Bloomberg Unveils Rent-Stabilized Microapartments

For the first time in New York City, a multi-unit building will legally consist entirely of what the city has dubbed "micro units," which are apartments of between 250 and 370 square feet. Construction will begin by the end of the year on the 10-story, 55-microunit building at 335 East 27th Street in Manhattan.

Zoning regulations don't currently allow entire buildings made up of tiny apartments, but the city will waive those regulations on this site before selling it to Monadnock Development, which, together with the Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation, and nARCHITECTS, comprises the winning team in the city pilot program known as adAPT NYC. Though there will be no direct city subsidies, the developers are getting a very large indirect subsidy on the site itself, which the city is selling to the developers for a well-under-market $500,000.

adAPT NYC is designed to rectify a "fundamental imbalance," one that "is expected to grow in the years to come," said the mayor. Thirty-three teams responded to the city's request for proposals, and the work of the five finalists, including the winner, is now part of an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York called, "Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers."

Not only will this be the first building made up entirely of legal, very small apartments, but it will also be the first multifamily Manhattan building to be made using modular construction. The individual apartment "modules" will be manufactured in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and nearly half of them will be set aside for people with low or middle incomes.

All of the units are rent stabilized, and those available to people with middle and lower incomes will rent for between $940 and $1,800 a month. The market rate units will go for more than that. Residents should be able to move in by September 2015.

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