Mamdani Selects Underutilized NYPD Parking Lot for Affordable Housing

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Monday that an underutilized New York Police Department parking lot in Manhattan’s East Village will be redeveloped as mixed-use housing.

The site, at 324 East Fifth Street, is slated for approximately 131 affordable housing units, 30 percent of which will be reserved for formerly homeless New Yorkers. The mixed-use project was designated to a development team of Spatial Equity, Housing Works, the Cooper Square Committee and the This Land Is Ours Community Land Trust. 

The mayor announced the redevelopment plans jointly with Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg and Dina Levy, head of New York City Housing Preservation and Development.

The development, dubbed the Aurea, will include a senior center, community space and replacement parking. Plans also include landscaped terraces, green roofs and all-electric systems. Housing Works will provide on-site support services for residents. 

On his first day in office this year, Mayor Mamdani mandated a review of city-owned sites that could be used to develop at least 25,000 new housing units over the next decade. The Land Inventory Fast Track (LIFT) task force was created for the purpose. 

“This project will provide permanently affordable housing, create homes for formerly homeless New Yorkers and put community stewardship at its center through a community land trust,” Mamdani said in a statement. “It’s the first city land designation of our administration, and it’s exactly the kind of housing we’re committed to building across the five boroughs: deeply affordable, community-led and worthy of the greatest city in the world.”

Emily Davis can be reached at edavis@commercialobserver.com.