Production Achieved Despite Continued National Real Estate Market Downturn

Creation or Preservation of More Than 108,600 Homes Financed Under Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan

New York, NY July 19, 2010: New York City Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Rafael E. Cestero and Housing Development Corporation (HDC) President Marc Jahr announced today that despite the continued economic downturn, the City has financed 14,767 units of affordable housing for middle-class and low-income New Yorkers over the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2010. The units of affordable housing are part of the Bloomberg Administration’s New Housing Marketplace Plan (NHMP), an ambitious $8.4 billion initiative to create and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing for half a million New Yorkers. Building and preserving affordable housing in neighborhoods across New York City is a central component of the Bloomberg Administration’s Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan to create jobs for New Yorkers today, implementing a vision for long-term economic growth while strengthening New York City’s diverse neighborhoods.

“Over the course of the fiscal year that ended on June 30, the staff at HPD and HDC have completed financing of projects that will preserve or create 14,767 affordable homes for New Yorkers,” said Commissioner Cestero. “During this fiscal year, we marked the 100,000^th unit financed under Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan. There is no other city or even state in the nation that can claim to have achieved anything on this scale. Working in our communities, with financial institutions, for-profit and not-for-profit partners, we can claim with pride that the preservation and construction of affordable housing continues to play a crucial role in the growth of New York City’s economy, creating jobs and providing solid and safe housing for working families that strengthens neighborhoods across our city.”

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan is the largest municipal affordable housing effort in the nation.  To date, the plan has financed the creation or preservation of nearly 108,600 units of affordable housing across the five boroughs.   

“Together with our development partners, HPD and HDC make an incredible team,” said HDC President Marc Jahr. “Over the past fiscal year, we joined forces to provide equity and access to capital to finance 2,000 more affordable units than in the previous year, not including our efforts on behalf of NYCHA to qualify more than 20,000 units of public housing for Federal assistance.  While the last 12 months have been notable in most sectors for the sluggishness of the economy, in New York City the production and preservation of affordable housing continues apace.”                                                                                       

Housing Units Financed by Borough:

Brooklyn: 3,184 units
Bronx: 3,045 units
Manhattan: 5,006 units
Staten Island: 201 units
Queens: 3,045 units
* 286 units financed under down payment assistance

Highlights include:

Preservation:
Mitchell-Lama Preservation
Luna Park, a 1,576-unit Mitchell-Lama cooperative in Coney Island, received $15 million dollars in loans from HPD and HDC to help fund facade rehabilitation and window replacement in exchange for remaining in the Mitchell-Lama program for an additional 20 years. Local City Councilmember Dominic Reccia provided $1 million in Reso A money, as did Assemblymember Diane Savino. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Congressman Jerrold Nadler each provided $2 million to fund the preservation project.

Year 15 Program
Parkside, a four-building, 40 unit project with Manhattan Valley Development Corporation located at 103, 105, 107, and 109 West 104th Street, was refinanced on June 25, 2010. Parkside was one of the earliest projects financed by the City with Low Income Housing Tax Credits in 1988. As part of the refinancing, the project received a City loan for capital work and project reserves. In exchange for the new financing and a 420-c tax exemption, affordability of the 40 residential units will be preserved at rents affordable to families making up to 60% of Area Median Income until 2042. In addition, 10% of the units will be set-aside for homeless individuals or families.

HPD’s Preservation Loan Program is keeping the five occupied buildings that make up the Muscoota HDFC affordable.  A total of $1.05 million in City Capital funds from HPD, $5.1 million in construction financing from TD Bank, and $500,000 in funding from the Manhattan  Borough President’s office will go into rehabilitating  20 East 109 Street, 155 East 104 Street, 163 East 104 Street, 1622 Madison Street, and 1651 Lexington Avenue and keeping them affordable over the long term. HOPE Community, the HDFC owner, will use the funding to make all needed repairs to the buildings while keeping the rents affordable to the existing tenants and offering vacant apartments at affordable rents. 

