In its latest proposal, developer the Soloviev Group has offered to build 513 units of permanently below market-rate housing, if granted a downstate casino license that would allow them to erect a casino on a vacant lot the company owns near the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan.
Per the New York Times, the new proposal offers a total of 1,325 rentals and condominiums spread across two residential towers with a shared base. The units would be a mix of studios to three-bedrooms and income-restricted homes would be offered to renters making an average of 80 percent of the area median income, or less than $102,000 for a family of three. According to data from the New York University Furman Center, this would mark the largest boost in affordable housing stock built in Midtown East in more than a decade.
The plans also ditches its previous attempts to include a massive ferris wheel and now call for a 1,200-room hotel with a sky bridge; new retail and restaurants; a museum dedicated to democracy, and 4.7 acres of waterfront green space that would be open to the public.
Soloviev Group has tapped architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group to design the project and said that it would only offer the affordable housing if granted the casino license. There’s already an approved plan in place that allows for mixed-use towers on the site without affordable housing. If the approval license were granted, Soloviev would work with Mohegan to see it realized. The bid must include support from local elected officials before it can proceed.
