City Point Tower 1 Will Be 80 Percent “Affordable”

Another boon to our area’s affordable housing market is coming, and at one of Downtown Brooklyn’s most anticipated developments, City Point.

City Point Tower 1, at 7 DeKalb Avenue, will list 80 percent of its units (200 units) at “affordable” prices and 20 percent of units at market rate (50 units). That’s the opposite of the city’s typical 80/20 formula which designates the low- and middle-income units to the lower end of the scale, at 20 percent.

“The city came to us and asked us to do this [and] it was a very amicable discussion,” said Aron Gooblar, a vice president at Washington Square Partners, during a press event earlier this week. “We found a way to work with [the Housing Development Corporation] and [the Economic Development Corporation and] our lender Wells Fargo agreed to change their underwriting for the project.”

Tower 1 is being developed by Washington Square Partners, Acadia Realty Trust and BFC Partners.

According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the original plan was for the 250 total units to be split 50/50 between affordable and market rate.

In this case, “affordable” means two things:

• 50 units will be designated for tenants who earn 40 percent of the area median income (AMI) — between $24,200 for an individual and $34,520 for a family of four
• 150 units will be designated for those earning 130 percent AMI — between $78,650 for an individual and $112,190 for a family of four

This new affordability plan does not affect City Point’s other two buildings. Tower 2 will consist of 430 market-rate units developed by the Brodsky Organization. Tower 3 will consist of 500 units, developed by Extell Development.

As noted back in April, City Point will also include a DeKalb Market 2.0: a 26,000-square-foot food hall featuring between 35-55 food vendors, many of them favorites returning from the now-closed DeKalb Market outdoor food-and-flea market plaza that used to sit on the construction site.