Under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new plan to dig the city’s Health + Hospitals system out of its budget deficit, land owned by city hospitals could be used for residential development.
The major components of the mayor’s plan are shrinking costs throughout the system and speeding up reimbursements from the state and federal government, but turning over land owned by city hospitals for development also plays a role, the Observer reports.
“HHC has a lot of land, some of it’s used for healthcare facilities, some of it’s used for related things—parking garages, support buildings, etc.,” First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris tells the Observer. “There is no question that with a portfolio that big, there should be some opportunities.”
The de Blasio Administration says it’ll be looking into building housing for the homeless and mentally ill on HHC’s underutilized land, as well as affordable housing and possibly even luxury developments.
It could be easier to get projects on HHC land off the ground than elsewhere, since the tax burden on public land is low enough to make development profitable even without tax incentives like 421-a.
The main consideration is filling HHC’s budget shortfall, however—the plan is not expected to play a significant role in furthering de Blasio’s affordable housing objectives. [Observer]
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