Pennrose and Blue Sea to Redevelop Prospect Plaza
The New York City Housing Authority and New York City Housing Preservation and Development have tapped Pennrose, a multifamily specialist based in Philadelphia, to be a co-developer on Brooklyn's Prospect Plaza redevelopment.
By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
New York—The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and New York City Housing Preservation and Development have tapped Pennrose, a multifamily specialist based in Philadelphia, to be a co-developer on Brooklyn’s Prospect Plaza redevelopment. It joins Blue Sea Development Co., Duvernay + Brooks, and Rosenberg Housing Group (Blue Sea & Partners) in the project.
Prospect Plaza, which is in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville neighborhood, will be built in three phases with 364 new housing units, including 80 units of NYCHA public housing and 284 affordable housing apartments. The first two development phases will include both public housing units and affordable apartments.
The affordable units will be available for New Yorkers earning less than 60 percent of the area median income, or an annual household income not exceeding $49,800 for a family of four. The third phase will include affordable apartments in a mixed-use property with 22,000 square feet of retail space for a supermarket, as well as a community facility with a rooftop greenhouse and recreation space.
The property is being developed under the city’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, an initiative to finance 165,000 units of affordable housing for half a million New Yorkers by the close of fiscal 2014. A $15.5 million HOPE VI Grant provided by HUD will fund a portion of the revitalization project.
“The sequestration we’re experiencing now hasn’t had an immediate impact on affordable housing development,” Les Bluestone, Blue Sea Development partner, tells MHN. “General economic conditions affect affordable housing development more than anything else.”
Prospect Plaza was originally built in 1974 and consisted of four high-rise towers with 365 units situated on three sites. Three of the towers were vacated in 2003 due to rehabilitation, and the fourth was demolished in 2005. After that, however, the project was put on hold.
In 2010, the Re-Vision Prospect Plaza Community Plan was developed, which called for the construction of low-rise, mixed-use buildings combining public and affordable housing units, retail and other space. The three remaining Prospect Plaza towers will be demolished prior to the conveyance of the sites to the co-developers.
