East New York benefits from Mayor's housing plan.

City officials and community-based developers broke ground last week on six 4 1/2-story apartment buildings that will rise back-to-back on Malta Street and Alabama Avenue in East New York.

The buildings will provide 48 affordable apartments, with rents ranging from approximately $660 to $920 per month. They will be built on a vacant, formerly City-owned lot in an area already substantially revitalized by the construction of 700 new affordable single family homes.

The City's transfer of the land for use as affordable housing is part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's newly expanded New Housing Marketplace Plan to invest $7.5 billion over 10 years to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing. The new buildings, to be located at 45-65 Malta St. and 662-8 Alabama Ave., will rise on land formerly owned by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which transferred the land to East Brooklyn Congregations last year for $1.

The New York City Housing Development Corporation financed the construction of the buildings by issuing $4.85 million in tax-exempt bonds and by lending $2.64 million from its corporate reserves to a partnership comprised of East Brooklyn Congregations, which will own the buildings, and CPC Resources, Inc., which is developing them.

"Our record volume of activity in recent years is the result of innovative public-private partnerships like this one," said Emily A. Youssouf, the president of the Housing Development Corporation. "We're looking forward to doing more work in East New York."

Over the past quarter century, East Brooklyn Congregations has been responsible for the transformation of many vacant blocks in East New York with the construction of 2,900 townhouses through its Nehemiah Plan.

"When we began building single-family homes in 1983, there were scores of acres of land, thousands of abandoned units, and no need for higher density construction," said the Reverend David K. Brawley of East Brooklyn Congregations. "Today, there is almost no vacant land, no vacancy and a desperate need for affordable rental housing. Working with the City and the Community Preservation Corporation, we have changed the landscape over the past two decades. The Malta Street apartments will be just the first of a series of affordable apartment efforts in East Brooklyn and elsewhere."

CPC Resources, Inc., as the development arm of The Community Preservation Corporation, is lending its broad expertise in affordable housing development and will oversee all aspects of the development and construction of the project until the apartments are fully leased.

This is the Community Preservation Corporation's second collaboration with East Brooklyn Congregations. The Community Preservation Corporation financed nearly 700 units of affordable housing under the Nehemiah program for an investment of more than $34 million.

The development was designed by Curtis + Ginsburg Architects, LLP and will include 17 parking spaces in the rear yard. The buildings are being built by the West Manor Construction Corporation, an affiliate of the Bluestone Organization.

During construction, the bonds are backed by a letter of credit from JPMorgan Chase. The tax credit equity is syndicated through the Enterprise Social Investment Corporation.

Rents are set to be affordable for low income households, who can earn no more than 60% of the New York City median income. Slightly more than half of the 48 apartments will be two-bedroom units.