Brownsville Affordable Housing Lottery With $774 Three-Bedrooms Opens

An affordable housing lottery has started for 165 truly affordable apartments in an under-construction Brownsville building, with one-bedroom units starting at $484 per month.

The lottery is for the third and final building in the 100 percent affordable Ebenezer Plaza complex, developed in a partnership between Ebenezer Urban Ministries Center (formerly the Church of God of East Flatbush) and a group of other affordable housing developers.

The Ebenezer Plaza development stretches across two blocks on New Lots Avenue from Christopher Avenue to Powell Street. The latest building, dubbed Ebenezer Plaza Phase 2, is rising on the lot bordered by Christopher, Hegeman, and New Lots avenues and Sackman Street. Its address is listed as 589 Christopher Avenue.

Included in the lottery are 165 rent stabilized and income restricted studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units for families earning 30 to 80 percent of the Area Median Income. Income limits are set between $18,480 and $154,080 for households of one to seven people, according to the listing.

The 15 studio units start at $454 a month and go up to $1,709, the 94 one-bedroom units range from $577 to $2,145 a month, the 46 two-bedrooms run between $680 to $2,563 a month, and the 10 three-bedrooms are available for as little as $774 a month and and top out at $2,949 a month. In total, the building has 208 apartments, and those not included in the lottery are supportive units for households referred through city agencies.

Designed by Perkins Eastman, the 11-story Ebenezer Plaza Phase 2 building includes a gym, shared laundry room, community room, outdoor space, and bike storage, as well as 1,400 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Tenants will be responsible for paying electricity, which includes an electric stove.

The adjacent building, built in phase one, includes 315 units of affordable housing and a new 40,000-square-foot home for the church, nestled between the two buildings in both ground floor and basement space.

Prior to the new housing complex, the lots between Christopher, New Lots, and Hegeman avenues and Powell Street were largely occupied by low slung brick garages used by auto repair businesses and car dealerships.

The church purchased the lots in 2011 for $8.18 million and sold the properties to a nonprofit housing development fund company for $12.6 million in 2016, records show. The church partnered with Brisa Builders Corporation and Procida Companies in the housing development fund company, all brought together under a program initiated by then Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams in 2016 to help churches cash in on real estate holdings. Later that year, the group applied for a rezoning for the site, which was approved.

The development falls under the city’s Extremely Low and Low-Income Affordability (ELLA) program as well as Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) triggered by the rezoning.

The Ebenezer Plaza Phase 2 lottery closes October 3. To apply, visit the listing on New York City’s Housing Connect website.

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