{"id":145863,"date":"2025-01-06T09:37:47","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T09:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aufgang.com\/?p=145863"},"modified":"2025-01-06T10:05:28","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T10:05:28","slug":"a-hotel-row-in-queens-is-getting-a-new-look-new-affordable-housing-is-part-of-the-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aufgang.com\/es\/a-hotel-row-in-queens-is-getting-a-new-look-new-affordable-housing-is-part-of-the-mix\/","title":{"rendered":"A hotel row in Queens is getting a new look. New affordable housing is part of the mix"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A hotel row in Queens is getting a new look. New affordable housing is part of the mix.<\/span><\/h1>

By Arun Venugopal<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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On a recent afternoon, sneakered tourists streamed out of the various hotels located along a quiet stretch of Jamaica, Queens. The Radisson, a Hampton Inn, a Residence Inn by Marriott, and erstwhile JFK Hilton just a stone’s throw from JFK Airport represent the future of affordable housing in the city, as well as what is perhaps a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n

Months of interior demolition work is concluding at the 350- room Hilton property on 135th Avenue, just east of the Van Wyck Expressway. A massive renovation will soon follow. The structure is set to reopen in October 2025 \u2014 not as a hotel, but as a 318-unit housing complex for low-income and formerly homeless New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

Creating kitchens in the studio apartments will be a challenge. There’s all sorts of weird esoteric rules in New York City about separating cooking spaces from living spaces, you shouldn’t sleep in a room where people are cooking. But aside from the technical hurdles, Aufgang said there are also grace notes, including the covered pool near the lobby that will soon be turned into a garden. It’s enclosed in glass, it’s going to be a lovely garden.
\n<\/em>-Ariel Aufgang<\/strong>, the architect of the Aufgang Architects<\/em><\/p>\n

The project, known as Baisley Pond Park Residences, is the result of a 2021 state law called the Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act, or HONDA. The measure was designed to convert hotels into housing. It took shape early in the pandemic, as the bottom fell out of the city\u2019s hotel industry and tens of thousands of rooms suddenly became empty.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Photo of demolition inside the former JFK Hilton\nwhich is being converted into a 318-unit housing \ncomplex for formerly homeless people and low-income New Yorkers. Photo courtesy of Aufgang<\/figcaption><\/div>

But nearly three years after its passage, housing advocates and others acknowledge that the HONDA program has little to show for it besides the Hilton project, which is being lauded for its planned amenities, services and design, and being lamented because it could very well be a one-off.<\/p>\n

Top elected officials like Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul were among the project’s champions. In a December 2023 statement, the governor said the JFK Hilton’s transformation into housing would \u201chelp to bring our state one step closer to building the affordable, supportive and sustainable homes that New Yorkers deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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OSD Architecture\t<\/figcaption><\/div>

\u201cWe had this massive window of opportunity,\u201d said Amy Blumsack, the director of organizing and policy at Neighbors Together, which advocates for homeless and low-income Brooklyn residents, \u201cand I think in some ways it was missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hilton\u2019s $167 million conversion is partly being paid for by $48 million in state funding \u2013 out of the $200 million allocated to HONDA. Housing and development experts say the program faced numerous challenges, including shifting market forces in the city\u2019s hospitality industry spurred by the pandemic, red tape and opposition from unions, as well as insufficient political will to confront New York\u2019s housing crisis. Its course was also affected by the migrant crisis, which started in 2022 as migrants were sent to hotel shelters by the busload.<\/p>\n

\u201cHONDA was started with all the good intentions,\u201d said Vijay Dandapani, the president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City. But ultimately, he said, the funding was insufficient for the problem it sought to address. \u201cIt was not enough to move the needle.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are \u2018all sorts of weird, esoteric rules in New York City\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Baisley Pond Park Residences will look out on a quiet residential neighborhood, half a mile from the airport. Despite its location near two busy highways and a bustling airport, the area has a placid, suburban feel. The sidewalks are noticeably clean and many of the houses across the street from the hotel sit behind white picket fences. Occasionally, an MTA bus stops nearby to let local residents off or take on tourists from the nearby hotels. The bus stop is conveniently located just 20 or 30 yards from Baisley Pond Park.<\/p>\n

According to Slate Property Group, the private developer that acquired the property with its nonprofit partner RiseBoro Community Partnership, 274 of the 318 residential units at Baisley Pond Park will be studios, with 33 one-bedroom apartments and a smaller number of two- and three-bedroom units. Sixty percent of the completed units will be set aside for formerly homeless New Yorkers, while monthly rent for the remaining affordable housing units will range from $784 for a studio to $1,493 for a two-bedroom apartment.<\/p>\n

But landing on a hotel property such as JFK Hilton \u2013 really any hotel that could be converted to housing under HONDA \u2013 wasn\u2019t easy. David Schwartz, the co-founder and principal of Slate Property Group, said the company \u201clooked at every hotel in the city,\u201d but struggled to find sites with \u201ca combination of good, decent rooms that are big enough for people to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many potential sites were eliminated because their rooms weren\u2019t big enough to include a kitchen, as is required under the NYC building code. Schwartz said other properties had big rooms but were situated within manufacturing districts, which meant they weren\u2019t zoned for residential purposes. The ideal site, the company recognized, would accommodate at least 150 residents, which meant it could achieve economies of scale.<\/p>\n

In many ways, the JFK Hilton, built in 1987, served the needs of the project. In addition to its size, the Hilton was blessed with \u201ca huge lobby\u201d and lounge, \u201cso we have all this space to work with, which is really exciting,\u201d said Emily Kurtz, the vice president of housing at RiseBoro Community Partnership.<\/p>\n

