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Officials broke ground Tuesday on Sol on Park, a new senior housing development being built on NYCHA\u2019s Morris Houses campus. (Sunny Nagpaul\/City Limits)<\/p>\nConstruction is now underway for Sol on Park, 229 affordable senior units being built on open space at NYCHA\u2019s Morris Houses campus. Many of the apartments are earmarked for current public housing residents and formerly homeless seniors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Officials broke ground Tuesday on Sol on Park, a new senior housing development being built on NYCHA\u2019s Morris Houses campus. (Sunny Nagpaul\/City Limits)<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, several city officials and development groups, along with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), broke ground on a 229-apartment affordable senior housing development, to be constructed on open space at Morris Houses, a public housing campus in the Bronx.<\/p>\n
The $214 million project represents the largest use to date of a program called Transfer of Assistance<\/a>\u2014a financing tool that allows the city to use public land, such as areas NYCHA owns, to create new, permanently affordable housing. The program also helps free up public housing apartments for future tenants, by giving current residents opportunities to move into the newly constructed homes.<\/p>\n Every unit in the new senior housing development, called Sol on Park, will be affordable, according to the city\u2019s plans<\/a>. Of those, 69 apartments are reserved for formerly homeless seniors; 79 homes will be available through the Housing Connect lottery for low- and middle-income seniors; and 80 new apartments will be reserved for seniors who live in Morris Houses.\u00a0<\/p>\n Getting 80 apartments reserved for current public housing residents on the campus, according to Regina Carter, the development\u2019s tenant association president, was a deal the \u201ctenant association was able to negotiate very well with the developers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so excited to see this building go up,\u201d Carter told City Limits. \u201cSenior housing is very important, and now we will have one right in the heart of Morris Houses.\u201d<\/p>\n Developers for the project include The NRP Group<\/a>, a real estate developer, Selfhelp Realty Group<\/a> and Foxy Management<\/a>. Jonathan Gertman, the senior vice president of development at The NRP Group<\/a>, described its role as the lead developer, \u201cresponsible for helping finance the project, getting it closed, and going to build.\u201d<\/p>\n The real estate group, which builds affordable and market rate housing, has developed more than 33,000 residential units across the country, with several in Westchester and further upstate. The new senior building will be its first project in New York City.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our first experience with NYCHA,\u201d Gertman told City Limits. \u201cThere\u2019s so many homes and buildings that are at the time where they\u2019re ready for redevelopment, so we hope to continue to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Money the new affordable housing building generates will likely not be used to help pay for expenses or operations at Morris Houses, Gertman said, but some amenities at the new building will be available to public housing residents. That includes more than 8,000 square feet of community space, including a meeting room for the Morris Houses resident association, and a federally qualified health center<\/a> (a federally funded nonprofit that provides preventative health and dental services).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe tenant association has not had an office for a long time, and they\u2019ll get a brand new office,\u201d Gertman explained.<\/p>\n Anderson Gomez, who serves as secretary of the Morris Houses\u2019 tenant association, described the new room as \u201ca more centralized position\u201d between the two sides of the public housing complex, Morris I<\/a> and Morris II<\/a>, \u201cso we could have access to all the residents and they could have access to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Their current space, Gomez told City Limits, is small and \u201ccan\u2019t have more than 15 people at a time because it\u2019s a safety hazard.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe needed a space where we could store stuff for weekend giveaways, events like Christmas, Thanksgiving,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cIt\u2019s an important step to have a space to unite.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Teams from the new health center, which will be run by Union Community Health Center, have been \u201creaching out to us in order to get our input on how they will make the space look,\u201d he added. \u201cThey also want to inform the residents about the services before they arrive and settle in the building.\u201d The healthcare facility will be open to anyone in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n Goldman Sachs\u2019 urban investment group served as the \u201csole private investor and lender\u201d backing the project, according to Managing Director Scott Maxfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese public-private partnerships are critical to driving the creation of more affordable housing and economic progress, and we look forward to many more of them,\u201d Maxfield said.\u00a0<\/p>\n In his housing plan<\/a> released in May, Mayor Zohran Mamdani pledged to increase the city\u2019s use of the Transfer of Assistance program.<\/p>\n Sol on Park is the latest example of his administration\u2019s efforts to buil new housing on publicly owned land. It\u2019s among the sites identified by the city\u2019s new Land Inventory Fast Track (LIFT) Task Force, which Mamdani launched on his first day in office to survey publicly owned sites where housing could be developed.<\/p>\n The administration launched a tracker<\/a> in July that documents the task force\u2019s progress, highlighting 100 sites officials say could accommodate more than 50,000 new apartments.<\/p>\n \u201cSol on Park shows what is possible when we invest in NYCHA and use every tool available to build affordable homes,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement about the plans<\/a>. \u201cThis project will give current NYCHA residents and low-income seniors the opportunity to move into new, high-quality homes while strengthening the Morris Houses community.\u201d<\/p>\n Pre-leasing and move-ins at Sol on Park are expected to begin in early 2029.<\/p>\n To reach the reporter behind this story, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. To reach the editor, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n