Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: New housing supply as both solution and villain.
“Affordable housing” is a term that really means income-restricted, which means it is affordable to some but not others.
Vague as it is, the term is also sometimes used as a reason to not build more housing: This project is not affordable enough. Never mind that the alternative is that a site remains an empty parking lot or becomes a last-mile facility instead.
In New York, we’ve seen a growing recognition that that line of argument, where ultimately everyone loses, is not going to solve the city’s housing crisis.
Comptroller Brad Lander yesterday deleted a post on social media site X after it was mocked by pro-housing accounts, and fellow mayoral candidate, Sen. Zellnor Myrie. The post referred to an interview he gave to BronxTalk, in which he said that new units with high rents were the reason that “people are getting pushed out of their existing buildings.”
Last month, Council member Erik Bottcher posted on X: “Is it possible to be both YIMBY while also feeling that 60 stories is a tad bit tall for the West Village? Asking for a friend.” Overwhelmingly, the response he got was: Nope.
The backlash on social media is merely a symptom of a broader shift. Just a few years ago, an elected official could maybe have it both ways: Say the city needs more housing but refuse to approve a project if the unit mix was not just right or it was a tad too tall. This is increasingly not the case. Or at least, such reasoning is no longer going to slide under the radar.
Consider the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity: City Council members criticized the proposal for not including more affordability requirements, but with very few exceptions, that did not stand in the way of their voting for it.
Another test will be Bruce Teitelbaum’s project One45 in Harlem, which is once again making its way through the city’s land use review process. The developer pulled his application for the project back in 2022, after a standoff with then-Council member Kristin Richardson Jordan, who subsequently dropped her bid for re-election.
Teitelbaum subsequently restarted the land use review process with a project that would include 968 apartments, with 30 percent income-restricted. Community Board 10 this week voted in favor of recommending the rezoning’s rejection. But Mayor Eric Adams testified on Monday that he was confident that Council member Yusef Salaam would “land the plane” and get the project approved.
What we’re thinking about: Who will develop the former Amazon HQ2 site? Send a note to kathryn@realtacticspro.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Barcade in Jersey City is closing in June, according to Patch. I’m sure they plan to relocate their game consoles to their other locations, but I’m working on my pitch to convince them to donate BurgerTime to my household.
Elsewhere in New York…
— Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday announced that all live bird markets must temporarily close to slow the spread of bird flu, the New York Times reports. The markets must sell off their existing non-infected poultry, and disinfect their facilities.
— More than a dozen birds have died of bird flu at zoos in the Bronx and Queens, Gothamist reports. Across the U.S., more than 156 million have been infected.
— A new lawsuit takes aim at New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act, which requires a group of fossil fuel companies to pay $75 billion for contributing to climate change between 2000 and 2018, Associated Press reports. The complaint, which was filed on behalf of 22 states, calls the law “an ugly example of the chaos that can result when States overreach.”
Closing Time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Friday was $8.5 million for a penthouse at 219 East 44th Street. The Midtown East unit is 4,300 square feet and new construction. Douglas Elliman’s Wendy Lee and Michael Rosario have the listing.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was $12.5 million for a pair of industrial buildings at 44-17, 44-21 54th Drive. The two adjacent parcels in Maspeth cover 8,000 square feet of lot area.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $21.5 million at 730 Fifth Avenue. The condo unit at The Aman is 3,600 square feet of new construction and was listed by the developer.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building application filed was for a 28,176-square-foot apartment building at 4057 White Plains Road in the Bronx. Mohammad Badaly of Badaly Architects is the applicant of record.
— Joseph Jungermann