Bronx, NY – Considered one of the largest housing development in New York City that achieved financial closing in 2016 Fiscal Year under New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Mixed Income Program: Mix & Match affordable housing program, Bronx developer Mastermind Ltd – along with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., New York City Council Member Ritchie Torres, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development New York City Housing Development Corporation, and others from business and the community – today broke ground at the site of the new Tremont Renaissance housing complex in the East Tremont section of The Bronx.
The development will be counted under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York: A Five-Borough, 10-Year Housing Plan to create and preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing. The most comprehensive affordable housing plan in the City’s history and largest municipal housing plan in the nation, its goal is to help address New York City’s affordability crisis by housing more than half a million New Yorkers, ranging from those with very low incomes to the middle class – all of whom face increased pressures due to ever-rising rents.
“Every New Yorker deserves the opportunity to live in a safe, high quality home at rents within their means. Tremont Renaissance will give more than 250 families the chance to do that, while also living in a mixed-income, and mixed-used development, which is the new face of affordable housing,” said HPD Commissioner Vicki Been. “I would like to thank Mastermind Development, Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., Council Member Ritchie Torres, and all of our development partners for their commitment to making New York City an affordable city for all.”
"Mayor de Blasio’s Housing New York Plan set out to make this city more affordable for New Yorkers across the income spectrum,” said HDC President Gary Rodney. “Through new programs like Mix and Match, we are financing mixed-use affordable housing developments that serve households at a range of incomes and encourage the economic diversity that makes our City great. Thank you to Bronx Borough President Diaz, Councilmember Torres, our sister agency HPD, Mastermind Development, and all our partners for their role in providing quality, affordable housing that adds to the fabric of our neighborhoods."
“This has been a long term vision of ours for the central Bronx,” said Radame Perez, Chief Operating Officer of Mastermind Development. “Our goal has been to help redefine outer-borough living, going against the grain of gentrification by instead building something that broadly includes a wide range of incomes. Tremont Renaissance will create affordability housing for low, moderate-income, and upward-bound families. Today we celebrate mixed income, transit oriented, sustainable development – offering an incentive to staying in the community and an alternative to leaving to places outside New York.”
"Mixed-income housing is something we take very seriously and Tremont Renaissance is a continuation of all the hard work we have put in over the years," said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. "We have invested $500,000 in capital funds to support this project, as we take the needed efforts to make sure everyone has an opportunity at affordable housing, regardless of tax bracket. We will continue to work on developments such as Tremont Renaissance to make sure families across The Bronx have an affordable home, and helping our great borough continue its transformation."
“The new Tremont Renaissance housing complex is a major stepping stone in ensuring the Bronx becomes a borough that houses mixed-income families. The City’s housing affordability crisis is felt in every neighborhood and we must ensure that new developments contain affordable units for residents at all income levels. For this reason, I have been a strong supporter of Tremont Renaissance and am delighted to see that this ground-breaking will make it a reality,” said New York City Council Member Ritchie Torres (D-District 15).
Tremont Renaissance is a 12-story residential complex that spans nearly 60,000 square feet on several lots of a privately owned site, which was rezoned in 2011 in the East Tremont neighborhood of The Bronx. Located along a stretch of land between Webster and Park Avenues, the building will house 256 residential units and approximately 40,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space, and is centrally based in a major shopping district and within short distance to various transit hubs. The project is expected to create approximately 300 construction jobs and 175 permanent jobs.
In addition to capital funding from the New York City Council and private investment, the Tremont Renaissance development received funding from the City’s Mixed Income Program: Mix & Match. The program is specifically designed to spur the new construction of multi-family rental housing affordable to low-, moderate- and middle-income families. At the Tremont Renaissance, a total 50% of the building, or 129 apartments, will be geared to low-income families while the remaining half of the units are to be leased to moderate-income families. Three bedroom apartments could rent as low as $1,224, and would include rents at $1,740, as well as $1,995, based on family size and income.
