A legislator’s-eye view of reflecting community input and building ambitious affordable housing
During eight years as a New York City Council member, I saw heated sagas involving housing development ignite, erupt and burn out. Some communities have rightfully demanded more affordable housing, some not so much. Local history, particularly redlining and gentrification, factors prominently as residents’ fears of being priced out bubble to the surface. I have heard people say downtown Manhattan is too expensive and already overdeveloped as reasons to keep any new construction from happening.
But while New York City is undoubtedly one of the most complex and expensive places to build, my experience tells me that anything is possible if we approach it the right way.
For every unsuccessful project, there are equally compelling examples of ventures that moved forward to preserve and strengthen their communities. The ongoing development of Essex Crossing, a nearly 2-million-square-foot mixed-use development on former vacant land on the Lower East Side, offers critical lessons that can inform future affordable housing developments and the negotiations that come along with them.
When it was originally razed in 1967 as part of Robert Moses’ “slum-clearing” initiative, the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA) displaced roughly 1,800 mostly Puerto Rican families from a multiblock section of the Lower East Side straddling Delancey Street. Due to political gridlock and a lack of community empowerment, the site remained vacant for nearly 50 years, finally breaking ground for development in 2015.
Collaborating on Essex Crossing, as SPURA would be renamed, was my first experience with the affordable housing and development industry, my first community campaign as a volunteer with Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) and a project that would span into my time as Council member for the East Side. One of our most meaningful victories was securing the right of return for families who had lost their homes decades earlier, including my father and Aunt Elsie.
Today, Essex Crossing spans nine city blocks and includes more than 1,000 residential units, more than half of which are designated as affordable housing — including senior housing and the units reserved for former SPURA residents. Knowing the neighborhood’s history and listening to the needs of the existing residents were critical to making this project possible.
Essex Crossing also highlights the importance of having a developer who meets the community eye to eye and uses shared visioning to shape its plan based on local needs. The Essex Crossing developer, Delancey Street Associates, was at the table every step of the way and was a reliable partner for City officials, local stakeholders and the community.
While New York City is undoubtedly one of the most complex and expensive places to build, my experience tells me that anything is possible if we approach it the right way.
Delancey Street Associates, a joint venture partnership with L+M Development Partners, BFC Partners and Taconic Investment Partners, collaborated with the local community board, housing advocacy nonprofits and tenant leaders to focus on the project’s design, which now stands as a model of inclusive urban renewal — blending affordability, community services and economic development in one of the city’s most iconic neighborhoods.
Additionally, strong political leadership was and remains key to its success. Essex Crossing would not have been possible without strong leaders like City Council Member Margaret Chin, who championed the development during its approval phase, ensuring a proper blend of commercial development and affordable units for residents. Through meetings, town halls and a task force set up by Manhattan Community Board 3, she encountered valid concerns, impassioned debate and aggressive protesters every step of the way. This intense and robust engagement eventually led to more senior and low-income units, park space, square feet reserved for a potential school and a commitment to local hiring through a network facilitated by the nonprofit Henry Street Settlement. In the end, without her advocacy, Essex Crossing might still be stuck in bureaucratic limbo. It also shows why Council involvement is paramount in land-use negotiations.
While one size never fits all across the neighborhoods of New York, the development of Essex Crossing serves as a blueprint for those who are focused on developing more housing equitably and with appreciation for the unique needs of each community.
Lessons to take from this important development are reflected in the community benefits that were ultimately included in the plan, including a public market for fresh, low-cost groceries; reserved space for multiple nonprofits that offer affordable childcare and services for our seniors; the provision of affordable retail space to support long-standing local businesses; open space; local hiring; and rents for low-, moderate- and middle-income families that are memorialized in perpetuity. Neighborhoods recently rezoned in desirable and rapidly changing areas like SoHo, NoHo, Astoria, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and the Garment District can all take note.
Essex Crossing is an example of the seemingly implausible becoming possible because developers and community leaders met consistently, negotiated based on local needs and were brave in the face of opposition. It shows that we can — and must — learn from history to build a more equitable future for all New Yorkers, especially when it comes to affordable housing.