New York's MTA Partners With Housing Agency for Station Project

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is working with the New York State Housing Finance Agency on a potential development at the Metro North train station in Beacon, N.Y., that could become a model for other transportation oriented development.

The collaboration with the HFA was one of nearly a dozen initiatives announced or highlighted yesterday by Gov. David Patersonand MTA executive director and chief executive officer Elliot Sander as part of the MTA's overall sustainability plan which seeks to reduce the transportation authority's environmental impact.

Metro North is a subsidiary of the MTA that operates several commuter rail lines. The project would be built on an approximately 18-acre site by a private developer or developers chosen by a request for proposals expected to be released in the fourth quarter. The town of Beacon is about 60 miles north of New York City along the Hudson River. Most of the land on which the Beacon development would be built is owned by the MTA which could lease or sell the land to a developer.

In a request for expressions of interest issued by the MTA in October, the HFA offered several incentives, including use of tax-exempt bond proceeds for an agency loan to finance the construction of rental housing in which 20% to 25% of the units are set aside as affordable based on a formula. The HFA's affiliated agencies, which include the State of New York Mortgage Agency, would also offer grants for homeowners purchasing co-ops or condos in the development and insurance for rental projects.

The MTA received five submissions to its RFEI, which were due in February.

Randall Fleischer, senior director for business development facilities and marketing at Metro North said that they have met with each of the five developers that proposed different mixes of housing, commercial space, cultural institutions and green space. The RFEI's will be used to craft the RFP, Fleischer said.

"We're being very methodical about this to make sure that we're able to do something at Beacon that we're able to replicate," he said. Metro North has been in contact with other communities that it serves about creating developments around its rail stations, he said.

The MTA issued a request for proposals in March to sell property at Smith Street in Brooklyn that MTA director of policy and media Ernest Tollerson saidcould become a transportation oriented development.

 

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