Luxury Tower May Trump Affordable Units In Hell's Kitchen: Report

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration is looking to change the terms of a deal struck in 2005 that promised an 100 percent affordable apartment building on a Hell's Kitchen parking lot owned by the city, according to reports.

The mayor's team proposed tacking on market-rate units to a planned development that is supposed to bring 226 below-market-rate apartments to a parking lot next to the Harborview Terrace housing development on West 55th Street between 10th and 11th avenues, the Daily News first reported. The proposed change would result in a tower that could reach 30 to 50 stories tall, according to the report.

The administration and the New York City Housing Authority — which owns the parking lot — presented four proposals to local elected officials and community stakeholders during a closed-door meeting this week, the Dialy News reported. Three of the four proposals would result in fewer than the originally-promised 226 below-market apartments.

Officials were taken aback by the sudden change of plans for the site.

"It was out of the blue for me," Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer told the Daily News. "It was going to be 100% (affordable). I don’t know where this came from."

Brewer — who served in the City Council when the original plans were negotaited with the Bloomberg administration — also told the News that the planned development was supposed to provide affordable units to an area already seeing an influx of market-rate development.

The de Blasio administration's new plan for the site would raise additional funding for the troubled New York City Housing Authority, including $40 million for repairs at the Harborview Terrace development, the Daily News reported. A NYCHA spokesperson told the News that "nothing is off the table" regarding plans for the site.

Read the full Daily News article here.

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