At 535 Carlton, an Open House tomorrow, likely for middle-income units; operator Avanath finally ditches "Barclays II" moniker for building far from arena

When I was walking around the other day, I saw a notice outside the "100% affordable" 535 Carlton announcing that there'd be an Open House tomorrow, from 10 am to 3 pm.

It's a little curious, since there are no listings on StreetEasy or the building's web site.

But presumably they either have, or are expecting, openings.

I strongly suspect that those available apartments would be in the half of the building--149 units--that qualify as middle-income, accepting residents with incomes up to 165% of Area Median Income.

Rent levels unclear

What's unclear is what the rents would be.

Keep in mind that for middle-income units, the initial rent levels as of 2017, as shown in the bottom document, were lowered slightly in 2021, as shown in the document directly above it, presumably to be competitive during a time when COVID had pushed some out of the city.

Specifically, studios went from $2,137 to $2,121; one-bedrooms from $2,680 to $2,663; two-bedrooms from $3,223 to $3,206; and three-bedrooms from $3,716 to $3,695.

But these units are rent-stabilized, so they're supposed to rise according to the annual increases set by the city's Rent Guidelines Board.

Avanath wises up, a little more

Remember how new owner Avanath Capital Management, buying 535 Carlton and the similarly "100% affordable" 38 Sixth Avenue last May from Greenland Forest City Partners, sloppily claimed that the building were in the "Pacific Heights" neighborhood--nah, Prospect Heights--and tagged them with the unwise shorthand of Barclays I (38 Sixth) and Barclays II (535 Carlton).

Outdated version of 535 Carlton website

After all, while 38 Sixth does flank the Barclays Center, 535 Carlton is more than one long block away.

Well, first, as I reported last December, Avanath fixed the Pacific Heights reference. 

More recently, they've excised the "Barclays I" and "Barclays II" from the 535 Carlton and 38 Sixth web sites. So the version at right is outdated.

So they deserve some credit for finally wising up. But if it takes this long to fix more pressing issues, like, say, maintenance requests, that's not a good sign.