Affordable Housing Lottery Opens for Coney Island Geothermal Build With Pool, Units From $1,640

An affordable housing lottery has launched for 139 apartments in one tower of a new two-towered development on Coney Island’s Surf Avenue. The almost block-long development overlooks the ocean and has the city’s largest geothermal heating and cooling system, according to the project’s architect, as well as an outdoor pool.

The tallest of the two towers reaches 26 stories and is located at 1515 Surf Avenue. The smaller 16-story building at 2925 West 16th Street holds all the apartments included in the lottery, Department of Buildings permits show. Together, the development, dubbed 1515 Surf, has 463 apartments.

Of the 139 income restricted and rent stabilized units included in the lottery, 93 can be deemed affordable. Those are for families earning 80 percent of the Area Median Income, with income limits set between $60,069 and $122,000 for households of one to five people, according to the NYC Housing Connect listing.

Included are 86 one-bedroom apartments going for $1,640 a month and seven two-bedroom apartments for $1,945 a month. The remaining 46 apartments in the lottery are for those earning 130 percent of AMI, including 43 one-bedrooms for $2,552 and three two-bedrooms for $3,013.

Designed by Studio V Architecture, 1515 Surf will have a modern, minimalist look, with a facade of pale wheat-colored bricks. A plethora of symmetrically aligned windows will create a strong geometric rhythm, renderings show. The tallest tower will have curved corner balconies.

Amenities will include a rooftop pool, outdoor grilling areas, children’s playroom, gym, dance room, basketball court, bike parking, and car parking. One major amenity that won’t so much catch the eye is the enormous geothermal system that sits below the new development.

Anthony Tortora, a principal at development firm LCOR which is behind 1515 Surf, told Crain’s there are 153 wells tunneling down 500 feet between the development’s 600 foundation piles. “It was like a big geometry puzzle.”

The green energy supply will cut the building’s emissions by 60 percent, he said. As well as powering the apartments’ heating and cooling, the geothermal system will also heat the pool.

LCOR, through Surf Avenue L/Cal LLC, entered into a 99-year ground lease to build the new development on a number of sites owned by the family behind nearby longstanding Italian restaurant Gargiulo’s. The Russo family through Sirena Realty Corp charged LCOR $20 million to lease the land, city records show.

Circa 1940 tax photos show houses along West 16th Street and storefronts down Surf Avenue, but by the 1980s the buildings along both stretches had been demolished.

The lottery closes March 20. To apply, visit the listing on New York City’s Housing Connect website.

[Images via NYC Housing Connect unless noted otherwise]

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