Public hearing Monday on tax-exempt bonds for B3 affordable rental tower at Sixth Avenue and Dean Street

According to an announcement from the New York City Housing Development Corporation (NYC HDC), the agency will hold a (typically pro forma) public hearing Monday, May 30, to provide information and take public comment on bonds for numerous affordable housing projects.

Among them will be $75 million for Pacific Park B3, a 23-story affordable housing rental tower planned for the corner of Dean Street and Sixth Avenue.

The hearing will be held Monday, March 30 at 10 am at the NYC HDC Main Conference Room, 110 William Street, 10th Floor.

(The NYC HDC notice refers to the location as 38 Sixth Avenue, which is what it says on the project web site, though it was previously known as 30 Sixth Avenue.)

Waiting for more information

NYC HDC has not provided additional information I requested about the project, so all we have to go on is project web site (noted below) and  the non-binding letter (bottom) from last May, which indicated that B3--like B14, already launched at Carlton Avenue and Dean Street--would have affordability skewed toward upper middle-income households paying some $3,000 per month.

That document also indicated an additional subsidy of $11,765,000, which is not indicated in the notice.

The NYC HDC will allot $75 million for the project, the same as with B14, aka 535 Carlton. It is the single largest sum of any allotment in this round.

Note that the savings to the developer, Greenland Forest City Partners, is not $75 million but the difference between tax-exempt and taxable financing, typically a few percentage points and thus perhaps 15-30%.

The promotional description and the non-modular plan

The Pacific Park web site describes the building:

An eye-catching new 23-story residential tower is joining the arena block. Light, pattern, and texture play across the gleaming façade; a traditional covered entrance provides comfortable access to the 300 residences, which will be affordable to low-, moderate-, and middle-income New Yorkers. Designed by SHoP Architects, 38 Sixth Avenue will house Pacific Park Brooklyn’s health care center, as well as retail behind full-height glass storefronts and an underground parking facility.

Note that the building, as of a couple of years ago, was supposed to be built via modular construction, which would save time and money, and reduce trucks, deliveries, and noise.

Given delays in the B2 tower at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street, the new owner/overseer of the Greenland Forest City Partners joint venture decided that the next towers would be built conventionally. That raises questions about staging areas for construction of this tower.

HDC Letter, B3, Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park by AYReport