The city last week approved the Seward Park Mixed-Use Development Plan, which will transform more than six acres land on the Lower East Side into mixed-use space.
Unanimously approved by both the City Council and Manhattan’s Community Board 3, the Seward Park Mixed-Use Development will see sites that have largely sat vacant for more than four decades reintegrated into the urban fabric of the Lower East Side.
Located along Delancey and Essex Streets, the nine sites will be transformed into 1.65 million square feet of permanently affordable and market-rate housing, commercial space, and new open space, with the potential for a school and other community space.
The development will create approximately 1,000 permanent jobs and 5,000 construction jobs, according to the city.
The approved plan provides for 1,000 units of housing, with 50% of the units permanently affordable for low, moderate, and middle income households, as well as seniors.
Forty percent of the space will accommodate commercial uses, such as office and retail, with 15,000 s.f to be designated publicly accessible open space.
The plan reserves land for a potential new school should it become needed and allows for expansion and relocation of the Essex Street Market, to the site on the southeast corner of Delancey and Essex, to accommodate current and new vendors, potentially doubling the number of small businesses currently at the market.
“Today’s vote to approve development on the SPURA site is forty years in the making,” Council Member Margaret Chin said. “This is a victory for the Lower East Side and for the City of New York. This development will aid under-housed, low-income individuals in our community by providing significant opportunities for affordable housing both on and off the SPURA site. In addition, it will bring new commercial amenities to a neighborhood that is in need of more daytime foot traffic, tech start-ups, and small business incubators.”
