River Avenue Apartments II — 1185 River Avenue, Bronx

A former parking lot a block from Yankee Stadium is becoming 292 all-affordable apartments, the second phase of a two-building campus for nonprofit developer Community Access after the 245-unit Phase I finished in March 2024. Every unit serves households at or below 80 percent of area median income, and 173 of them are supportive apartments.

Project Scope

Twenty storeys, roughly $225 million, designed by ESKW/Architects with Mega Contracting Group building it and Blue Sky Bronx co-developing. The 173 supportive units are reserved for veterans with disabilities, people living with mental illness and formerly homeless New Yorkers, with counseling, harm-reduction services, medication management and vocational referrals delivered on site. Accessibility runs deeper than code: 15 units are built for residents with mobility impairments and six for residents with sensory disabilities. The building is all-electric on air-to-water heat pumps and targets Energy Star Multifamily New Construction under the ERI path. Amenities include a rooftop urban farm, a children’s play area, outdoor exercise equipment and a meditation walking path, and cellar commercial space is earmarked for a grocery store in a neighborhood short of fresh food.

Why It Matters

The capital stack is a textbook New York supportive-housing assembly, and it’s worth reading in full: roughly $90 million in state and federal LIHTC equity, $60 million in NYS Homes and Community Renewal subsidy, $9.8 million from the state’s Homeless Housing and Assistance Program, ESSHI operating subsidy covering 70 units and NYC HPD’s NYC15/15 rental assistance covering another 103. Six funding streams, two rental-assistance programs, one building.

That complexity is the actual barrier to supportive housing production, more than construction cost. Deals like this take years to assemble and only a handful of developers can hold the pieces together long enough to close.

Project Team & Details