Hochul announces financial incentive for Gowanus affordable housing developers in lieu of 421-a

Governor Kathy Hochul announced a slate of housing-specific executive actions in Gowanus on Tuesday.

Photo courtesy of the Office of Governor Kathy Hochul

Governor Kathy Hochul visited Brooklyn on Tuesday to announce a series of executive actions she said would promote housing growth amid an untenable housing crisis in New York — including a specific financial incentive for developers in the recently-rezoned Gowanus area.

The governor’s announcement — which included new programs, discretionary funding, and regulatory guidelines for creating affordable housing — came after the end of a legislative session many advocates as the state struggles with a housing shortage that has forced some New Yorkers to move out of the state. 

“People do want to be here,” Hochul said. “But we’ve not kept up with the need for building housing for decades. We announced this bold plan, but the legislature was not ready for it. But I still believe that we need a comprehensive solution to meet the scale of this housing crisis.”

Re-creating 421-a in Gowanus

At a press conference at Powerhouse Arts in Gowanus on July 18, Hochul introduced a neighborhood-specific executive action that will allow project developers within Gowanus to benefit in the same manner they would have under 421-a — an expired real estate tax exemption that incentivized developers to build new housing with additional affordable units.

This legislative session also saw the expiration of 421-a, a tax break which functioned to encourage and incentivize developers to build housing and create more affordable housing opportunities. Some critics saw the tax exemption as an opportunity for potential private development exploitation especially without the accompanying passage of “Good Cause Eviction” legislation — but the end of the program meant that many developers who had planned to build affordable units as part of the massive Gowanus rezoning were left without…