The space allowed for the construction of multiple community rooms as well as a computer lounge and fitness room. In addition to staff tasked with onsite programming, there will be social services case managers. This is especially important, Kurtz said, given the population of many of the people who will be living at Baisley Pond Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cResidents will be coming directly from the shelter system, folks that have been in shelter for a while,\u201d said Kurtz. \u201cThey’ll be provided permanent housing, with a key to a door, independent living and then supported by onsite supportive services staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entire project will take 21 months to complete, said Schwartz, versus the 36 months had it been a conventional ground-up construction, where the foundation alone might\u2019ve taken six months to complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a lot less work,\u201d said Schwartz, \u201cand the beauty of the hotel rooms is that they all have windows to the outside and that’s really the trick is that they’re already set up. You have an elevator and stairs in the middle of the building, hotel rooms on either side. And it feels like an apartment building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ariel Aufgang, the architect of the site, said creating kitchens in the studio apartments will be a challenge.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s all sorts of weird esoteric rules in New York City about separating cooking spaces from living spaces,\u201d said Aufgang. \u201cYou shouldn’t sleep in a room where people are cooking.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

But aside from the technical hurdles, Aufgang said there are also grace notes, including the covered pool near the lobby that will soon be turned into a garden. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s enclosed in glass,\u201d said Aufgang. \u201cIt’s going to be a lovely garden.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018The two puzzle pieces fit together\u2019<\/strong>
\nThe idea of turning the city\u2019s hotels into affordable housing gained ground among policymakers and housing advocates early in the pandemic when tourism nosedived, leaving hotels sitting empty. Joseph Loonam, the housing campaign coordinator at Vocal New York, said \u201crobust conversations\u201d were happening by the end of March 2020, when the pandemic shutdown was kicking into high gear<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hugely exciting and it had incredible potential,\u201d said Blumsack of Neighbors Together. \u201cThere were all of these empty hotels just sitting there and all of these people who needed a safe place to stay due to COVID.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two puzzle pieces fit together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But there were different ideas about how to move ahead. Samuel Stein, a senior policy analyst at the Community Service Society, a social welfare organization, urged the state to buy the hotels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the way that the (HONDA) legislation was initially drafted,\u201d said Stein. \u201cAnd the response we got from the state government was, \u2018that’s not our role. We don’t want to be in possession of real property.\u2019 There was very little appetite from that for anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, HONDA stipulated<\/a> that at least 50% of the units go to homeless New Yorkers and required a nonprofit organization to purchase the site, either by itself or in partnership with a private developer. The state allotted funding to assist in the purchase, initially a $100 million fund that was eventually doubled.<\/p>\n

But even that amount was inadequate, given how expensive New York commercial real estate is, said attorney Daniel M. Bernstein, who runs the Affordable Housing practice at Rosenberg & Estis, a law firm specializing in New York City real estate.<\/p>\n

Bernstein said that $200 million \u201csounds like a lot, but in the context of developing affordable housing for low-income households, it’s actually only a couple of buildings worth, depending on the scale of the buildings,\u201d and added that he\u2019s advised eight to 10 clients on the matter.<\/p>\n

Some hotel owners thought the subsidy was inadequate, he said, while other properties ran up against zoning regulations that made it hard to convert to housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were just a lot of headwinds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, William Fowler, a spokesperson for the mayor, said, \u201cthe biggest barrier remaining to pursuing more hotel and office conversions \u2014 and other kinds of housing development, big and small \u2014 is the city\u2019s outdated zoning laws, which is exactly why we\u2019re working to change them.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Dandapani of the Hotel Association of New York City, the thousands of migrants placed into hotel rooms by the city artificially inflated the hospitality industry, making hotels less susceptible to market forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are at this point some 15,000 odd rooms that are being catered to the migrant,\u201d said Dandapani. \u201cIt’s obviously temporary. Nobody knows precisely how long it would last, but that has taken this inventory out of the market and resulted in compression, whereby other hotels that are not catering to the migrants can have better occupancies and better rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, Blumsack said, \u201cthe interest was just not as much as we had really hoped,\u201d and as the worst of the pandemic subsided, tourists began returning to the city and its hotels.<\/p>\n

For many housing advocates, Baisley Pond Park is the exception that proves the rule about HONDA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe JFK conversion is great,\u201d said Joseph Loonam of Vocal New York. \u201cBut ultimately, there’s just not enough motivation on the developer and on the government side to really get units online.\u201d<\/p>\n

Believers among the skeptics <\/strong><\/p>\n

While HONDA left many housing advocates frustrated, some people continue to hold out hope for the program.<\/p>\n

For instance, Dandapani said the situation could change if migrants currently being housed in hotels move out, leaving behind properties that require expensive improvements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever the migrants exit the hotels, the condition of the hotels is going to require substantial, and you can underline substantial, FF&E: that’s furniture, fixtures and equipment upgrades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, in her new budget deal Hochul included tax breaks<\/a> for developers who take on office conversions if they agree to make at least 25% of the units affordable.<\/p>\n

And a spokesperson for New York State Homes and Community Renewal, the state agency that oversees affordable housing, said that at least two more hotels are likely to be approved for conversions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHCR continues to work closely with nonprofit partners throughout the state who are seeking to convert distressed hotels and underutilized commercial buildings to the safe, modern, and affordable housing New Yorkers need,\u201d said Charni Sochet, a spokesperson for HCR.<\/p>\n

Schwartz of Slate Property Group is decidedly bullish on conversions, and despite his company\u2019s considerable efforts to find an appropriate site in the JFK Hilton, estimated \u201cthere certainly are dozens and dozens of hotels that could be good candidates\u201d across the five boroughs.<\/p>\n

He predicted that HONDA would eventually win converts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you do something new and innovative with government, there are a lot of people waiting to see if you can be successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The proof, he said, rested in Baisley Pond Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cA year from now we’ll see more of these,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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