Fifth Avenue Committee, Inc. (FAC) partnered with Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), and the City and State of New York to create NYC’s first 100% affordable housing project over a new and expanded public library. The development was conceived by FAC to meet the critical need for affordable housing in a working-class immigrant community while also addressing the significant capital needs of a public library. With sweeping views of the New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty and a world class library, the Sunset Park Library and Affordable Housing represents the first new affordable housing for families in the community in 20 years.
Units were subsidized through the federal LIHTC program, NYS tax credits, and by NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) loans. The project nearly doubles the size of the former library to over 20,000 square feet across portions of the cellar, first floor, and second floor levels. Approximately 50,000 square feet of residential housing was built in the seven stories above. This project also provides a community room for residents in the library space and an approximately 2,000 square feet second-floor roof deck for residents’ recreational needs and BPL programming. FAC provides supportive services to formerly unhoused households.
With FAC as the developer, NEF invested over $10.1 million in LIHTC equity.