NY Botanical Garden teams up with developer to build affordable housing

NEW YORK - The Bedford Park section of the Bronx is perhaps most notable for the sprawling New York Botanical Gardens. But now, just outside of those gardens, a plan is in the works to create new affordable housing.

“The New York Botanical Garden, one of their main missions is being a great community partner and doing a project like this is also to make it very sustainable building as well,” said Russell Lang, Senior Vice-President of Affordable Housing at Douglaston Development.

Douglaston Development is teaming up with the NYBG to bring hundreds of affordable apartments to the corner of Webster Avenue and Bedford Park Boulevard. The property is owned by the Botanical Garden and has been leased by Douglaston for the last century.

“We will have caseworkers helping seniors connect to the existing senior network that will help them with a variety of things,” Lang said.

The approximately $170M project will create two 12-story residential buildings with 450 apartments, all of them affordable and a large portion of those units will be reserved for seniors on a fixed income.  

“This is a great match that meets a community and city-wide need for affordable housing, particularly for seniors and creates retail space for the existing supermarket so it may continue serving our neighborhood,” said a spokesperson for the Botanical Garden in a Statement.

The project will have two phases. The first is set to begin this summer and will include the construction of the first building, which is just for seniors. The entire project is expected to be completed in roughly four years.