500-Unit Mass Timber Residential Project Planned for Staten Island
A new 500-unit residential complex with 25% of the units designated for affordable housing is planned for the North Shore of Staten Island. The project will be constructed using mass timber – making it the largest residential project of this type in New York City, and one of the largest mass timber residential development projects with affordable housing in the entire country.” A more sustainable construction material, the use of mass timber will reduce the project’s carbon footprint and speed up the construction timeline; as well as reducing costs because “its use requires less labor, equipment and tools on jobsite.” Furthermore, the resulting structure will “weigh less than traditional steel and concrete structures, yielding significant savings in foundations expenses” according to reported statements by a spokesperson at the construction firm Skanska. The construction team of Artimus and Phoenix Realty Group have been selected for the project according to the recent announcement by Mayor Eric Adams and the New York Economic Development Corp. (NYCEDC) President and CEO Andrew Kimball. Construction will rise on two vacant lots at the corner of Front and Canal Streets along the borough’s New Stapleton Waterfront — a former U.S. naval base that is being transformed in phases into a 32-acre mixed-use, mixed-income waterfront neighborhood. Upon full construction completion, the initiative will deliver over 2,100 mixed-income residential units, ground floor retail, a 600-seat public school, and other community facilities — all set within 12-acres on interconnected public open space according to the NYCEDC’s press release. Additional activity at the site includes the construction of six acres of open space and esplanades that broke ground in September.