Affordable Housing Lottery Opens for 125 Williamsburg Units, Including $544 Studios

An affordable housing lottery has opened for 125 apartments in a long-in-the-works south Williamsburg development, with units starting at $544 per month.

In a rare exception to the city’s housing lottery system, all units included in the Throop Corners lottery could be deemed truly affordable, with the most expensive four-bedroom going for $3,275 a month. According to Streeteasy, market rate apartments of three or more bedrooms in Williamsburg currently average $6,095 a month.

The eight-story building located at 88 Throop Avenue, in an area dubbed the Broadway Triangle, is one of five planned affordable housing developments being built on three city-owned sites. Included in the lottery for Throop Corners are 125 rent stabilized and income restricted studio, one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom units for families earning 30 to 80 percent of the Area Median Income. Income limits are set between $21,566 and $173,920 for households of one to nine people, according to the listing.

The 25 studios start at $544 a month and go up to $1,709, the 56 one-bedrooms start at $689 a month and go up to $2,145, and the 12 two-bedrooms start at $815 a month and go up to $2,563 a month. The 17 three-bedroom apartments range from $931 a month to $2,949 and the 15 four-bedrooms start at $1,024 and top out at $3,275.

Designed by Marvel Architects, Throop Corners has solar panels and a green roof. Its eight stories will include ground-level retail with high ceilings and big plate glass windows. Projecting panels and a canopy in bright school-bus yellow will separate the retail spaces from the light sand-colored cladding of the apartments above.

The listing says the building has bike storage lockers, a shared laundry room, a community center, outdoor areas, and a rooftop terrace.

The building, and entire Broadway Triangle affordable housing project, is the result of more than a decade of wrangling that likely precipitated the downfall of at least one powerful Brooklyn politician. Initial plans for affordable housing in the area, released in 2009, spurred protests and a lawsuit alleging the housing favored Hasidic families and excluded Black and Latino locals. A 2017 settlement between the city and the community groups resulted in the city promising the nearly 400 affordable units would go to a more diverse section of the community than originally proposed.

The new scheme is being developed by a partnership of organizations that represent all three groups, including St. Nicks Alliance, RiseBoro Community Partnership, Southside United Housing Development Fund Corporation – Los Sures and United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg.

Together, the groups are working under the name Unified Neighborhood Partners and they are getting funding for the 100 percent affordable buildings through a variety of programs including the city’s Extremely Low and Low-Income Affordability Program and Voluntary Inclusionary Housing Program. The 15 apartments in 88 Throop Avenue that are not included in the lottery are set aside for formerly homeless families.

St. Nick’s Alliance says on its website that Throop Corners is the first Broadway Triangle development to break ground, and that it was designed to cater to a mix of family sizes. “The building will be an all-electric Passive House building with solar energy and outdoor green spaces,” the site says. The 6,000 square foot community facility space will have a Workforce Development Center that is run by St. Nicks Alliance.

At one time notable for its many empty lots and ramshackle appearance, the Broadway Triangle area covers parts of Bed Stuy, Bushwick, and Williamsburg near the intersection of Broadway and Flushing. During the time the city-owned plots were tied up in court, privately developed apartment buildings have risen in the area, some with the staggered balconies favored by Hasidic families for celebrating the fall harvest festival of Sukkot. One major development in the area is Rabsky’s mega-project on Wallabout Street.

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

Related Stories

• Construction of Long-Contested Affordable Housing in Broadway Triangle Poised to Begin
• Settlement Could Resolve Some of the Years-Long Drama Over Development in Broadway Triangle
• Affordable Housing Lottery Opens for $1,089 One-Bedrooms in Williamsburg’s Broadway Triangle

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