New York City last week began a seven-month land review process for a proposed 5,000 unit rental housing development at a waterfront site called Hunter’s Point South in Long Island City in the borough of Queens.
The announcement made official the role of the Real Estate Board of New York, a trade association that lobbies on behalf of the real estate industry, as an adviser to the project that could involve the possible creation of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation to issue tax-exempt bonds for financing.
“REBNY has provided informal guidance during the development of the plan and has offered to provide formal advice and expertise,” said New York City Economic Development Corp. spokeswoman Janel Patterson. The real estate group would form an advisory committee to provide recommendations to the city-controlled board of the nonprofit and REBNY members would provide unpaid staff to serve as project-level advisors en specific developments, she said.
When the project was originally announced by former deputy mayor Daniel Doctoroff in October 2006, he said it would be completely restricted to middle class residents, but last fall that was changed to 60% set aside for middle class residents and 40% market rate. By creating a nonprofit corporation, the bonds would not be subject to the same income restrictions they would be if they were sold by the New York City Housing Development Corp., nor would they be subject to the private-activity bond volume cap.
