Cooper Square Redevelopment Includes 600 New Apartments

NEW YORK CITY-The Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development has selected Williams Jackson Ewing, based in Baltimore, to lead redevelopment of Cooper Square in the East Village. Chrystie Ventures, a joint venture among AvalonBay, Blackacre Capital, Phipps Houses and Williams Jackson, will develop four parcels located between the Bowery, Second Avenue, Stanton Street and East Second Street.

The $210-million project will see the construction of more than 600 apartments, 25% of which will be set aside as affordable housing. The balance will be rented at market rates. Affordable and market-rate units will be evenly distributed throughout the buildings. Tenants for the affordable units will be selected by HPD through a lottery.

The project also includes a community center with athletic facilities and a pool as well as 170,000 sf of retail.

One of the four sites, which consist of unimproved land and four buildings to be torn down, is also home to a four-story chapel on East First Street that will be rehabilitated.

Although the city will not provide any public subsidies for the redevelopment, the properties may be eligible for a partial tax exemption for buildings erected on vacant or underutilized land.

JV participant AvalonBay, a REIT, owns more than 40,000 apartments in nearly 140 communities; Phipps Houses is a nonprofit manager and developer of affordable housing and Blackacre is a private investment fund with more than $6 billion in assets.