Project Description
The proposal involves a request from the project sponsor, Gilbert on First LLC, for construction financing from HPD to facilitate the development of a new affordable housing building (The Gilbert on First aka the proposed project) in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, Community District 11. The proposed project would be developed through HPDs Mix and Match Program. The project site for The Gilbert on First proposal is located at 1912 1st Avenue, on a portion of Block 1691, Lot 1 bounded by East 99th Street, FDR Drive, East 97th Street, and 1st Avenue. The project site measures approximately 9,580 square feet in area, is leased from the City by the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), and is currently occupied by an unused one-story portion of a former Metropolitan Hospital staff housing building known as Draper Hall. The remainder of Draper Hall, which is located to the north of the project site on the same tax lot, is currently undergoing a rehabilitation/expansion that will provide new affordable housing for seniors. This separate project received construction financing through HPDs Division of Special Needs Housing in 2014, and is being developed under a sub-lease between SKA Marin and HHC. To facilitate the proposed project, the portion of Block 1691, Lot 1 corresponding to the project site would be subleased by HHC to the project sponsor, Gilbert on First LLC, and developed with a new 16-story building containing 152 units of affordable housing (plus one superintendent unit for a total of 153 units) and approximately 650 square feet of community facility space.