Real Estate
Senior Housing
in Astoria
BY ANGELA MATUA
AMATUA@QNS.COM
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I JULY 2017 15
Catholic Charities, the largest faith-based
provider of affordable housing,
has received blessings from Community
Board 1 for its plans to build a seven-story
affordable senior housing complex
in Astoria.
The nonprofit has an 11-story, 240-
unit affordable housing complex called
the Catherine Sheridan Residence at
23-40 Astoria Blvd. and a parking lot
at 23-11 31st Rd. Plans filed with the
Department of Buildings (DOB) show
that that the 92-unit building, the Cath-erine
Sheridan Residence II, would be
constructed on the parking lot site.
The developer is seeking a variance
from the Board of Standards and Ap-peals
to alter the floor area ratio, height
and setback of the site to be able to
build. Currently, the organization would
only be able to build five stories and
would not allow the rear yard to be
turned into a senior center.
DOB plans show that there would
be 74,454 square feet dedicated to
residential units and 8,948 square feet
for community facility space.
Representatives from Catholic Chari-ties
attended a Community Board 1
meeting on June 20 to outline their
plan. The building would include 83
one-bedroom apartments and nine stu-dio
apartments. The community facility
space would be used for a senior center
and include a kitchen, offices and com-mon
space. The center would also be
open to the public.
According to Catholic Charities rep-resentatives,
only about 12 cars use the
parking lot, and a lot at the new structure
would include parking for 19 cars.
The organization has 21 affordable
senior housing complexes in Brooklyn
and Queens, which have 3,400 units.
They have a waiting list of about 30,000
people and on average seniors wait 7
to 10 years to get in. Catholic Charities
only gets about 100 vacancies a year.
The board voted to approve the
plan but asked that residents living
in Community Board 1 have priority
when the organization chooses who
will move in.
“We are a community that is aging in
place,” O’Hara said. “Within our council
district alone there are approximately
20,000 people waiting for affordable
units. Seven-hundred-twenty-six seniors
are wait listed for Catherine Sheridan
1. So we obviously have a need here.”
Representatives said they will fight
to make sure there is a supervision in
place to make units available for nearby
residents and will speak to parishes
nearby about potential residents.
Board members also expressed
concern about the lack of parking for
residents. The 51 space parking lot
they want to build on was required by
the city when Catholic Charities re-quested
permits for Catherine Sheridan
Residence 1.
“The area has a lot of new develop-ment,”
O’Hara said. “There are some
institutions with the same issues with
visitors coming into the neighborhood
requiring parking and they don’t provide
parking or they provide minimal parking.”
She suggested that Catholic Chari-ties
“find a feasible way to increase the
number of parking spaces.”
The Boards of Standards and Ap-peals
will determine if the organization
should receive a variance in order to
build the complex.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
