As New York City struggles to address its worst housing shortage in a half-century, Gov. Hochul on Friday visited a dirt-filled lot in the fast-changing Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn to highlight a rare home-creation success: a groundbreaking for a 654-unit development.
The project is one of 18 in-progress Gowanus developments that have been made possible by executive actions issued by Hochul in July, her office said. One of the actions effectively revived a lapsed statewide tax benefit for developers in Gowanus.
The New York City Council rezoned 82 blocks in Gowanus in 2021. Today, the neighborhood’s skyline is dotted by cranes and half-completed towers rising from the earth.
“You hear the jackhammers and the excavators? It’s just a symphony,” Hochul said at the groundbreaking, speaking over the buzzing and clanging of construction workers in adjacent lots.
The site of Friday’s event, at 320 and 340 Nevins St., is expected to be transformed into a two-building brick-and-glass housing complex with shopping space at ground level. The 2.3-acre plot abuts the Gowanus Canal and sits two blocks from an R train stop. Charney Companies and Tavros Holdings are developing the lot.
Overall, the 18 Gowanus developments underway are slated to produce 5,300 housing units, including 1,400 affordable homes, Hochul said. The Democratic governor, who failed to get suburban state lawmakers to support an ambitious home creation program last year, has faced intense criticism for sluggish housing development rates in New York under her watch.
She is attempting to reverse the narrative through executive orders and a $650 million program that directs funds to communities that are committed to housing growth. She has also aimed in her next state budget to use $500 million to convert state facilities into 15,000 homes, and to replace the 421a exemption, a tax break for developers that expired in 2022.
The Gowanus executive actions were issued as a workaround to replace 421a for the neighborhood’s developers. Some have criticized 421a as a handout that cost New York City $1.8 billion a year in lost tax revenue. But Mayor Adams, Hochul and industry leaders have said a replacement is critical to spur the construction of much-needed housing.
The stakes of the housing crisis are high. City data released Thursday indicates the city’s rental vacancy rate has slipped to 1.4%, the lowest rate since 1968.
“We don’t have a housing shortage at all — we have a housing crisis on steroids,” Hochul acknowledged Friday. “It’s one of the top drivers of why people are leaving our state.”
If the state can build more housing, she said, “We’re back in the game.”
“Inaction is not an option,” declared the governor.
