The Circa, a new condo building under construction at the corner of Central Park, has opened its housing lottery for 10 apartments in the building available to people whose income falls into certain ranges. The building, whose address is 2040 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, was granted 421-a tax breaks. The buyer is expected to put down at least 10% of the purchase price and use the condo as a primary residence. Amenities will include a uniformed lobby attendant, laundry facilities and outdoor and indoor recreation space.
The expected income limits and prices are listed below, and you can learn more and fill out a full application here.
Information sessions will be held on June 6 and June 16 at 6 p.m. at 314 West 120th Street.
As for market-rate apartments, currently only three, four, and five-bedrooms are listed on the Circa website. The three-bedrooms start at just under $3 million. The building will rise 11 stories.
The building replaced a gas station and repair shop at the site.
(hat-tip 6sqft)
I’m curious as to how this is enforced. For example, what happens after a qualifying applicant wins the lottery, buys the condo, but then their income subsequently rises above the original qualifying income range? Are they forced to sell it? Also, when they sell it down the road, can they sell it for market rate or is that unit forever under the “affordable” income guidelines?
Usually with the buy-in programs, they don’t kick you out if your income goes up. But I am curious who does the resales oversight. It’s a condo, so technically resales do not require board approval. So they could conceivably resell it for market rate? Also, the table seems off — the AMI caps usually rise with increased number of household members. So should not be flat for 2-4 people in the 2 bedroom or 1-2 people in the 1 bedroom. There should be a stepped increase.
https://www1.nyc.gov/nyc-resources/service/1021/affordable-housing
Check above for general information. Typically affordable housing subsidized by the city must be held for a specific period of time before being sold or the seller/owner must reimburse NYC a designated % amount. Do not think there is any restriction or penalty on income increasing after qualifying and purchasing. All details must be checked through sponsor/offering plan as specs can vary project to project.
Time to get the paper divorce from my higher-earning husband and apply for this and all others like this the get a paper re-marriage and enjoy the cheap digs!
Is there somewhere to see what would be required when reselling the apartments? I’m curious how much of a windfall buyers might (or might not) expect.
Also, what if the minimum level of qualifying income lessens significantly?
There is a huge gap between $300,00 and $3,000,000. Those people get driven out of the city and the city becomes more polarized.
Poor people need to move to the suburbs and beyond where the cost of living is much much lower. There should be a universal welfare benefit that will provide everyone who needs it the same amount of money to be able to survive well wherever they live. We dont need all the poor people to gravitate to the high cost cities.
This had never been exclusively a “high cost” city. Recent changes brought by the moneyed is changing that.
Let me get this straight – a low income person gets to live in a brand new luxury apartment building overlooking Central Park.
The company that developed this space – which is likely owned by a billionaire – gets millions of dollars of tax breaks thru 421-a for designating a few “affordable” apartments in the building.
(Needless to say this is money the city desperately needs).
DeBozo will brag that he is creating “affordable housing”.
Now how exactly is this an efficient or cost effective method of solving our housing shortage?
NYC liberalism at its best!
Excuse me Sherman but I don’t think that a person making between 41,000.00 and 85,000.00 is low income. It’s actually the almost non-exsistent middle income!
The tax abatements go to buyers of the units, not the developer. Not directly, at least. The units could fetch a higher price given the tax break, however, so the developer would benefit that way.
(Correct me if I’m wrong.)
Not “NYC liberalism at its best” but rather NYC Politics at its best!
How is this affordable housing? BWAHAHAHAHA!