Construction on a long-delayed affordable housing project in Hell’s Kitchen — initially opposed by the local community board — will break ground in the next few weeks after its developers on Friday secured $62 million in financing.
Manhattan-based developer Hudson Cos. and Housing Works, a Downtown Brooklyn-based non-profit fighting the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness, received funding for The Lirio, a mixed-use development at 364 W. 54th St. that will bring 112 below-market-rate apartments to the neighborhood as well as 30,000 square feet of office space for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and 9,000 square feet of retail space. Sixty-seven units will be set aside for formerly homeless individuals, of which 59 are earmarked for people with HIV/AIDS; 44 will be reserved for families earning between 30% and 120% of the area median income, which is between $38,130 and $152,520 for a family of three.
The Lirio — named after the oldest living tree in the city, the liriodendron — will help serve a community with the highest rate of people living with HIV in the five boroughs, according to the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The construction cost estimate is $119 million and is expected to wrap by 2026.
Sarah Pizer, development director of Hudson Cos., said the MTA’s office space will be used to implement new technology in the transit system.
In 2019 the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development tapped Hudson Cos. and Housing Works to develop The Lirio, which will rise 9 stories on the site of a city-owned parking lot used by the MTA. Its application snaked its way through the lengthy uniform land-use review procedure, with a final stamp of approval from the City Council in 2022, despite members of Community Board 4 voting down the project just months prior; they said they wanted it to include more middle-income housing. The income brackets, which were first proposed at 40% to 80% of the AMI, were later adjusted to address that concern. The purely advisory civic panel, however, has overall supported new housing units, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. Between 2010 and 2019, for example, CB4 approved 153.8 units of housing per 1,000 residents — more than six times the citywide average of 25.6 in that time period, according to the watchdog group.
Financing for the development, at the corner of 54th Street and Ninth Avenue, will be provided by both private and public sources, including a $62 million construction loan from Webster Bank, more than $22 million in tax credits from Red Stone Equity Partners, a subsidy from HPD and funding from local Councilman Erik Bottcher and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. Merchants Capital will provide the permanent loan of around $19 million, according to the developer.
“We are in the midst of a major housing crisis in New York City, so it’s good to celebrate the wins when we have them,” said Bottcher. “This project has been a long time coming and can’t come at a better time as we make strides to lower rents and build more units across the board.”
Elsewhere in the city, Hudson Cos. has developed One Clinton, a 38-story condo in Brooklyn Heights that replaced a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, and Riverwalk Park, a massive mixed-income housing development on Roosevelt Island. Housing Works runs a chain of thrift stores across the city as well as provides housing and legal services, and opened New York’s first legal recreational marijuana dispensary at the end of 2022.
Julianne Cuba , 2024-03-29 16:24:31
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