Affordable Housing

Nearly 200 housing lottery apartments are available in Bushwick

By Nathan Tempey  | March 5, 2018 - 1:00PM
image

123 Melrose St. is part of a blocks-long, 1,400-apartment complex on the former site of the Rheingold Brewery in Bushwick.

ODA

Close to 200 below-market-rate apartments are now available in Bushwick through the city's housing lottery. 

183 of those are in a massive new rental apartment complex on the site of the former Rheingold Brewery, situated between the Morgan Avenue L station and the Myrtle Avenue J, M, Z station.

These apartments are studios and one and two bedrooms, set aside for households making $34,355-$51,540 a year. Rents start at $947 a month, for a studio. The building where apartments are available has about 900 apartments in all, and is described as having an on-site super, a package room, laundry, and for an additional fee, a gym, a pool, bike storage, lounges, a kids room, a dog spa, movie theaters, a library, human spas, and parking. 

Additional income eligibility and rent details are here:

image

Developers of the two Rheingold sites have come under fire from neighborhood activists for reneging on promises made by former owners to provide 24 percent below-market housing in the new development, opting instead to include the 20 percent minimum necessary to qualify for tax breaks.

Applications are open for another six apartments in a much smaller new building four blocks away at 690 Bushwick Ave. These apartments, one and two bedrooms allocated for households making $82,080-$111,670, are less obviously a deal. Because of the way affordable housing tax break legislation is written, developers can get tax incentives for providing, as they've done here, apartments for people making more than double the city household income. But they also sometimes run into trouble renting such units, because the corresponding rents, in this case $1,984 and $2,394 a month, tend to be close to market rents, and market-rate apartments come with fewer paperwork hassles.

For Bushwick, the current median rent for a one bedroom is $2,116 a month, making these lottery one bedrooms a bit of a deal, particularly when you factor in the long-term rent stabilization. Market-rate two bedrooms, on the other hand, are currently averaging $2,395, so lottery winners only get a dollar off a month for their trouble. Then again, no broker's fee!

Full income eligibility details are here:

image

 

 

Brick Underground articles occasionally include the expertise of, or information about, advertising partners when relevant to the story. We will never promote an advertiser's product without making the relationship clear to our readers.

topics: