The demand for affordable housing for all New Yorkers is not something that is likely to go away anytime soon, but one of the buildings in the Pacific Park development project in Brooklyn is now looking for a few, good tenants — and no lottery is involved.
When 535 Carlton opened bidding for its all-affordable apartments for moderate- or middle-income residents last year, it received 100,000 applications. After sifting through them and placing those who qualified to move in this summer, developer Greenland Forest City Partners has now declared open season for potential renters through traditional apartment-hunting practices. Forest City also has 461 Dean and 38 Sixth Avenue affordable buildings in Pacific Park.
535 Carlton offers studios to three bedrooms for those who meet the income requirements (see sidebar) as well as a slate of amenities ranging from a gym, children’s playroom, bike room and lounge/party space, which are included in a $30 monthly fee. Residents also have free access to a terrace, which includes a sizeable gardening bed and gives sweeping views of the neighborhood and the Pacific Park project, which is slated to provide more than 2,000 affordable housing units by its 2025 completion.
“It’s the new generation of affordable housing,” said Ashley Cotton, executive vice president of external affairs for Forest City. “This is what it looks like — it can be built really beautifully and the residents look like New York.”
One resident, a professor at Columbia University who asked not to be named, moved from a “tiny, tiny, tiny one bedroom” on the Upper West Side to 535 Carlton in September.
“This place just talked to me,” she said. “The energy, everyone is so happy.”
When she got the call she was approved and could select her new one bedroom while visiting her native Spain, “I cut my much-needed vacation short.”
With her next performance review five years away, the professor looks at her new apartment — and longer commute — as an “official commitment” to the school, the city and Brooklyn.
“Moving over here to Brooklyn, to me, this is my step forward,” she said. “This is where I’m going to live, and this is my long-term residence and where I want to stay.”
535 Carlton’s income requirements for renters
• Studio
Rent: $2,137
Household earnings for 1 person: $74,606-$110,220
• 1 bedroom
Rent: $2,680
Household earnings for 1 person: $93,258-$110,220
Household earnings for 2 people: $93,258-$126,060
• 2 bedroom
Rent: $3,223
Household earnings for 2 people: $111,909-$126,060
Household earnings for 3 people: $111,909-$141,737
Household earnings for 4 people: $111,909-$157,410
• 3 bedroom
Rent: $3,716
Household earnings for 3 people: $129,258-$141,735
Household earnings for 4 people: $129,258-$157,410
Household earnings for 5 people: $129,258-$170,115
Household earnings for 6 people: $129,258-$182,655
