First Downtown Housing Lottery in Three Years
For the first time in three years, a City-sponsored drawing has opened for affordable dwellings in Lower Manhattan. The location is 25 Water Street, site of the largest office-to-residential conversion anywhere in America to date. Although construction is ongoing (with a projected opening date of November 2025), the project has already begun leasing market-rate units, at prices ranging from roughly $3,400 for a studio up to $12,000 for three-bedroom units on higher floors.
But 330 of the 1,320 units planned for the building are set aside as rent-restricted apartments, for which leases will be offered in the range of $932 (for studios) up to $3,286 (for three bedrooms). Future rent increases will also be capped by rent stabilization guidelines. The units will be available to individuals and families earning between 40 and 90 percent of “area median income” (AMI), a federally determined metric used by housing advocates and policymakers to compare the costs of living in various parts of the nation. According to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), housing is considered affordable if it costs about one-third or less of what the people living there earn. To calculate where your annual income (measured with family size) puts you in AMI and New York City affordable rent charts, see this HPD page…