Housing Lottery Opens for Deeply Affordable Senior Apartments in Bed Stuy

A lottery has launched for 43 truly affordable apartments for seniors in an under-construction development at 811 Lexington Avenue in Bed Stuy, the site of the former Mars Fudge and Fruit Company factory.

The lottery at the four-story 811 Lexington Senior Residences is for 43 studio apartments for households of one to two people who earn under 50 percent of the Area Median Income, or $49,450 for a single person and $56,500 for two. Applicants must be aged 62 and above.

Five percent of the apartments in the lottery are set aside for households with a mobility disability, and two percent are reserved for households with a visual or hearing disability.

Although the apartments are being listed as rent free on the NYC Housing Connect website, the site says households applying for the lottery must be eligible for Section 8 and must pay 30 percent of their household income in rent. Rent will include heat, hot water, and cooking gas. At least 30 percent of the units will be set aside for seniors at risk of homelessness, the New York Housing Conference website says.

The gray-brick development will have a total of 64 rent-subsidized units, including one for the superintendent. There will be a 24-hour building super, on-site laundry, elevator, common courtyard, bike room, community room, landscaped roof garden, and social services office. The building will be smoke free; there is no mention whether pets are allowed.

The building is being developed in a partnership between nonprofit housing developer IMPACCT Brooklyn and the Northeastern Conference of Seventh Day Adventists, which owns the land the building has been developed on. Jack Esterson of Think? Architecture and Design is the architect behind the project, Department of Buildings permits show. IMPACCT Brooklyn Executive Director Bernell Grier is listed as the building’s owner in the permits.

The new development is being constructed through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Senior Affordable Rental Apartments and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit programs.

The site formerly housed a parking lot and a two-story brick garage designed by architect Charles Infanger and constructed around 1914, according to the Real Estate Record. By 1915, it had opened as the Palace Garage and went on to house the Mars Fudge and Fruit Company factory in the later part of the 20th century.

A 1991 New York Times story said the Mars Fudge and Fruit Company was a crucial supplier to the city’s Greek bakers, furnishing apple, cherry, strawberry, and other filings for signature tarts and baked goods. “The ubiquitous lemon meringue pie, for example, is often filled with Mars’ Lemon Supreme.”

The deed was transferred from Mars Fudge and Fruit Company to Northeastern Conference of Seventh Day Adventists in 1997, city records show. Like many old buildings in eastern Bed Stuy near Broadway that have been replaced by mid-rise apartments in the last decade, the factory was demolished to make way for the new development.

The lottery for the apartments closes November 9. To apply, visit the listing on Housing Connect.

[Renderings via NYC Housing Connect]

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