The city administration is close to making a deal to preserve 1,109 affordable cooperative apartments at Masaryk Towers.
Earlier this week, the board of the Housing Development Corp. (HDC) signed off on new financing for the Lower East Side residential complex. As Crain’s noted, the move, “is a win for the mayor’s housing initiative at a time when other buildings in the decades-old Mitchell-Lama program have opted to go market-rate.” The deal won’t be finalized for a couple of months.
Under a preliminary agreement, Masaryk Towers will receive a low-interest mortgage in exchange for various restrictions, including a cap on the income of new apartment owners and limits on how much sellers can profit.
The Masaryk deal was part of a larger city initiative. On June 5, the HDC board agreed to provide more than $320 million in financing in support of new construction and preservation of more than 5,000 affordable units in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.
The Masaryk Towers’ buildings, located near Columbia and Delancey streets, were built in the 1960s.
