BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The city wants to transfer
three vacant lots in Bedford-
Stuyvesant to a pair of development
fi rms to build 85-units
worth of deeply affordable housing,
which reps for the builders
claim will benefi t existing residents
of the rapidly gentrifying
neighborhood.
“We all know the real big
issue is that the market-rate
housing that’s sort of exploded
on us has brought a lot of folks
in and we’ve seen a lot of Bed-
Stuy residents depart,” Gordon
Bell, an executive at the Bedford
Stuyvesant Restoration
Corporation, told members of
Community Board 3’s Land Use
Committee.
The city’s Housing Preservation
and Development is
seeking the approval of City
Council to fork over properties
collectively dubbed “Dekalb
Commons,” which consist of
two lots on Dekalb Avenue between
Marcy and Nostrand
avenues, and a smaller plot of
vacant land on Fulton Street
between Bedford Avenue and
Spencer Place. The properties
would be transferred to to
Bell’s fi rm and a Williamsburg
nonprofi t developer, called St.
Nicks Alliance.
The roughly $50 million development
COURIER L 14 IFE, JANUARY 17-23, 2020
scheme includes two
seven-story buildings, one adjacent
to the public Kosciuszko
Pool at 648-654 Dekalb Ave.
housing 45 units, and the other
across the street at 633-639
Dekalb Ave. with 37 units, ranging
from studios to three-bedroom
apartments, along with
a a 700-square-foot community
room on the ground fl oor.
Both sites would have rear
yards complete with a children’s
play area and seating.
The third site would host a
four-story building at 1187 Fulton
St., and feature three twobedrooms
above 1,187 square
feet of commercial space.
The two Dekalb Avenue sites
will set rents based on the city’s
federally-designated area median
The city wants to erect two seven-story buildings on publicly-owned land in Bed-Stuy.
Photo by Magnusson Architecture and Planning/Night Nurse
income, with rates ranging
from $535 per month for a
studio up to $2,143 for a threebedroom,
and will earmark 13
units for formerly-homeless residents
at a discounted rate of between
$375 for a studio and $672
for a three-bedroom.
On Fulton Street, the twobedroom
units cost about $1,862
per month, and the higher cost
will help fi nance the cheaper
units in the other two buildings,
according to Bell.
But before the developers
can break ground, the two
fi rms and the city will have to
get the proposal through the
city’s lengthy land use review
procedure.
Offi cials anticipate Council
approval pending a publicreview
process by the fall of
this year, which would put the
builders on track to fi nish construction
by 2023.
The development is part
of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s controversial
2014 scheme to add
300,000 of so-called “affordable
housing” units by 2026. His administration
has added 135,000
units as of July 2019, according
to the city.
Critics of hizzoner’s plans
have argued that area-median
income — which is calculated
on regional basis to include
the entire city and parts of
Westchester — doesn’t accurately
refl ect the salaries of
families in certain parts of
the city, where the average income
is often far lower than
AMI.
Trading spaces
City seeking land transfer for 85
‘affordable’ rentals in Bed-Stuy