This 2009 New York Times article reported an affordable housing promise by Related Companies–developer of New York City’s $20+ billion Hudson Yards redevelopment of the West Side rail yards.
The article states that New York City housing officials and the real estate company that plans to transform the West Side railyards into a high-rise residential and business district have agreed to preserve hundreds of apartments near the site as affordable dwellings for low- and middle-income New Yorkers.
The agreement calls for 551 apartments that are owned by the developer, the Related Companies, or will be acquired by the city, in the area surrounding the 26-acre railyards to remain at those affordable rents, many of them permanently. Rent protections at other development projects often expire.
Related and the city had already pledged to build 743 new below-market-rate apartments as part of the project — 431 out of roughly 5,000 residential units that Related plans at the railyards complex and 312 more to be developed by the city nearby.
Many of the units are intended for families earning no more than 80 percent of the median household income in the city — roughly $61,000 for a four-person household under federal guidelines. [photo credit: Related Companies.]
With this huge redevelopment well under way now, would any readers care to comment on how well the developer has followed-through on this promise? Please comment below.