Rents Lowered At New Sutter Avenue Apartment Complex In Council Deal

EAST NEW YORK, BROOKLYN — Rents will be even lower in a new affordable apartment building on its way to Sutter Avenue after a deal between developers and lawmakers, according to City Council Member Charles Barron.

The new complex — which won support from Barron on Tuesday — will build 28 apartments between Autumn and Lincoln avenues, all of which will be designated as affordable under the city's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program.

Barron's support comes after he negotiated with developers to have some of the apartments affordable to those who make only 30 percent of the area median income, or around $32,000 for a family of three.

Under the original proposal, families of three would have had to make between $64,000 and $86,000 to afford one of the apartments.

" We were able to get these 28 units that would’ve been not affordable to us to affordability as we define affordability," Barron said during a hearing with the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises.

The Sutter Avenue project, which will rezone the property, will build a 31,564 square foot, five-story building with commercial space on the first floor, according to the plans.

Barron said Tuesday that developers are working with business owners on the block to ensure they can move into the new complex once it is built. Owners had worried a barbershop, laundromat, pizza shop and auto-shop would be displaced by the apartment building, according to reports.

"They’re not displacing the commercial businesses on the ground below it," Barron said "Most of them will come back."

Patch was unable to reach most business owners on the block by phone Tuesday to confirm that they'd reached a deal with developers. An employee at Borinquen Cleaners said they could not discuss whether they were closing or staying.

For the apartments, developers had planned to use what is known as Option 1 and 2 of the city's affordability levels, or between $64,000 and $86,000 for a family of three.

The City Council deal will replace the more expensive Option 2 apartments with the "deeply affordable" Option 3, meaning incomes will range between $32,220 and $64,000 at the complex, officials said.

Barron added that the deal will include a clause that ensures the complex will stay affordable for 60 years, instead of 30 years as developers originally proposed.

"If they think because I’m 70 years old that I’ll be gone by then, I plan on living to at least 200," Barron joked Tuesday. "I’ll still be [130] years old and on their case."

The Sutter Avenue project will head next to the City Council Land Use Committee before a vote in the full legislature.