Queens, NY – The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) joined The Bluestone Organization to celebrate the opening of Beach Green Dunes, an energy-efficient and resilient, affordable housing development in the Edgemere section of Far Rockaway, Queens. Beach Green Dunes completed construction in the fall of 2017, and is one of the largest multifamily passive house buildings in the country certified by the Passive House Institute of the United States (PHIUS).
The development, which was engineered with smart resilient features to ensure the safety of residents during storm events, brings 100 affordable apartments for very low-, low-, and moderate-income households to the Far Rockaway community.
"Beach Green Dunes marks a milestone as we strive to create a stronger, more resilient future for the neighborhood of Edgemere. Harnessing cutting-edge building methods and green technology, these 100 newly-constructed affordable homes embody the community-driven vision of HPD’s Resilient Edgemere Plan, and reflect the City's careful yet aggressive stewardship of its remaining vacant land," said Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer. "I want to thank my colleagues at the City and State level as well as Bluestone and our development partners for their innovative work to promote the affordability and sustainability of our city one neighborhood at a time."
"With the completion of 100 resilient, energy-efficient, and affordable homes at Beach Green Dunes, we are shoring up the Far Rockaway community and protecting it from future environmental threats," said HDC President Eric Enderlin. "As we continue with our recovery post-Hurricane Sandy, I would like to thank all our elected officials and partners for their work on this project and for their commitment to not only rebuilding this neighborhood but making it stronger than ever."
"The opening of Beach Green Dunes is the first big step to finally tap into desolate land in Edgemere by providing desperately needed mixed-income housing for our teachers, nurses, police officers and firefighters," said Council Member Donovan Richards. "Not only will it fill some housing needs, but it is also the most efficient building design available, which will allow this development to be a part of the climate change solution rather than adding more strain to our fragile infrastructure. I’d like to thank the Bluestone Organization and Mayor de Blasio for bringing healthy, affordable housing opportunities to the Rockaways."
"Beach Green Dunes is designed to be at the forefront of sustainability and resiliency. Various features and amenities have been designed into the building that will not only provide for greater comfort for all of the occupants, but also provides for an enhanced level of safety in the event a future catastrophic storm such as "Sandy" hits the peninsula again," said Partner at The Bluestone Organization Sara Herbstman.
Beach Green Dunes is a seven-story building with a range of amenities, including Energy Star fixtures and appliances, terrace green spaces, on-site laundry facilities, recreational space, bike storage, and on-site parking.
"Having access to affordable housing is critical and in no location is it more necessary than in Far Rockaway. We have lost so much after Hurricane Sandy and it has become our motto to build it back and build it better and that it what we are doing with Beach Green Dunes," said New York State Senator James Sanders, Jr. "I applaud The Bluestone Organization and its partners along with Mayor de Blasio for helping this important project come to fruition."
In addition to Passive House certification, Beach Green Dunes participates in the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Multifamily Performance Program (MPP), and has achieved an Energy Star rating.
The building features a beautifully designed roof garden alongside a terrace on the 7th floor. The terrace and garden, which provide unparalleled views of the beach and ocean, will be home to special native species of plants introduced to help the environment by retaining storm water run-off and providing a supply of on-site water for irrigation purposes.
Energy-efficient and resilient features include the use of energy-efficient windows, central air and heating, and individual Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV) systems in each apartment. Exterior walls were constructed using Insulated concrete form (ICF) that provides a comfortable, resilient, and air tight structure that drastically lowers heating and cooling costs for each tenant.
Beach Green Dunes also features a Combined Heat and Power System (CHP) that uses a natural gas-fueled engine to generate electricity that will be distributed throughout the building. The heat produced by generating the electricity will be captured and reused to heat the building’s water heaters and boilers.
Beach Green Dunes furthers the efforts of Mayor's Housing New York 2.0 Plan, to create and preserve 300,000 units of affordable housing by 2026, and One City: Built to Last, the City’s ten year plan led by the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability to reduce GHG emissions from buildings by 30% below 2005 levels by 2025 in order to be on the pathway to an 80 percent reduction in citywide GHG emissions by 2050.
The total development cost for Beach Green North is approximately $32.5 million. HDC provided $14.4 million in tax exempt bonds towards construction financing and $7.6 million in subsidy towards permanent financing from their corporate reserves. HPD provided $7.6 million in City Capital in permanent financing. HPD also provided low-income housing tax credits. HCR is providing more than $900,000 in New York State low-income housing tax credit equity.
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The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (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 Plan which was recently expanded and accelerated through Housing New York 2.0 to complete the initial goal of 200,000 homes two years ahead of schedule—by 2022, and achieve an additional 100,000 homes over the following four years, for a total of 300,000 homes by 2026. For full details visit www.nyc.gov/hpd and for regular updates on HPD news and services, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @NYCHousing.
The New York City Housing Development Corporation (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: http://www.nychdc.com
