28-Story East Harlem Affordable Housing Project Revealed By Developers

EAST HARLEM, NY — One of Harlem's biggest affordable housing developments in years could rise on a corner near the Park Avenue Viaduct, which a developer wants to rezone for a 28-story apartment tower.

Plans for the project were presented to Community Board 11 on Wednesday by Ascendant Neighborhood Development, a nonprofit that runs nearly 30 other affordable rental buildings around East Harlem.

Known as the Carmen Villegas Apartments, the new tower would be built on the corner of Park Avenue and East 110th Street, containing 220 low-income apartments for senior citizens.

Now home to a parking lot, the site abuts an existing senior housing building known as Casita Park, which would also be renovated and connected to the new building if the project is approved, according to Ascendant executive director Chris Cirillo.

"There's a huge need for senior housing," said Cirillo, who said Ascendant has had to shut down waiting lists at its other senior facilities due to sky-high demand.

For Carmen Villegas Apartments to be built, the city would need to change the block's zoning to a higher-density residential scheme, among other zoning tweaks. Cirillo said Ascendant had sought that upzoning during the 2017 East Harlem Rezoning, but the city chose to downzone that corner instead.

The new tower would also include community facilities and ground-floor commercial retail, while the rooftop will feature an array of solar panels, as Ascendant hopes to make the building carbon-neutral, Cirillo said.

The existing Casita Park facility on the adjacent corner would have its own 94 apartments renovated as a second phase of the Carmen Villegas project, along with a new facade and connections to the new tower.

Meanwhile, the 110th Street corner in front of the new building would be enlivened with retail, new plantings and seating — brightening the walk for commuters heading from the 6 train stop on Lexington Avenue, and possibly aligning with the planned redevelopment of nearby La Marqueta.

"The goal is to really activate that corner and have it be a welcoming, pedestrian-friendly space," Cirillo said.

Developers did not specify how much apartments in the new building would cost, but the two city affordable and senior housing programs funding the project require apartments to be below 100 percent and 60 percent of the area median income, respectively. (Sixty percent AMI equates to $56,040 for a single person.)

The building's namesake, Carmen Villegas, was a longtime East Harlem community leader who served for years on Community Board 11 who staged a 37-hour protest in 2007 to save the Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic church on East 113th Street.

Board members reacted positively to the development, which Ascendant chose to present this week "way before" it enters the city's six-month ULURP approval process for rezonings, Cirillo said. No formal construction timeline was given.

Besides Ascendant, the Carmen Villegas Apartments are being developed alongside the companies Urban Builders Collaborative and Xylem Projects.

The site is in the middle of a rapidly-developing corner of East Harlem, steps from the in-progress Sendero Verde apartment complex and blocks away from the upcoming Timbale Terrace development on Park Avenue.