Affordable Housing Boom Hits Brooklyn, Signals More Wins for Mohawk Valley

Bartlett Crossing groundbreaking adds 78 apartments to a Brooklyn neighborhood, while a similar affordable housing push has already reshaped Utica and Rome

Affordable housing is going up in Brooklyn, and the ripple effects reach all the way to Central New York. Governor Kathy Hochul this week broke ground on Bartlett Crossing, a $71.5 million development that will bring 78 affordable apartments to Brooklyn’s Broadway Triangle neighborhood. For Mohawk Valley readers, the news is more than a downstate press release. It is the latest chapter in a statewide housing plan that has already pumped more than $2.3 billion into Brooklyn and financed over 800 affordable homes right here in Oneida County.

The math behind New York’s housing crisis is stark. Rents keep climbing, waitlists keep growing, and working families from Bushwick to Bagg’s Square are searching for the same thing: a home they can actually afford. Bartlett Crossing is one answer to that search in Brooklyn. Projects like Impact Utica, Artspace Utica Lofts, and THRIVE Cornhill are the Mohawk Valley’s version of the same fight.

What Is Being Built in Brooklyn

Bartlett Crossing will rise as two newly constructed buildings on formerly vacant, city-owned land in the Broadway Triangle. The project is the second phase of a larger, community-led redevelopment that will eventually deliver 390 affordable apartments to North Brooklyn. Phase I, the 140-unit Throop Corners, was completed in May 2025.

Once finished, Bartlett Crossing will offer a mix of studio, one, two, three, and four-bedroom units for households earning up to 80 percent of the Area Median Income. About eight units will go to referrals from New York City’s homeless services system, and the buildings will include seven fully accessible units for residents with mobility or sensory disabilities.

“Bartlett Crossing transforms vacant land into affordable housing in one of Brooklyn’s most vibrant communities,” Governor Hochul said. “This is the type of development that demonstrates what can be accomplished when government and community partners work together to put unused public land to work to create housing that reflects the needs and diversity of all New Yorkers.”

The development is led by Unified Neighborhood Partners, a joint venture of four Brooklyn nonprofits: St. Nicks Alliance, Southside United HDFC-Los Sures, RiseBoro Community Partnership, and United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg. New York City Councilmember Lincoln Restler called it a project decades in the making, noting that neighbors once fought over who would live on the vacant lots before the community came together across ethnic lines to make sure everyone benefited.

Green Building Standards Built In

Bartlett Crossing is not just about unit count. Both buildings are designed to meet Enterprise Green Communities Plus standards and will run fully electric, using high-efficiency variable refrigerant flow heating and cooling systems, energy recovery ventilators, and high-performance windows. The project is also targeting ENERGY STAR Multifamily New Construction and EPA Indoor airPLUS certification.

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said the groundbreaking shows how affordable housing can support the state’s energy transition. “Once completed, Bartlett Crossing will deliver modern, energy-efficient homes that provide North Brooklyn residents with greater comfort, healthier living spaces, and lower energy costs,” Harris said.

The site is also part of the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, which is expected to generate an additional $3.5 million in tax credit equity once the environmental remediation is complete.

How the Financing Comes Together

Bartlett Crossing’s price tag draws from a stack of public and private sources that has become the standard playbook for affordable housing in New York:

• Roughly $26 million in equity and $7.2 million in subsidy through the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program
• $312,000 from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
• $23 million from New York City’s Extremely Low and Low-Income Affordability Program
• $3 million from Councilmember Lincoln Restler and $1 million from Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso through Reso A funding
• Sixteen units backed by project-based rental assistance

New York State Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas called the project a model for the kind of community-driven development the city needs more of. “These 78 apartments will help address the city’s housing shortage while benefiting the community investments taking place in North Brooklyn,” Visnauskas said.

Why This Matters to the Mohawk Valley

Bartlett Crossing is one piece of Governor Hochul’s $25 billion, five-year statewide Housing Plan, which aims to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes across New York. More than 81,000 have already been built or preserved. That plan has not stopped at the Brooklyn border.

Under Hochul’s leadership, New York State Homes and Community Renewal has financed more than 800 affordable homes in Oneida County alone and created or preserved more than 1,800 affordable homes across the Mohawk Valley. Utica has seen the results directly:

• Impact Utica, a $101 million project that preserved 93 public housing units at Chancellor Apartments and converted the historic Avalon Knitting Mill into the 74-unit Broad Street Apartments, including two dozen units with supportive services for at-risk youth
• Artspace Utica Lofts, an $18.6 million, 43-unit development on Park Avenue built to support the city’s arts community and its Downtown Revitalization Initiative
• THRIVE Cornhill, which received $46 million to build 102 apartments, including supportive housing units, as part of a broader Cornhill neighborhood revitalization
• People First’s supportive housing award of $5.1 million to build 19 units for seniors and young adults as part of a larger 102-unit Cornhill project

City of Utica Mayor Michael P. Galime credited the state financing with making Cornhill’s revitalization possible. “Our work together to revitalize major portions of James Street and West Street in Cornhill would fall short and cease to exist without HCR’s backing,” Galime said. “The leadership assembled under our Governor is to thank for this make or break financing which will truly help Cornhill in Utica.”

Rome has also benefited, winning $10 million through the Downtown Revitalization Initiative for its waterfront corridor, while Utica separately picked up $4.5 million through the NY Forward program for its Uptown District. Statewide, the Downtown Revitalization Initiative has helped create more than 5,000 housing units, with 40 percent of them affordable or workforce housing.

The Bigger Policy Picture

Governor Hochul has paired this spending with policy changes meant to speed up construction. Her “Let Them Build” agenda, unveiled as part of the 2026 State of the State, pushes reforms to New York’s Environmental Quality Review Act to fast-track projects that have a track record of low environmental impact but get stuck in permitting delays. The enacted FY27 budget also adds $250 million in capital funding to accelerate new affordable housing construction and expands tenant and homeowner protections.

Critics of large-scale state housing spending argue that subsidy-heavy models like the ones financing Bartlett Crossing and Utica’s Cornhill projects are expensive per unit and depend on tax credit markets that can shift with federal policy. Supporters counter that without public financing, projects on formerly vacant or contaminated land, like the Broadway Triangle site or Utica’s Avalon Knitting Mill, would likely sit undeveloped, since private lenders often view them as too costly or too risky on their own.

What Comes Next

Bartlett Crossing’s groundbreaking does not mean shovels will be idle back home. With Phase III of the Broadway Triangle redevelopment still ahead in Brooklyn, and Cornhill’s THRIVE project moving through construction in Utica, the same state housing dollars are shaping both ends of New York at once.

For Mohawk Valley residents watching housing costs climb, the throughline is clear. State investment that breaks ground in Brooklyn today is the same pipeline that rebuilt the Avalon Knitting Mill and is reshaping Cornhill right now. Residents who want a say in how that money gets spent locally can attend Utica Common Council and Oneida County Legislature meetings, where zoning and local funding decisions for future projects get made, and can register to vote ahead of the next local and state elections to have a direct voice in who controls that housing agenda going forward.

Source: Reporting for this story draws on the official announcement from Governor Kathy Hochul’s office.

David LaGuerre is a writer and editor for the Utica Phoenix, covering news across Utica, Rome, New Hartford, and the greater Mohawk Valley.