$255M Affordable Project Breaks Ground in the Bronx
Completion is expected in 2027.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, NYC Health + Hospitals, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the project’s development partners have broken ground on River Commons, a $255 million affordable community in the South Bronx. Completion is expected in 2027.
The building is set to include 328 units. Of the total, 131 apartments will cater to individuals earning between 30 and 70 percent of the area median income, while another 98 units will serve as permanent supportive housing for NYC H+H homeless patients.
The development team includes Type A Projects, BronxWorks and L+M Development Partners. In December, the partnership obtained $255.7 million financing package for the project comprising NYC HDC bonds, HPD New Construction Finance funds and low-income housing tax credits by Hudson Housing Capital.
READ ALSO: Affordable Housing Trends
Designed by Bernheimer Architecture, the building will rise 17 stories at 1240 River Ave., on the site of an underused parking lot within the Gotham Health campus. It will be the first time NYC H+H incorporates a health-care facility, totaling 43,000 square feet, into a residential building.
Upon delivery, the community will comprise studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom layouts. Shared amenities will include a fitness center, children’s playroom, coworking area, community terrace on the 15th floor, a 7,000-square-foot public green space with a landscaped plaza and a 15,000-square-foot parking garage. In addition, BronxWorks will provide on-site social, wellness and employment services for the residents.
Accelerating affordability across NYC
Last month, Mayor Mamdani presented his “Block by Block” housing plan, which aims to bring online 200,000 new affordable homes over the next decade, while also preserving another 200,000 residences, in pursuit of protecting tenants, public housing investment and reducing homelessness. Around the same time, the administration also introduced its SPEED reforms, which were made to help optimize environmental reviews, permitting, financing and lease-up processes, reducing development timelines by two years, in some cases.
More recently, New York City launched the Supportive Preservation Program, which proposes the preservation of approximately 39,000 supportive housing units through financial assistance for qualifying assets. To support these efforts, the city has increased its budget for supportive housing creation and preservation to $1 billion across fiscal years 2027 and 2028, up 60 percent from the previous funding levels.
