New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and Vicinity (BCTC) President Gary LaBarbera and Cirrus Workforce Housing Advisors LP (Cirrus) have announced a first-of-its-kind partnership to build workforce housing — housing at greater affordability levels — in New York City designed for essential workers. Pension funds affiliated with BCTC members and other Building Trades unions, along with Cirrus, have pledged more than $100 million in an initial fundraising stage to invest in a series of multi-family workforce housing development and redevelopment projects in New York City at levels their members can afford. Cirrus expects to raise a total of over $400 million for this initiative.
To support the new effort, the City of New York has signed a memorandum of understanding with BCTC and Cirrus to facilitate the development of affordable housing, including workforce housing, to meet the crisis of undersupply facing New York City.
“As the blue-collar mayor of America’s biggest union town, I have been clear that our mission is to create good-paying jobs and make our city more livable for hardworking New Yorkers,” Adams said. “This first-of-its-kind agreement will help build housing that is affordable for the New Yorkers who have built our city and help New York City lead on the affordable housing crisis facing our nation.”
BCTC — in partnership with Cirrus — is pooling pension funds from 11 union funds. The goal is to invest in New York City-based housing projects that will deliver affordability at 80% to 140% area median income, and that is located near transit, that advances sustainable building goals and that will be constructed under a negotiated project labor agreement with BCTC reflecting responsible contracting policies to advance fair wages, health and retirement benefits and apprenticeships and other job training programs.
“The Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and Vicinity is proud to be part of this historic partnership with the City of New York and Cirrus,” said Gary LaBarbera, president, BCTC. “This partnership will lead to the development of affordable workforce housing under negotiated Project Labor Agreements that will create family sustaining union careers for New Yorkers. We believe that the union funds investing in this program have demonstrated tremendous vision and we look forward to building the housing supply for the city’s working class.”
Released last month, the New York City Housing Vacancy Survey showed that its vacancy rate has dropped to its lowest since 1968, with many middle- and low- income New Yorkers experiencing increasing rent burden. For more than a century, government and labor have partnered together to build housing that the union workforce and other working-class residents can afford. More than 100,000 New Yorkers live in apartments built by the labor movement between 1926 and 1974, the majority through an organization called the United Housing Foundation.
“Cirrus is excited to align as part of a public-private partnership with the City of New York and organized labor in an innovative, first-of-its-kind program that will provide much needed workforce housing for those who make the city work,” said Joseph McDonnell, managing partner, Cirrus Real Estate Partners.
The new agreement outlines opportunities to create more affordable housing, including, as appropriate, by partnering on mixed-income housing projects with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development; helping to accelerate qualified projects by enrolling them in the Adams administration’s Housing-at-Risk Task Force; exploring opportunities for financing and development through partner entities, such as the New York City Housing Development Corporation and the New York City Economic Development Corporation and leveraging city-owned properties to create affordable housing, among other areas.
Miles Borden, David Warburg and Trevor Tullius of Seyfarth Shaw LLP represented Cirrus in this public/private partnership with New York City Mayor Adams and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.
