Achieving Home Ownership

New York, New York

This gut renovation of a portfolio of three properties located in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights neighborhoods will facilitate the transition of 13 residential units in two city-owned buildings to tenant-led cooperatives. The third, a five-unit building, will become a rental property after renovations are complete. The buildings are located at 55 Carlton Avenue, 550 DeKalb Avenue and 1216 Pacific Avenue. 

For many low-income families in New York City and across the country, home ownership and the firm financial footing that comes with it are intangible dreams.

The residents of two city-owned buildings in this portfolio will soon see the dream of home ownership become a reality, through New York City’s Affordable Neighborhood Cooperative Program (ANCP). Run by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the program supports rehabilitation of occupied city-owned properties and transitions ownership to resident-led cooperatives.

Low-income cooperatives have been a path to home ownership for thousands of hardworking New Yorkers over the years, preserving affordability for residents as the New York City neighborhoods they call home become more expensive. 

Through the program, HPD and qualified private lenders like CPC provide financing for the rehabilitation of the properties, and a nonprofit sponsor provides training to the tenant association in building management, coop policies, maintenance and financial recordkeeping.

A $2.8 million CPC construction loan and additional $7.7 million in ANCP funding from HPD will finance this project.

Nonprofit borrower Bridge Street Development Corporation (BSDC) is overseeing the gut renovations and will facilitate training for residents to help prepare them for the transition to owning and managing their apartment building.

“Bridge Street Development is proud to participate as sponsor/developer, and partner with CPC and HPD on this important affordable housing initiative,” said Gregory Anderson, President & CEO of Bridge Street Development Corporation. “The ANCP program combines brick and mortar renovations with financial and organizational tenant training.  This dual approach enables community residents to make the important transition from renters in substandard housing to owners and managers of co-operative housing.  In a time of skyrocketing rents and gentrification, the ANCP program helps to fulfill our objective at Bridge Street to create increasing opportunities for financial empowerment, affordable homeownership and equity for the residents of our community”.

Rehabilitation work, expected to be completed in 2021, will upgrade the buildings to Enterprise Green Communities standards. The building at 1216 Pacific Street will include elements of Passive House design.

When construction is complete, residents of the two buildings in the ANCP program will purchase their newly renovated apartments for a nominal fee and begin operating as self-sufficient affordable cooperatives.

The five rental units at 1216 Pacific Street will be marketed to families earning 90% of area median income and be owned by Bridge Street upon construction completion.