Mamdani Pitches NYCHA “Reboot” as City’s Public Developer

NYCHA has a notorious track record as the city’s largest landlord, but Mamdani wants to “reboot” the public housing authority — and make it more of a partner to private developers.

The mayor’s agenda to address New York City’s housing crisis has brought back some long dormant ideas of how the public sector can help realize the goal of 200,000 new affordable units over the next decade. 

The administration took media on a sightseeing bus tour of city-owned sites slated for affordable housing Thursday. Officials spoke about reviving the public developer role and ways it intends to do that. “The transfer of assistance is one tool that we’re going to be using more of in this administration as we look to reboot NYCHA’s role as a public developer,” Deputy Mayor for Housing Leila Bozorg said. 

The ToA model moves public housing residents from traditional Section 9 assistance to newly constructed units on NYCHA campuses under Section 8 funding, part of the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration initiative. The administration is now relying on private and nonprofit developer partnerships using this program, but aims for NYCHA to co-lead some future projects (something it once did regularly decades ago). 

One RAD project highlighted by the Mamdani administration at Elliott-Chelsea and Fulton Houses in Manhattan led by developers Related Companies and Essence Development generated controversy among a subset of senior tenants who refused to vacate their units, but is moving ahead after a court lifted its pause.

Sol on Park, another development featured on the tour, will be developed on the Morris Houses campus in Morrisania by NRP Group, Selfhelp Realty Group and Foxy Management.

“There’s other examples where they’ll actually be co-developers, participating in developer fee and cash flow splits,” Bozorg said. “NYCHA originally built a lot of affordable housing in our city, they also built some of the Mitchell-Lama housing that exists in our city, so we are really trying to lean into the role that a big public institution can play in building and sustaining affordable housing.”

The bulk of that NYCHA-led development was over by the 1970s, with NYCHA mainly serving as an imperfect steward of those aging buildings in the decades since their construction. State lawmakers led by Assembly member Emily Gallagher of Brooklyn have pushed a bill that would create a new Social Housing Development Authority, which also seeks to renew a public developer’s role in New York.

“New York City’s future depends on our ability to preserve public housing and accelerate the development of new affordable homes,” NYCHA Chief Executive Officer Lisa Bova-Hiatt said in a statement. “As New York City’s largest landowner, NYCHA is uniquely positioned to make meaningful progress toward solving the city’s housing shortage.”

What we’re thinking about: Are NYCHA’s resources best spent spearheading new developments across the city? Does the public housing authority still have what it takes to build in New York? Let me know at ben.miller@therealdeal.com.

A thing we’ve learned: New York City hosts some of the world’s biggest art museums — and also some of the weirdest. Sculptor Elliott Arkin opened a tiny exhibition space in the 45-square-foot lobby of his Brooklyn home to tell the unlikely story of The Salvator Mundi, a Leonardo da Vinci painting which was long believed to be lost, but resurfaced at a New Orleans estate sale in 2005 and, in 2017, became the most expensive painting ever sold at public auction.

 — Spencer Davis

Elsewhere…

— Attorney General Letitia James sued Kalshi in New York state court Friday, alleging that the prediction market runs an “illegal gambling operation” without proper state licenses, NOTUS reports. Forty-four state attorneys general, including James, signed a letter Monday challenging the authority of the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has argued that it is the only government entity that can regulate prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. 

— The source of the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on the Upper East Side has been eliminated, Gothamist reports. The New York City Department of Health announced the conclusion of the outbreak Friday, which has been linked to seven deaths, 70 hospitalizations, and 92 total cases.

— An influx of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents was spotted in New York City and on Long Island Thursday and Friday, amNY reports. The agents were wearing masks despite a state law banning the practice.

 — Spencer Davis

Closing time

Residential: The most expensive residential sale recorded Friday was $15.5 million for 108 Leonard Street, PHW. The Tribeca new construction unit is 8,800 square feet. Douglas Elliman’s Elena Sarkissian, Christopher Salierno and Jane Powers have the listing.

Commercial: The most expensive commercial transaction was $90 million for 101 Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York. Brooklyn-based developer Jonas Rudofsky was listed as the seller. Vital Infrastructure Property Trust purchased the medical office building, which is 140,000 square feet.

New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $4.8 million for 44 West 22nd Street, Unit PH. The Flatiron condo is 2,500 square feet. CORE Marketing Group’s Shaun Osher and Ariana Mace have the listing.

Breaking Ground: The largest new building permit filed was for a proposed 75,473-square-foot, 11-story, mixed-use building at 321 Schenck Avenue in East New York. Nikolai Katz Architect is the applicant of record.

— Joseph Jungermann