374 New Affordable Homes Open at Greenpoint Landing

City Leaders and the Brooklyn Community Cut the Ribbon on 35 Commercial Street Bringing Affordability to the Brooklyn Waterfront 

Once completed, Greenpoint Landing will include ~5,500 apartments – including affordable homes – as well as five acres of public open space 

This morning, hundreds of new affordable apartments opened along the Brooklyn Waterfront. In the midst of a severe housing crisis, with historically few homes available to rent, the City has moved aggressively to build and open new affordable housing developments. In Brooklyn, that includes Greenpoint Landing, which will eventually be home to 5,500 New Yorkers and five acres of public space.  

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) joined elected officials, Park Tower Group and Breaking Ground to celebrate the opening of the most recent addition to the Greenpoint Landing, 35 Commercial Street.

 The 22-story brick tower, located along the waterfront in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, offers 374 permanently affordable apartments. Of the 374 units, 57 have been set-aside for formerly homeless applicants, and include assistance with unit furnishing and ongoing social services provided via a partnership with nonprofit social service organization, Breaking Ground.  

Greenpoint Landing is a 22-acre site situated along a half-mile of East River waterfront being master-planned and developed by Park Tower Group. In 2005, the City of New York designated the site for residential use under the Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning. In its entirety, Greenpoint Landing will include an estimated 5,500 residential units – including affordable housing – as well as five acres of public open space. Greenpoint Landing Associates, an affiliate of Park Tower Group, closed on the construction financing for 35 Commercial Street in 2021 with HPD, HDC, and Wells Fargo Community Development Corporation.  

All 374 residences are income targeted through the Extremely Low and Low-Income Affordability (ELLA) program, with 57 units set aside for formerly homeless applicants. The units are available to New Yorkers earning between 30 and 110 percent of the area median income (AMI). Rents for studios start at just over $400 per month.  

35 Commercial Street, designed by Handel Architects, spans approximately 344,463 square feet including 7,600 square feet of retail space. Bound by Bell Slip to the west, Commercial Street to the south and the future Box Street Park to the north, the project’s design relates to the industrial heritage of the neighborhood. This includes its dramatic brick arched threshold entryway along Commercial Street, leading to one of three private landscaped courtyards for residents designed by local Greenpoint landscape design/build firm, Alive Structures.  

35 Commercial is an all-electric building featuring apartments with electric appliances. The use of Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) technology instead of Packaged Terminal Air Conditioner (PTAC) allows for oversized windows within the units that offer sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline. Additional amenities include nearly 11,000 square feet of outdoor space, an indoor and outdoor children’s play area, fitness center, communal lounge, WiFi for all residents, onsite laundry room, and bicycle parking.  

Ten residential buildings, including 35 Commercial Street, have opened to date within Greenpoint Landing. This also includes 300 permanently affordable apartments completed in 2015 in a joint venture between Park Tower Group and L&M Development Partners across three development sites. Five additional buildings are all 30 percent income-targeted through the Affordable New York Housing Program. A 40-story rental tower at 16 Dupont Street, developed in partnership with Rockefeller Group, is anticipated to be completed in 2025.