An affordable housing lottery has launched for 87 apartments in a new development on Fort Greene’s South Portland Avenue. The site formerly belonged to an orphanage and is now among a row of church-owned properties.
The 13-story Hanson Place Community Plaza development at 142 South Portland Ave. has 104 units total. Of the 87 income restricted and rent stabilized units included in the lottery, 44 can be deemed truly affordable.
Those are for families earning 50% to 60% of the Area Median Income, with income limits set between $34,149 and $105,060 for households of one to seven people, according to the NYC Housing Connect listing.
Eight units are studios going for $910 and $1,122 a month, 23 are one-bedroom apartments for $1,146 and $1,411, nine are two-bedroom apartments for $1,364 and $1,682, and four are three-bedroom apartments for $1,564 and $1,931 a month. The remaining 43 apartments in the lottery are for those earning 140% of AMI, including 24 one-bedrooms for $2,654 and five three-bedrooms for $3,654.
Designed by OCV Architects, Hanson Place Community Plaza staggers the height of its facade along South Portland Avenue, starting at nine stories next to adjoining townhouses to the south and reaching up to 13 stories for the bulk of the building.
While renderings showed a mix of contrasting brick colors along the eastern facade, the actual color scheme is more toned down. Brick colors include beige, red, and brown, with the ground floor in beige brick. White paneling between the windows adds some contrast along the eastern facade.
Floor plans show studios are around 401 square feet, while one-bedrooms are 507 square feet, and three-bedrooms are 950 square feet.
The apartments will include energy-efficient appliances, air conditioning, and intercoms, according to NYC Housing Connect. Tenants will cover electricity, which includes an electric stove. The building has a shared laundry room, community center, rooftop terrace, bike storage, and on-site manager.
According to a city press release touting the development’s 2022 groundbreaking, all 104 units in Hanson Place Community Plaza are affordable. Supportive housing for formerly homeless and others such as seniors are typically filled through referrals and wait lists rather than lotteries.
The development will also include a medical center, conference rooms, office space for Hanson Place Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and a 250-person multipurpose room. Adventurers Youth Mentoring Program, music education, and other church programs will take place in the multipurpose room, according to the 2022 press release.
The development was originally slated to include 22,000 square feet of community space, but the new-building permit issued by the Department of Buildings says only 10,000 square feet have been given to community space. It’s not clear whether any of the planned facilities have been cut. Office and retail space is currently being advertised for lease online.
The site of the new development is one of many on the block owned by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. In the 70s, the property was owned by the Orphan Asylum Society of the City of Brooklyn, also known as The Brookwood Child Care, which sold the three-story building to Randolph Haig Daycare Center, according to city records.
City records show Randolph Haig Daycare Center is associated with the Hanson Place Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which is recorded as the owner of the site in city documents.
The church joined with MDG Design + Construction for the new development, and in 2021 leased the land for $9 million to South Portland LLC, South Portland LIHTC LLC, and Hanson Place Housing Development Fund Corporation. Signatories for the LLCs are executives of MDG, and Jeremiah Cox, president of the Hanson Place Church Support Corporation, signed for both the church as lessor and the HDFC as lessee.
In 2022, the three-story building on the site, which had been used as a food distribution center by the church, was demolished.
“This project is a dream come true for the leadership and membership of the Hanson Place Seventh-Day Adventist Church,” Cox said in the press release about the groundbreaking. “Since our coming into the Fort Greene community 60 years ago, the church has impacted the community through religious, educational, cultural, and welfare programs, and now we cherish the opportunity to break into the area of providing affordable housing for community residents. We are indeed grateful to the developers and those agencies that combined to provide the funding to make this project possible.”
Hanson Place Community Plaza was built with funding from the city’s Mix & Match and Mandatory Inclusionary Housing programs.
The lottery closes February 29. To apply, visit the listing on New York City’s Housing Connect website.
This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site Brownstoner.
