No housing? No problem! Just build it on government-owned land.
This repeated refrain tends to drum up excitement and then peter out as people re-discover that such opportunities are limited.
The de Blasio administration launched a contest to design “tiny homes” on small city-owned lots. Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order this year forming a task force to figure out what city properties can be turned into affordable housing.
But during an event hosted by TRD last month, former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen said people overestimate the housing potential of vacant city-owned sites, saying most are “sliver lots that are unbuildable.”
“There is virtually no city-owned property left,” she said.
During the vice presidential debate Tuesday, Sen. J.D. Vance and Gov. Tim Walz voiced support for building housing on federal land, though Walz qualified his response by citing concerns for preserving national parks and the limited availability of federal land in hot housing markets.
“There’s not a lot of federal lands in and around Minneapolis, for example,” he said.
Vance and Walz agreed that the U.S. should move away from viewing housing as a commodity, but differed on why housing is viewed as such (Vance blamed migrants, while Walz said people view housing as a money maker).
It is wild that a Republican and moderate Democrat politely agreed that housing should probably be decommodified, but I think they were both talking about how housing is perceived rather than transitioning to social housing.
Even if the federal government sold property to cities and states at a steep discount, on the condition that affordable housing is built (as the Biden administration is trying to do in Nevada), those projects still have to make sense in terms of local housing demand and other market forces.
Politico reported in August that much of the land owned by the federal government is not in high-demand areas or lacks infrastructure to accommodate housing. The bottom line seems to be a refrain that tends to follow highly publicized housing policy: This is nice, but it is no silver bullet.
What we’re thinking about: The Elizabeth Street Garden received a two-week eviction notice this week. What will the garden’s leaders try next in an effort to stay put? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: The Hotel Association of New York City and the American Hotel & Lodging Association do not see eye-to-eye on Council member Julie Menin’s hotel licensing bill.
Elsewhere in New York…
— Federal prosecutors say more charges may be on the way against Mayor Eric Adams and others, the Associated Press reports. “There are several related investigations here,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten told a federal judge on Wednesday. An attorney for the mayor called the comments “nonsense.”
—The Adams administration has again reversed course on a plan to install parking-protected bike lanes on McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint, Gothamist reports. The administration had scaled back the plans after a coalition of businesses led by film production company Broadway Stages objected. The Department of Transportation is now going to remove a lane of traffic on the southern section of the boulevard and replace it with parking, which will serve as a barrier between the roadway and cyclists.
— Some Albany officials are calling for the repeal of the city’s cabaret law, the Times Union reports. The statute, approved in 2012, requires businesses to obtain a permit before hosting live entertainment, defined as “musical entertainment, singing, dancing or other form of entertainment [in] an establishment directly or indirectly selling to the public food or drink, except eating or drinking places which provide incidental music entertainment performed by fewer than three people with no amplification, or through a central audio system, including the use of a jukebox.” Got that?
Closing Time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Wednesday was $7.9 million for a 4,155-square-foot co-op at 17 East 63rd Street in Lenox Hill. Elana Schoppmann Brynes of Douglas Elliman had the listing.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale of the day was $22.8 million for a 71,180-square-foot commercial property at 29 West 35th Street in the Garment District.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $8 million for a 2,897-square-foot condominium at 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca. Viktoriya Bastiyali of Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building application filed was for a proposed 55,370-square-foot, 14-story, 59-unit residential project at 554 West 46th Street in Hell’s Kitchen. Permits were filed by Shmuel Wieder. Records show the owner is Cheskel Schwimmer of Chess Builders. — Matthew Elo