Affordable Housing Lottery Opens for 15 Units in Williamsburg, Starting at $2,156 a Month

An affordable housing lottery has opened for 15 units in a seven-story building at 70 Havemeyer Street, with an alternate address of 249 North 5th Street, in Williamsburg.

The building, a picturesque 1892 red brick and brownstone Romanesque Revival, began a controversial redevelopment in 2019 that added three stories, bumping it up from four to seven, and removed the building’s historic roof and bell tower.

Of the affordable apartments, there are three studios, four one-bedroom units and eight two-bedroom units. Monthly rents start at $2,156 and top out at $2,710.

The lottery is set at an area median income range of 130 percent. Eligible incomes range between $73,920 and $167,570 for households of one to five people.

There will be a total of 48 units in the building. Permits show that 17 parking spaces for cars will be available off site, while a community facility will be in the cellar (the entrance will be on the ground level).

Formerly a school, it was last occupied by the Williamsburg Northside School Infant and Toddler Center. It was designed by architect P.J. Berlenbach and is part of a collection of three buildings that all at one point were owned by the Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation.

The church, which stands directly across the street at 65 Havemeyer, reopened in March 2019 after a year-long renovation. The church’s former convent at 64 Havemeyer was built in 1889 and converted to co-ops a century later in 1989.

Double U Real Estate is the developer. They leased the building for 99 years from the owner, Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation, in May 2019 for $6 million, public records show.

Jeremy Zuidema of Archimaera is the current applicant of record. The firm, formerly called Albo Liberis, designed the retro-futuristic William Vale Hotel at 55 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg.

Churches in need of funds have struck deals with developers all over Brooklyn, sometimes losing spires and roofs to apartment development, such as St. Mark’s Lutheran Church and School and Holy Tabernacle Church of Deliverance, both in Bushwick.

Applications for the affordable housing lottery must be submitted by May 17, 2021. Apply through NYC Housing Connect.

Related Stories

• Bell Tower Gone as Controversial Alteration of 19th Century Williamsburg School Continues
• Demo Starts, Fence Goes Up for Controversial Alteration of 19th Century School in Williamsburg
• Williamsburg’s Historic Church of the Annunciation School May Be Altered for Apartments

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