City issues RFP for new affordable homes developments.

The city has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) to build some 600 affordable homes at four sites in West Chelsea, Clinton and East New York.

Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Shaun Donovan and New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Chairman Tino Hernandez made the announcement for the development of NYCHA sites.

The venture is the product of a collaboration between HPD and NYCHA which was implemented as part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's $7.5 billion New Housing Marketplace Plan.

The West Chelsea and Clinton housing will be developed as part of the Mayor's Middle Income Housing Initiative to create up to 22,000 residential units for New Yorkers earning between $60,000 and $145,000. The East New York housing will be affordable to low- and middle-income families.

"Through the Mayor's ten-year New Housing Marketplace Plan, Mayor Bloomberg is fostering unique partnerships with other City agencies, like NYCHA, to create more housing for low--and middle-income New Yorkers," said Donovan. "Over the past twenty years the City has successfully revitalized communities by developing vacant City-owned land taken through tax foreclosure. Now that this portfolio of land is nearly depleted, the Bloomberg Administration is creating new strategies to expand our housing pipeline. "By redeveloping underutilized land at NYCHA properties in East New York and the West Side of Manhattan, the City is building mixed-income communities and providing safe, quality housing for working families."

The RFP for the West Chelsea and Clinton sites is for the infill development of land at the Fulton Houses, located on 18th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues, the Elliott-Chelsea Houses, located at West 25th Street and 9th Avenue, and Harborview Terrace Houses, located on West 55th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues.

The three sites, which are in close proximity to the recently rezoned West Chelsea and Hudson Yards neighborhoods, will create over 400 affordable rental units for middle-income families, as well as new parking, community and retail spaces.

Two of the three properties are parking lots for the Fulton Houses and Elliott-Chelsea complex. The third property serves as a parking lot and basketball court for the Harborview Terrace Houses. Preference will be given to developers who propose the greatest amount of affordability and the greatest revenue to NYCHA. The RFP for the East New York site is for the redevelopment of a parking lot currently serving NYCHA's Linden and Boulevard Houses.

That proposal calls for a mixture of two-family, three-family and condominium townhouses, creating approximately 180 homeownership units. To maximize affordability, the New York City Council has allocated $2 million of Resolution A funds towards this redevelopment. Preference will be given to developers who propose the greatest amount of affordability.

Electronic versions of the RFPs are at the websites of HPD (www.nyc.gov/hpd) and NYCHA (www.nyc.gov/nycha). Hard copies can be purchased at HPD for a $75 non-refundable fee in the form of a certified check or money order payable to the New York City Department of Finance.

Proposals for properties at the Elliott-Chelsea Houses, the Fulton Houses, and the Harborview Terrace Houses are due on February 22, 2007. Proposals for the East New York sites are due March 8, 2007. Construction for all the developments is anticipated to begin in spring 2008.