Photos from Saturday
A housing lottery is now open for 60 mixed-income apartments at The East (aka "The Beast of the East"), the 24-story residential building at 644 E. 14th St. and Avenue C.
The building offers 197 studio to two-bedroom units and amenities like a roof deck, co-working space, and fitness center.
Eligible New Yorkers earning 70% to 130% of the area median income can apply for the affordable units, with rents starting at $1,777 per month for studios and up to $4,315 for two-bedroom apartments. Find the details here. Qualifying New Yorkers can apply for the apartments until Dec. 16.
The East, developed by Madison Realty Capital, was constructed through the 421-a Tax Incentive Program of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Preference for 25% of the units is given to NYCHA residents.
Madison Square Realty is the third owner of the previously long-empty lot since 2009. Madison Realty Capital paid Opal Holdings $31.3 million for the property in May 2020. Opal Holdings bought the parcel in June 2016 from Brooklyn's Rabsky Group for $23 million.
Plans for a 15-floor mixed-use building had already been approved, though no affordable units were attached to that version. As revealed in the spring of 2021, several developers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying the city for NYCHA air rights to make this a larger structure with more housing. Plans for the larger development were first unveiled in June 2022.
No updates on the neighbor west of The East
Meanwhile, the full demolition order for the building next door, 642 E. 14th St., remains on hold, dated from July 18, 2024, as per DOB records.
The lawyers for 642's landlord, reportedly Second Avenue Deli owner Jeremy Lebewohl, told the Times last November that the costs to make necessary repairs exceed the building's value.
For their part, 644's developer, MRC, cast blame next door, telling the Times that "the landlord had neglected the property and did not support Madison's efforts to make the building structurally sound."
As for the tenants at 642 who had rent-stabilized apartments, the Cooper Square Committee worked with MRC to find units in its portfolio of East Village properties.
One of the former 642 tenants told EVG earlier this year that they were initially given temporary lease agreements for four months, commencing at the end of February 2024, with the actual leaseholds set to begin on July 1, 2024.
As far as the 642 tenant knew, none of the former residents had been offered any of 644's 197 units.
As we reported here, Madison Realty Capital is now in foreclosure on Raphael Toledano's one-time 17-building portfolio.
The single-level R&S Strauss auto parts store closed on this lot in 2009.
Previously on EV Grieve:
6 comments:
What a world. An affordable 2BR for... $4300. And your household can't make more than ~$170k! How can you pay that rent with that income?
This is one of those places where 1 person making $79K-$126K does not qualify. I don't understand why this is the case for so many of these developments.
So the residents of they building they *condemned* because of the construction of this building are definitely getting replacement apartments at their old rent stabilized rates, right? riiiight? riiiiiiight?
I wonder if that's intentional to exclude a segment of the population and reduce lottery demand. Would not shock me.
If $1777 for a studio [1 person] is considered "affordable," how can there be an income cap at all? You have to work two jobs just to make that rent!
The rents and income requirements are methods to control the type of people living in the building.... If you're lower middle class or poor ... it's housing discrimination.
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