project approved

Developer requested rezoning in order to provide additional residential units. On February 3, 2010, the City Council approved Webster Commons LLC’s proposal to rezone a section of Webster Avenue in the Bronx from R6 to R7X to facilitate the development of a 393-unit affordable housing project. The rezoning impacts an unimproved portion of Webster Avenue 800 feet north of East Gun Hill Road and east of Woodlawn Cemetery. Webster Commons requested the up-zoning in order … <Read More>


Bronx affordable housing projects gain BSA approval

Developer claims proposed 140 units needed to meet funding requirements. The Doe Fund, Inc., a not-for- profit that provides job training and housing for New York City homeless, applied to BSA to construct two affordable housing projects on Webster Avenue in the Bronx. The lots’ commercial zoning prohibited residential development, triggering the need for a variance.

Under the Doe Fund’s plan, the eight-story 41,114-square-foot building proposed for 3349 Webster Avenue would contain 84 single-room occupancy … <Read More>


Ronay Menschel and Adam Weinstein Talk About Affordable Housing

For the past two decades, Ronay Menschel and Adam Weinstein have led the Phipps Houses Group, New York City’s oldest and largest affordable housing provider. Founded in 1905 by Carnegie Steel’s Henry Phipps, the organization has built over 6,000 units, and currently manages 12,500 apartments, as well as community service centers, Head Start locations, vocational centers, and afterschool programs.

In the mid-1970s Ronay Menschel worked in Edward I. Koch’s Washington Congressional office and moved to … <Read More>


HPD pushes through 517 affordable housing units

Manhattan, Bronx and Brooklyn housing projects approved; sent to Council. On March 28 and April 11, 2007, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development obtained Planning Commission approval for eight affordable housing projects, totaling 517 units, to be developed in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Two of the Bronx projects, including the 50-unit Fox Leggett Cooperative Apartments and the 162- unit Grant Avenue Cooperative Apartments, provide ownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income families. Both of … <Read More>


High sewer costs justified variance for senior residence

Senior housing to be constructed on Clove Road in Staten Island. Developers sought a variance from BSA for a three-story, 40-foot high, 34,542-square-foot senior housing facility at 908 Clove Road in Staten Island. The proposed senior residence exceeded total floor area, street wall height, total height, curb cut, and driveway width.

At BSA, the developers, R. Randy Lee and Frank Naso, argued that the site’s 603-foot distance from the nearest sewer connection significantly increased construction … <Read More>