New Construction:
Supportive Housing
The Hegeman Residence, to be built in the South Bronx in conjunction with non-profit housing developer Common Ground, will have 161 studio apartments, including 64 studios for low-income individuals from the community and 96 studios for homeless, disabled single adults. HPD contributed $11 million in City capital funds and an additional $6.6 million in HOME money. The project also received 4% tax credits and tax-exempt bond financing from HFA, plus $1.6 million in City Council funding and other sources.

Senior Citizen Housing
Council Towers VI, a 78-unit senior development located in NYCHA’s Pomonok houses in Queens, will be built by the Metropolitan Council of Jewish Poverty with $10.2 million in funding provided through HDC’s Low-Income Affordable Marketplace Program (LAMP), and a variety of other funding sources including $1.79 million in subsidy from HPD and $770,000 in Affordable Housing Program (AHP) funds. The U.S. Department of Housing Urban & Development (HUD) also contributed $11.16 million in Section 202 subsidy and $5.8 million in Tax Credit Equity.

Mixed-income Rental Housing:
Stapleton Court, developed by BFC Partners in conjunction with the NYC Housing Partnership Development Fund, will be a mixed-income rental development with 92 units of moderate-income housing in the Stapleton section of Staten Island. The $26 million project, financed by HPD and HDC, also includes resident and public parking, and 9,100-square-feet of ground-floor retail space.

The Bradford in Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn will be developed by BRP Development as a mixed-income affordable rental development with 105-unit middle- and low-income rental units (including one 2-bedroom unit for a superintendent). The Bradford is being developed under HDC’s New HOP program utilizing recycled tax-exempt bonds and incorporating New Market Tax Credits (NMTC).  In partnership with Goldman Sachs, this will be the first HDC project to use Federal New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) equity as a financing source.
 
Low-income Rental Housing:
Financed by HPD and HDC, Navy Green (formerly known as The Brig), is a $27 million project to be built in Fort Green, Brooklyn by Dunn Development and L & M Development Partners, in conjunction with the NYC Housing Partnership Development Fund. The first phase of this large-scale project will include 101 units, with 33 studios, 36 one-bedrooms, and 31 two-bedrooms and will have a landscaped rear yard and access to the common green area that is part of the larger Navy Green project.

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About Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan
New York City’s affordable housing program to build or preserve 165,000 units of housing — enough to house half a million New Yorkers — is the most ambitious and productive in the nation—creating housing as well as jobs for New Yorkers. In April, 2010 the City reached the critical benchmark of 100,000 units financed—representing an investment of $4.5 billion to date by the City, not including roughly $5 billion in bonds issued by HDC.

Led by HPD Commissioner Rafael E. Cestero, the Plan has been recast to maintain production momentum while confronting head-on the economic challenges facing the City, the State, the housing industry, the financial sector and individual New Yorkers and their families. In order to fulfill the NHMP goal of 165,000 units, HPD and the NYC Housing Development Corporation (HDC) are responding to market realities and focusing on three primary goals: strengthening neighborhoods, expanding the supply of affordable and sustainable housing and stabilizing families by keeping them in their homes. To read more about the NHMP, please visit http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/about/plan.html.   

About the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)
HPD is the nation’s largest municipal housing preservation and development agency. Its mission is to promote quality housing and viable neighborhoods for New Yorkers through education, outreach, loan and development programs and enforcement of housing quality standards. It is responsible for implementing Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan to finance the construction or preservation of 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2014. Since the plan’s inception, more than 108,000 affordable homes have been created or preserved. For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/hpd. 

About the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC)
The New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) provides a variety of financing programs for the creation and preservation of multi-family affordable housing throughout the five boroughs of New York City. HDC’s programs are designed to meet the wide range of affordable housing needs of the City's economically diverse population. In partnership with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, HDC works to implement Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan to create or preserve 165,000 affordable housing units by 2014. Since the plan launched in 2004, HDC financed more than 45,000 homes for low- , moderate- and middle-income New Yorkers. The New York City Housing Development Corporation is rated AA by S&P and Aa2 by Moody’s.