COLUMBIA STREET WATERFRONT DISTRICT — An affordable housing nonprofit seeking permission to sell a Columbia Street lot for $1.6 million needs the first $70,000 of the proceeds to pay off Hurricane Sandy debts, the group's executive director told DNAinfo on Thursday.
The Carroll Gardens Association will also use the funds for legal expenses and state taxes and it remains unclear precisely how much would be used for preserving and creating affordable housing, CGA Executive Director Vilma Heramia told Community Board 6 on Wednesday night.
In an interview with DNAinfo on Thursday morning, Heramia said her group would use part of the $1.6 million to repay its $70,000 outstanding Sandy loan to the Fund for the City of New York, an amount that was not disclosed to CB6.
"I don't want to really go into details because nothing is set in stone," she told DNAinfo Thursday morning. "We're not yet at that point where I should be releasing numbers."
The sale has been touted as the means to keep 28 nearby below-market rate units as permanently affordable and possibly develop 70 more affordable units in Red Hook.
"More of this $1.6 million could have been used for additional affordable housing," CB6 board member Jerry Armer said at the meeting. "I would like to see something from the Carroll Gardens Association that shows how this money is being used."
Despite some members' doubts about the transaction, CB6's full board on Wednesday supported the deal, which must still be approved by the City Council before it can move forward.
Under the proposed deal, Carroll Gardens Association would sell its vacant lot at 163 Columbia St. to Avery Hall Investments, which already owns the vacant lot next door.
Heramia, who only revealed the $1.6 million sale price at the urging of the board, said the price tag is more than double the $750,000 appraised value of the site.
"AHI believes they will be paying a fair market rate for the property," an Avery Hall spokeswoman said in an email Thursday to DNAinfo. The developer plans to build a four-story building with a fifth-story set-back penthouse at the site.
Carroll Gardens Association, founded in 1971, describes itself as an affordable housing nonprofit with dozens of units in the borough.
More than 100 of CGA's units were affected by Hurricane Sandy, Heramia said. Since CGA received "minimal help" from FEMA and the insurance claims did not cover the costs, the organization had to borrow funds, she said.
"It's a lot for a small nonprofit organization to shoulder," she said.
The group would also use the proceeds to keep 28 below-market rate units along Columbia Street permanently affordable, Heramia said.
"The funds that will be receieved ... will go to keeping the project financially sustainable and also keeping [the units] in good shape," she told DNAinfo.
Those units are located in six nearby Columbia Street buildings — at 143, 149, 151, 159, 165 and 201 — that the nonprofit has controlled since the early '90s and fully acquired from the city in 2012.
Without the funds, the affordability guarantee would expire by 2044, she said.
Through the deal with Avery Hall, CGA will amend its agreement with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development so the 28 units will remain permanently affordable instead of expiring in 28 years. The money would also provide seed funding for potentially creating 70 new units of affordable housing in Red Hook, she said.
Heramia added that those funds would be controlled by HPD, not the nonprofit.
"CGA is not holding the money. ... HPD will release the funds," she said.
