Unveiled: Brook Avenue Apartments in the Bronx

By Jeffrey Steele

Brook Avenue Apartments, a new two-building, 66-unit development in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx, has opened. The completion of the project was heralded in a ceremony that featured developer Yuco Real Estate Company, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Bank of New York Mellon, First Sterling Financial, Community Preservation Corporation and Bronx Community Board.

Built on an empty formerly city-owned parcel, the 78,806-square-foot development was constructed for a development cost of $24.4 million. It was financed under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York: A Five-Borough, 10-Year Housing Plan. The plan’s objective is to house more than half a million New Yorkers, ranging from very low-income to middle-class residents who are being forced to shoulder ever-increasing rent burdens.

Bong Yu. P.C., was both the engineering and architectural firm. Yuco Builders LLC was the general contractor on the project. The Bank of New York Mellon, First Sterling Financial and the Community Preservation Corp. were financial partners.

Solid selling points

Brook Avenue Apartments consists of a five-story building situated at 463 East 147^th Street, and a seven-story building located at 469 East 147^th Street. The 463 address features 55 units of affordable housing, comprised of seven studio units, 35 one-bedroom apartments, 12 two-bedroom residences and one three-bedroom apartment home, inclusive of a single two-bedroom superintendent apartment. Of the total units in this building, 13 are affordable to households earning up to 40 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), representing an annual income of no more than $25,400 for an individual or $36,240 for a family of four. The remaining 41 units are affordable to households earning up to 60 percent of AMI, meaning an annual income of no more than $38,100 for an individual and $54,360 for a family of four. The building features an 11,200-square-foot underground parking garage.

The 469 address offers a single one-bedroom apartment and 10 two-bedroom apartment homes. Ten of the units in this building are affordable to households earning 60 percent AMI. The remaining unit is affordable to a household earning up to 40 percent AMI. This building has approximately 1,700 square-feet of commercial space.

The spacious, well-designed apartments feature solid wood doors, solid wood kitchen cabinets, solid oak flooring, granite kitchen countertops, GE appliances, Kohler bathroom fixtures and overhead lighting in each room. Apartments have individual heating controls.

Testament to betterment

“Creating affordable housing units is very important to me and to our community. It is something I have been working on since day one I became borough president,” said Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr.

“Since 2009, we have invested $1.6 billion towards the creation of over 6,100 affordable units across 68 projects, mostly for low-income families,” he said. “This project is testament to the hard work we are putting in alongside partners like Yuco Real Estate, who have shown a very strong commitment to work with our office, the residents and the neighborhood of Mott Haven, to make sure everyone has a fair shot at affordable housing.”