Renderings courtesy of SLCE Architects
Plans to turn a police precinct parking lot in the East Village into a mixed-use affordable housing project moved forward on Monday. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) announced the selection of Spatial Equity, Housing Works, Cooper Square Committee, and This Land Is Ours Community Land Trust to redevelop 324 East 5th Street into The Aurea, a 131-unit mixed-use development with a senior center, community space, and parking facilities. Plans for new housing at the site have been in the works since the Soho Noho rezoning in 2021.
The team’s selection marks the first city land award of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration and includes a community land trust as a development partner, ensuring long-term affordability, tenant oversight, and stewardship. All members of the team are mission-driven, minority-owned, or nonprofit organizations with decades of experience investing in and serving the surrounding area.
Thirty percent of the homes at The Aurea will be reserved for formerly homeless New Yorkers, with on-site supportive services provided by Housing Works.
Designed by SLCE Architects, the project will also feature landscaped terraces, green roofs, and all-electric building systems designed to meet Passive House sustainability standards.
The site is also highly accessible by public transit, with the F line located four blocks away at the 2nd Avenue subway station. The Bleecker Street and Astor Place stations are about a half mile away, offering access to the 6, B, D, F, and M lines. Several bus routes also serve the area.
“We’re turning an NYPD parking lot into approximately 131 affordable homes, a senior center and community space because public land should serve the public,” Mamdani said. “This project will provide permanently affordable housing, create homes for formerly homeless New Yorkers and put community stewardship at its center through a community land trust.”
“It’s the first City land designation of our administration, and it’s exactly the kind of housing we’re committed to building across the five boroughs: deeply affordable, community-led and worthy of the greatest city in the world,” he added.
The request for proposals for the project was shaped by extensive public feedback, including input gathered through the Soho/Noho Neighborhood Plan, multilingual outreach, and a public community workshop.
Plans to bring housing to the site date back to 2021, when the City Council approved the Soho/Noho rezoning. The rezoning is expected to bring roughly 3,000 new homes to the neighborhoods, including about 900 permanently affordable units in two of the city’s wealthiest areas.
The project builds on broader efforts to create affordable housing on city-owned land. On his first day in office, Mamdani signed a series of executive orders, including the creation of the Land Inventory Fast Track (LIFT) Task Force to identify city-owned sites that could be transformed into housing for working-class New Yorkers.
In addition to the East 5th Street site, another LIFT project recently announced by HPD is 1958 Fulton Street in Bed-Stuy, where a 100 percent affordable housing project with community space will be constructed.
“In one of the city’s highest opportunity neighborhoods, we are proud to work with our partners to create 131 new affordable homes, serving low-income New Yorkers, including seniors,” HPD Commissioner Dina Levy said.
“This development will not only provide much-needed housing, but also community space for the neighborhood. Today’s announcement is a testament to what can happen when we are able to cut through the red tape and unlock public land to build new affordable housing.”
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