BY COLE SINANIAN | cole@queensledger.com
Apartments atop a Bensonhurst library. A vacant lot along the LIC waterfront, developed into a soaring, mix-income condo tower.
These are just some of the affordable housing developments likely to come to City-owned parking lots, waterfronts, vacant land and public facilities in Brooklyn and Queens over the coming years, thanks to the newest initiative of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s ambitious housing program.
Through an initiative dubbed LIFT — shorthand for the Land Inventory Fast Track Tracker — the Mamdani Administration hopes to utilize New York’s un- and underused public sites to build fast-tracked affordable housing, employing the expedited land-use review process that voters approved in the November election.
At a press conference Thursday, Mamdani and his cabinet announced the rollout of an interactive mapping tool that identifies more than 100 sites around the city that, if developed, could yield some 50,000 new apartments. The tracker — which includes already-approved projects — comes after the Mayor announced his LIFT task force upon taking office in January, which was directed to identify properties well-suited to affordable housing development.
“We have a responsibility to use every tool we have to build the affordable housing our city needs,” Mamdani said. “The LIFT tracker brings transparency to that work and makes clear that City-owned land is not sitting idle—it is becoming homes, libraries and community space across the five boroughs.”
The Administration has maintained it will keep an “aggressive pace” of Request For Proposals (RFPs) on City-owned land, vowing to issue RFPs for at least five new sites each year. This speed will help Mamdani reach his goal of building 200,000 affordable homes over the next ten years, as outlined in his ambitious Block by Block housing plan released earlier this year.
“We have already taken tangible steps forward on more than a dozen projects on public land that will create more than 5,000 new homes, and we are bringing unprecedented public transparency and engagement into this project with the release of the new LIFT tracker,” added Leila Bozorg, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning.
Already, the effects of LIFT are beginning to take shape.
In Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, the New Utrecht Library at 1743 86th St could soon see a new, 100% affordable apartment building built over its roof. The City released its RFP for the project in June, and developers have until September 4th to submit proposals. Officials have maintained that library service will not be interrupted during construction.
In Long Island City, meanwhile, a three-building, mixed-income development called The Orion will yield 980 apartments in the Hunter’s Point South area, 66% of which will be affordable at low-to-moderate income levels. Announced Wednesday, The Orion is set to include community facility space, a daycare and a workforce development center, an indoor community pool, and new commercial retail.
