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June 19, 2007
Mixed-Rate Building Next to Atlantic Yards
Brownstoner
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The New York City Housing Development Corporation, which provides debt financing for affordable housing, announced a slew of new projects around the five boroughs last week, including one that will be in the shadows of the Atlantic Yards project.
NoLandGrab: SOME BACKGROUND
Solar Dreams Denied
Though some folks are just waking up to the fact that "a new 10-story co-op with 80 low-, middle- and market-rate apartments will be built on the vacant lot at 669 Atlantic Avenue between South Portland Avenue and South Oxford Street in Fort Greene," readers of The Brooklyn Paper will recall that the Fifth Avenue Committee announced in February that it would have to abandon its plans for a solar-paneled roof because Atlantic Yards high-rises would leave the site in near-constant shadow (see, Ratner’s shadows end solar power dream).
Big Picture: HDC Financing
A Brooklyn Daily Eagle story on the HDC financing makes an important point about the HDC's financing approval for projects including Atlantic Terrace (see, "HDC Provides $320 Million For Affordable Housing, $76 Million for Brooklyn"):
But with the approvals announced this week, the HDC also said it would not be able to finance any further low-income, mixed-income or 80/20 housing until January unless state or federal officials took action to replenish the agency’s supply of private activity bond volume cap.
The Atlantic Yards Effect
Norman Oder has been covering the issue and informed readers that "this year the agency was assigned $195 million in volume cap, and expects it to be depleted by the end of June, according to HDC spokesman Aaron Donovan."
Oder points out that this has a dual effect on Atlantic Yards and the market (see, "Huge deficit in tax-exempt bonds suggests Atlantic Yards delay"):
[Atlantic Yards] faces a significant hurdle over which the agencies had no control... units [already in the pipeline] precede the 2250 units promised for Atlantic Yards, involving $1.4 billion in bonds, a figure developer Forest City Ratner and government officials didn't reveal until after the project was approved.
In the city’s pipeline alone, there’s $1.8 billion in projects, which precede the yet-unrequested $1.4 billion for Atlantic Yards. Given the scarcity of city funding for such developments, some affordable housing supporters have begun to express dismay that Atlantic Yards would suck up a significant portion of the pool.
Posted by lumi at June 19, 2007 9:04 AM