The owners of Arrow Linen have filed an application with the City of New York to be able to build 13 stories of luxury high-rises on Prospect Avenue in Brooklyn. They have recently updated their application to show that this could be 19 stories following the city-wide zoning changes underway with City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.
This neighborhood is today one of the most affordable places to rent in Windsor Terrace and South Slope, and there are 59 rent-stabilized apartments within a block of Arrow Linen. If 13 – or 19! – stories becomes the new norm in our community, then speculators and developers will have a strong incentive to buy every building they can in the neighborhood.
Our neighbors who rent have told us of their concerns at our community meeting. One family who moved to Prospect Ave from Greenpoint was displaced as their rent was dramatically increased following rezoning in their neighborhood. Another family who moved to Prospect Ave from Crown Heights shared stories of their landlord withholding services and not making repairs to force tenants out so that their rent-stabilized building could be sold to developers.
We strongly support adding more housing in our neighborhood, but that housing must be contextual for the neighborhood to avoid this sort of displacement of renters that massive rezoning and luxury development inevitably brings. Many studies have found that for-profit housing development leads to renter displacement in affordable neighborhoods.
Update: In our July Newsletter, we updated our community about our work with non-profit developers who could make attractive market-rate offers for Arrow Linen’s property, and deliver over 200 units of 100% affordable housing at only 7 stories. We believe that this strikes the right balance of creating more housing in our community, ensuring that housing is affordable, and avoiding displacement of existing tenants.