This warehouse could soon be a ware-home.
Developers want to gussy up a working Bushwick industrial building and add a bunch of below-market-rate housing and even more manufacturers — and locals think the unlikely marriage could work for the community.
“I think the proposal is one that hits the mark — in terms of affordability as well as some of the manufacturing jobs that might be created,” said Nadine Whitted, district manager of Community Board 4, which heard the developer’s pitch last Wednesday.
Developers Type A Projects, Community Developers, and Cheever Development plan to build 79 residential units at the property on Suydam Street, between Irving and Wyckoff avenues, plus space for new manufacturing tenants, alongside the eight companies — including bakers, clothing designers, and furniture makers — it already houses.
The company would set aside 20 percent of the units for households earning less than around $40,000 per year, 30 percent for those earning between $50,000 and $86,000, and half of the units for those raking in more than $100,000 annually.
The plan is still in the fledgling stages, said a spokeswoman, but the developers may get tax breaks for the below-market units.
And if the City Council okays the mayor’s plan to mandate below-market-rate housing on rezoned land — a scheme Community Board 4 voted to approve on Wednesday — it would ensure half of the units stay permanently below-market, said Type A rep Annie Tirschwell.
The developers will still has to go through the city’s formal rezoning process as the property is not currently zoned for residential use, during which time it will come back to the community board for a vote.
Property owners are getting creative about where they shoehorn in so-called “affordable” housing — Woodhull Hospital in nearby Bedford-Stuyvesant is planning on renting out below-market units in a building that will also house mental-health patients.