All of the 256 apartments will be priced for low- and moderate-income families earning as little as $38,100 for an individual or $48,960 for a family of three, and up to $76,200 for an individual and $97,920 for a family of three.
Surrounded by public transportation, health and medical services, parks and open space, Tremont Renaissance will feature a state-of-the-art health and fitness center, a children’s play area, an internet lounge, intimate private terraces, and multiple landscaped rooftops, as well as a separate yoga, Pilates and dance studio.
The building is also seeking LEED Silver accreditation, implementing measures that will allow it to meet 30% or greater than the efficiency required by the NYS Energy Conservation Code, with energy efficient, sustainable and resilient green building design features, including rigid wall insulation, additional roof insulation, windows with lower U values. All appliances, including laundry equipment by outside vendors, are scheduled to be Energy Star rated.
“Even though thousands of new housing units have been built in the Bronx, our community board, and other community districts remain with a shortage of affordable rental housing and quality retail space,” stated Ivine Galarza, District Manager of Community Board #6. “This development will definitely stand out as a good example of creating housing that is affordable for all types of families in the heart of our Borough.”
“With such a large mixed-income and commercial component, Tremont Renaissance is indeed breaking new ground in the Bronx and we very much appreciate the opportunity to be a part of it,” said Sam Ganeshan, Managing Director of Hudson Housing Capital.
“In the Bronx, Chase has over a thousand employees and hundreds of thousands of clients; we are committed to the community and its businesses,” said Priscilla Almodovar, Managing Director and Head of Chase Community Development Banking. “When projects like Tremont Renaissance get built, we all benefit: our firm, our employees, our customers, the community and New York City.”
The New York's State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and the developer entered into a letter of resolution to preserve certain architectural and historical elements and incorporate the original 1930’s building design of what was formerly the site of the Bronx Savings Bank. Tremont Renaissance will memorialize the architectural design by incorporating the old Bank’s façade into the lobby at the entrance of the new building.
The total development cost is approximately $117.7 million. Funding sources for Tremont Renaissance include New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), which included $16.5 million in financing from their Corporate Reserves and $32.7 million in Tax Exempt Bonds; credit enhancement from JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.; New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which included Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, $17.9 million in City Capital Funds, $2 million in Resolution A funding courtesy of Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and NYC Council Member Ritchie Torres; and Hudson Housing Capital LLC, who provided syndication of Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits. The residential portion of the development will also receive Article XI tax benefits, due to the support of Council Member Ritchie Torres.
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About Mastermind LTD
Mastermind Development, considered one of the most active real estate development companies based in The Bronx, New York City, currently controls a development portfolio of approximately 2 million square feet of real estate throughout New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
About the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)
HPD is the nation’s largest municipal housing preservation and development agency. Its mission is to promote quality housing and diverse, thriving neighborhoods for New Yorkers through loan and development programs for new affordable housing, preservation of the affordability of the existing housing stock, enforcement of housing quality standards, and educational programs for tenants and building owners. HPD is tasked with fulfilling Mayor de Blasio’s Housing New York: A Five-Borough Ten-Year Plan to create and preserve 200,000 affordable units for New Yorkers at the very lowest incomes to those in the middle class. For more information visit www.nyc.gov/hpd and for regular updates on HPD news and services, connect with us via www.facebook.com/nychpd and www.twitter.com/nychousing.
About the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC)
HDC is the nation's largest municipal Housing Finance Agency and is charged with helping to finance the creation or preservation of affordable housing under Mayor Bill de Blasio's Housing New York plan. Since 2003, HDC has financed more than 120,000 housing units using over $13.7 billion in bonds, and provided in excess of $1.6 billion in subsidy from corporate reserves. HDC ranks among the nation's top issuers of mortgage revenue bonds for affordable multi-family housing on Thomson Reuter's annual list of multi-family bond issuers. In each of the last four consecutive years, HDC's annual bond issuance has surpassed $1 billion. For additional information, visit: www.nychdc.com.
