By Jay Fox
Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg, and Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Dina Levy announced that an underutilized parking lot in the East Village will be converted into The Aurea, a mixed-use development with approximately 131 affordable homes, a senior center, community space, and replacement parking facilities. Located at 324 East 5th Street between First and Second Avenues, the parking lot has long been utilized solely by personnel from New York City Police Department’s 9th District, which is directly across the street from the lot. The property is the first land award of the Mamdani administration, and it will include a community land trust (This Land Is Ours Community Land Trust) as a development partner, ensuring long-term affordability, community partnership, and meaningful tenant oversight.
In addition to This Land Is Ours, the development team will consist of mission-driven, minority-owned, and non-profit organizations with decades of experience investing in and serving the neighborhood. They include Spatial Equity, Housing Works, and the Cooper Square Committee. The project architect is SLCE Architects, LLP.
“We're turning an NYPD parking lot into approximately 131 affordable homes, a senior center and community space because public land should serve the public,” said Mayor Mamdani. “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.” The mayor added: “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.”
Thirty percent of apartments will be reserved for unhoused individuals, while Housing Works will provide on-site supportive services for residents. The project will also feature landscaped terraces, green roofs, and all-electric building systems. The announcement from the Mayor’s Office also indicated that the building will be designed to meet Passive House sustainability standards.
The redevelopment of the East 5th Street lot helps to advance the administration’s commitment to building affordable housing on City-owned land, which is a key part of the Block by Block housing plan. The plan sets ambitious goals that meet the scale of New York City’s housing crisis by building 200,000 new affordable homes and preserving another 200,000 over the next decade, in addition to strengthening tenant protections.
“I am proud to be part of the development team bringing much needed supportive and affordable housing to the neighborhood I have called my home for almost 35 years. Housing Works is grateful to have been invited by Spatial Equity Co., the Cooper Square Committee, This Land Is Ours Community Land Trust and SLCE Architects, LLP to transform a parking lot into housing, the number one thing people need to not only survive, but to thrive,” said Andrew Coamey Housing Works Senior Vice President.
Another Passive House development by Housing Works, The Lirio, was covered by Passive House Accelerator in October 2024.
Top image courtesy of the New York City Mayor's Office.