New York Construction Report staff writer
A former NYPD parking lot in New York City’s East Village will be redeveloped into a mixed-use affordable housing project with approximately 131 homes, a senior centre, community space and replacement parking facilities.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Deputy Mayor announced the city has designated the 324 East 5th Street site to a development team made up of Spatial Equity, Housing Works, the Cooper Square Committee and the This Land is Ours Community Land Trust.
The group includes minority-owned and non-profit organizations with decades of experience providing housing and community services in the neighbourhood.
The project, The Aurea, marks the first city land award under the Mamdani administration and includes a community land trust as a development partner. Officials say the model will help maintain long-term affordability while giving residents and the community a greater role in oversight.
“Public land should serve the public,” Mamdani said. “This project will provide permanently affordable housing, create homes for formerly homeless New Yorkers and put community stewardship at its centre through a community land trust.”
The development will include deeply affordable homes for low-income New Yorkers, with 30 per cent of apartments reserved for formerly homeless residents. Housing Works will provide on-site supportive services.
Plans also call for landscaped terraces, green roofs and an all-electric building system designed to meet Passive House sustainability standards.
The project team includes SLCE Architects.
“This project demonstrates what is possible when mission-driven organizations and thoughtful design come together around a shared vision,” said Thomas Furman, partner at SLCE Architects. “We are proud to contribute our expertise to creating a building that not only provides much-needed affordable and supportive housing for seniors but also strengthens the character and vitality of the Lower East Side through sustainable, enduring and high-quality design.”
The request for proposals for the site was developed following public consultation, including input from the SoHo/NoHo Neighborhood Plan process, multilingual outreach and a community workshop.
Officials said the project builds on the administration’s Block by Block: The Housing Plan for a New Era, which includes nearly $5 billion in capital funding for new affordable housing development over the next two fiscal years and the addition of 41 staff positions intended to speed up housing approvals and construction.
The plan aims to build 200,000 new affordable homes and preserve another 200,000 over the next decade.
Redevelopment of the East 5th Street site also supports the city’s effort to identify more publicly owned properties that could be converted into housing. Mamdani signed Executive Order 4 on his first day in office, creating the Land Inventory Fast Track Task Force to locate city-owned sites suitable for housing development.
“I am proud to be part of the development team bringing much needed supportive and affordable housing to the neighborhood I have called my home for almost 35 years,” said Andrew Coamey, Senior Vice President, Housing Works. “Housing Works is grateful to have been invited by Spatial Equity Co., the Cooper Square Committee, This Land Is Ours Community Land Trust and SLCE Architects, LLP to transform a parking lot into housing, the number one thing people need to not only survive, but to thrive.”
