'Affordable' Plan To Replace Chelsea Buildings Sparks Debate

CHELSEA, NY — A plan to tear down four dilapidated tenement buildings in Chelsea and replace them with a below-market-rate co-op went before the City Planning Commission Wednesday.

The proposal, led by non-profit housing developer Asian Americans for Equality and overseen by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, would demolish the buildings that date back to the 1870s and replace them with a 9-story, 26-unit building, located on Seventh Avenue between 21st and 22nd streets. Amie Gross Architects is designing the new building.

Redeveloping the site into below market rate cooperatives has been decades in the making after the city foreclosed on the property in the 1970s.

A view of the four tenement buildings May 22, to be replaced with a below-market-rate cooperative as soon as 2023. (Sydney Pereira/Patch)

But as the long-awaited project snakes through the lengthy review process called the uniform land use review procedure, Chelsea community board members and Borough President Gale Brewer want a stronger commitment to permanent affordability at the site.

"I'm happy to see that this site after several decades will finally provide affordable homes for New Yorkers, but I have always argued that when city-owned land is re-developed, it needs to provide 100% permanently affordable housing," said Lizette Chaparro, an urban planner for Borough President Gale Brewer, reading a statement on Brewer's behalf. "That is not what HPD has proposed."

Five of the units will be set aside for former tenants of the tenements who would be able to purchase back the co-ops for $2,500 plus maintenance fees at the building, which is being developed through HPD's Affordable Neighborhood Cooperative Program.

The remaining 21 new units would be set aside for families earning between 150% to 160% area median income — or up to approximately $154,000 annual income for a family of three

A 40-year regulatory agreement has been set for the affordability plan, HPD reps said at the hearing.

Via a presentation shown to the City Planning Commission Wednesday.

But Community Board 4 wants HPD to commit to a minimum of 80 years, the board voted last month.

The former tenants could also profit by selling their cooperatives — another concern of the board.

"We need this to be permanent affordability," Joe Restuccia, Community Board 4's housing committee co-chair, told the commission. "We very much will continue to work with HPD and the City Council to make sure the resale restrictions for those units especially do not give windfall profits to tenants. It is absolutely inappropriate."

CB 4 voted against the project unless those stronger affordability asks are fulfilled in a resolution last month. The board also requested some units be set at 130% AMI, or about $125,000 annual income for a family of three.

HPD's deputy director Ehi Uwa insisted permanent affordability is the main goal of the agency.

“That is our main mission as an agency and definitely as a program to make sure that these home ownership opportunities that we are creating are actually for the longterm," Uwa said at the hearing. The agency is reinforcing the rules for the co-ops to its shareholders, and HPD does have the power to take back the property from a shareholder or require payments to the city, he said.

City Planning Chair Marisa Lago noted enforcement and taking back someone's co-op should a shareholder break the rules would be more effective — especially considering the project is sited in the heart of Chelsea.

"I would note that I think that enforcement and reversion is more powerful than paying the amount of money because given this location — it is fabulous that we’re creating a low income home ownership here, but I would think if ever there was a site that warrants a keen eye because of market forces, it would be this one," Lago said.

The City Planning Commission will vote on the project in the coming weeks. Then, City Council will hold a hearing and a vote later this summer, where the local councilmember, Speaker Corey Johnson, will have a pivotal vote. Johnson has been supportive of the project and has previously said he is working with stakeholders on the details.

As the final details are determined in the coming months, one Chelsea resident, Pamela Wolff, recalled when the buildings were "vibrant" and full of tenants and open storefronts — before the buildings became an eyesore.

Having watched the corner for decades, Wolff, a longtime West 21st Street resident and CB 4 member, said, "I think this [project] is the best thing that's happened. ... I'm very happy with the results [and] I'm hoping that this affordable housing can really be confirmed as permanently affordable housing."