'Just Wonderful.' An All-Affordable Apartment Tower for Downtown

The planned new building at 50-58 Cliff Street will be 24 stories tall, shorter than the 43 stories that zoning would allow "in order to fit into the neighborhood context." Credit: Settlement Housing Fund (Arrow added.) 

A new apartment building in Lower Manhattan, every unit affordable. That has long been the goal of Downtown housing advocates—an elusive one until now. 

On a small empty lot at 50-58 Cliff Street, not far from the South Street Seaport, will rise a 24-story tower with 120 units of below-market rents based on income. Eighteen apartments will be set aside for formerly homeless people, with social services on the ground floor.

The project, located next door to St. Margaret’s House senior residence and adjacent to the Southbridge Towers complex, is a collaboration between Trinity Church, owner of the lot, and Settlement Housing Fund, the nonprofit owner of affordable housing in 50 buildings around the city. The estimated $70 million project is made possible, said Caylin Bullock, Settlement Housing Fund’s senior project manager, because her organization is the sole developer. Unlike joint venture partnerships between large for-profit developers and smaller non-profits, she said, “our mission is always forefront in the development and not the larger profit margins that some of the other developers may have.” 

Bullock and others on the team behind the project presented their plans on Monday to Community Board 1’s Land Use, Zoning and Economic Development Committee, winning the group’s praise. “This community board has long been advocating for affordable housing in our district,” said committee member Richard Corman. “So it’s just wonderful to finally see some things begin to happen here.”

Forty-four years ago Trinity Church developed St. Margaret’s House, the 20-story affordable senior housing located next door. “We started with St. Margaret's House and we’re going to double down our commitment with this site,” said Thehbia Hiwot, who manages Trinity’s Housing and Homeless Initiative. “To do our part in expanding affordable housing opportunities for New York City and particularly in this neighborhood.”

Rents for the apartments will be based on households earning 30% to 80% of the area’s average median income, or AMI. (That average—for mean income—is $265,000, according to the Downtown Alliance.) For a two-bedroom apartment, rent for a household making 50% of AMI would be around $1,500, and $2,600 for 80% AMI earners. Bullock said her organization is in financing discussions with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. 

Although zoning would allow the building to be as tall as 43 stories, Bullock said, “We did not select to have a building that large because of many priorities and discussions with Trinity Church and [Settlement Housing Fund] about fitting into the neighborhood context, fitting into St. Margaret’s House, making sure that we could both balance maxing out unit capacity, but also not being a massive tower in the area.”

Construction on the building is expected to begin in mid-2027 and be completed in three years. But it is not the only large construction project to be going up around Southbridge Towers in the near future. Two roughly 90-story towers at 100 Gold Street and a 324-foot-high residential building at 250 Water Street are also planned.

“You really have to think about the impact and the poor quality of life that the Southbridge residents are going to have during this period of time,” said Betsy Nebel-Schainholz, a 40-year Southbridge resident who said she supports the new building but worries about the combined effect on her neighbors. “This is going to have horrific impact,” she added, “from the southeast and north. So timing is not the best.”

Conversations about vibration monitoring and sound mitigation with Langan Engineering, the construction contractors on the job, will take place in the future, CB1 chair Tammy Meltzer noted. She suggested that the Trinity team be the lead coordinator on the projects “because it’s not going to be pretty, it’s not going to be easy, and it’s all in the same block and a half.”