New York approves skyscraper project with 1,200 housing units at WTC site

New York State has approved a project to build a mixed-use tower with 1,200 housing units at the World Trade Center site, officials said Thursday, promising a third of the housing stock would be affordable.

Construction of the 900-foot-tall skyscraper at 5 World Trade Center is on track to begin next year, Gov. Hochul said at a triumphant news conference across the street, after the plan received approval Thursday morning from the state Public Authorities Control Board.

Transforming historically office-oriented areas of Manhattan — like the Financial District and Midtown — into neighborhoods with significant residential real estate has been seen as a key driver to solving the city’s staggering housing crisis.

The 5 World Trade Center project had been challenged by community concerns that it would not create enough affordable housing in one of the city’s most expensive neighborhoods. Some locals called for all the units at the site to be affordable.

But officials, developers and the community hashed out a compromise to lift the planned affordable housing commitment from 25% to 33%.

“There were times when this looked like it was dead,” Hochul told reporters. “But we were not to be deterred. This was too important.”

The project at 5 World Trade Center would mark the first construction of housing at the World Trade Center site, and would produce six times as many housing units as are created in all of lower Manhattan in an average year, Hochul said.

One-fifth of the affordable units would be reserved for New Yorkers who lived and worked in lower Manhattan during the 9/11 terror attack, according to the governor’s office.

The development, projected to create 10,000 union jobs, is also slated to include 190,000 square feet of retail and office space, and to set aside 10,000 square feet for community space used by the Educational Alliance.

Mariama James, a leader in the community push for more affordable housing, said her group Coalition for a 100% Affordable 5WTC supported the project’s approval, citing affordable housing added to the blueprint and the priority for New Yorkers who lived through 9/11.

But James, who attended the news conference, added that she hoped more affordable housing would be added to the blueprint.

The resolution approved by the Public Authorities Control Board says that the developers have “agreed to reasonably negotiate” additional affordable housing units beyond the required minimum.

The resolution requires that the affordable housing units go to households making no more than 80% of the area’s median income.

Vittoria Fariello, a member of the Coalition for a 100% Affordable 5WTC, said the group was “really grateful that we were able to push to get some changes, but we’re hoping to get more.”

The project is being led by Brookfield Properties, Silverstein Properties, Omni New York and Dabar Development Partners. Mayor Adams has encouraged the project.

“New York City has a severe housing shortage, and every new home is a step in the right direction,” Adams said in a statement.

The state has pledged to contribute $60 million to the development, and the Battery Park City Authority, a state-run public benefit corporation, has promised $5 million toward the project, according to the governor’s office.

“Many people have been working on this project for years and years and years,” Brian Kavanagh, the local state senator, said at the news conference.

“This is really a huge addition to affordability in a community that has over the course of two decades lost affordability at a greater rate than almost any other community in this state,” he added. “This is a community that needs this.”

The announcement came with Hochul grasping to show progress on housing creation after the Democratic governor and Democratic state leaders failed to reach a housing deal during this year’s legislative session.

Last week, Hochul issued executive orders to clear the way for housing developments in Gowanus, Brooklyn, and to give communities that hit certain housing benchmarks a leg up in applications for state grants.

Her office said the 5 World Trade Center tower would be one of the largest affordable housing developments in lower Manhattan. Though construction on the high-rise is expected to start in 2024, a target date for completion has not been set.

The city’s housing stock has grown by a sluggish 4% since 2010, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit.

And the housing challenge has been exacerbated by soaring housing costs and a surge in migrant arrivals that has roughly doubled the count of people living in the city shelter system over the last year.

“The vitality of this great city hinges on our ability to build more housing,” Hochul said Thursday, repeating the statement twice for emphasis.

“This is going to be a symbol of what we can do,” the governor said. “We can and we will build our way out of this affordability crisis.”