Trio of Developers Get $45M in Financing for Affordable Housing Project on Rockaway Peninsula

Trio of Developers Get $45M in Financing for Affordable Housing Project on Rockaway Peninsula

By:  Hadassa Kalatizadeh

L&M Development Partners, Bluestone Organization and Triangle Equities inked a deal to receive $45 million in funding from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

As reported by Crain’s NY, the three developers received the funding to create an affordable housing project, in the roughly half-mile stretch of Edgemere Avenue between Beach 32nd and Beach 38th streets on the Rockaway Peninsula, in the Queens neighborhoods.  The developers are working to rebuild the area, creating Arverne East, located on a 116-acre vacant oceanfront site.  The project is slated to include 1,650 apartments.  The first phase of the project will also include a 35-acre public nature preserve “designed to restore and promote native ecology”, located between Beach 44th Street and Beach 56th.

In order to undertake the project, the developers will be on the hook to improve the neighborhood’s infrastructure, so that it will be able to support the new Arverne East.  Outdated infrastructure will need to be updated—including demolishing and removing old sewers and water mains, and installing green replacements including storm water swales and rain gardens.  Gas and electric work will also be done, along with adding street lights and trees. There will be extensive roadwork required along Edgemere Avenue to minimize flood risks and safeguard against climate change.

As per Crains, Arverne East will include a mix of 80 percent affordable housing units and 20 percent market-rate homes. The homes will range between townhouses, bungalows and apartments, and the affordable units will serve a wide range including formerly homeless persons up to middle-income families. The project will also include a retail corridor, which will conveniently connect the A train station at 36th Street to the beach.  The ten-year phased project also includes: about 180,000 square feet of commercial and office space; a roughly 10,000 – 15,000 square foot brewery and tap house; an estimated 60,000 square foot boutique hotel; and roughly22,000 square feet of multipurpose community space.

“In moving forward with this long-envisioned plan for Arverne East, we are ushering in a more resilient and inclusive future for the Rockaways community,” said HPD Commissioner Louise Carroll.  “More than 1,300 affordable homes will follow this nature preserve, breathing new life into a site that has gone undeveloped and unused for decades. We’re proud of the hard work and ingenuity from our development partners and staff that went into making this possible.”

“As committed members of the Arverne and Edgemere communities for over a decade, we are proud to bring this site to life through a project that will set a new standard for sustainable and resilient development,” said Sara Levenson, Senior Director at L+M Development Partners. “Arverne East will provide a host of long-awaited neighborhood resources and further support the economic revitalization of the central and eastern sections of the Rockaway Peninsula. This project exemplifies how much can be accomplished for New Yorkers through thoughtful public-private, and community partnerships. We appreciate the unwavering efforts of our partners in helping us achieve this important milestone for Arverne, Edgemere, and the Rockaways”.

L+M, Bluestone and Triangle also recently received $95.7 million in city funding for work on Beach Green Dunes III, which is another Rockaway project at 331 Beach 35th St., on the peninsula’s Edgemere neighborhood.  That project will offer 146 units of affordable housing, set aside for people earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income—which amounts to between $40,020 to $106,720 for a family of four.  As per Crain’s, the eight-story building will also include roughly 2,100 square feet of commercial and retail space, as well as 1,160 square feet of community space.