Housing lottery opens for 52 apartments in a new development on the Upper West Side
- New Yorkers who earn $40,526 to $198,250 are eligible to apply and rents start at $1,096 for a studio
- The pet-friendly building has a gym and a party room and replaced a former MTA substation
The 23-story building at 266 West 96th St. includes rent-stabilized apartments and micro-units.
NYC Housing Connect
Housing lottery applications are open for 52 rent-stabilized apartments at a new development on the Upper West Side. New Yorkers who earn $40,526 to $198,250 are eligible to apply, depending on the size of the household. Rents start at $1,096 for a studio.
The pet-friendly building at 266 West 96th St. has a gym, party room, business center, roof terrace, and bike storage lockers. It’s located near the 96th street subway station serving the 1, 2, and 3 trains.
Developed by Fetner Properties and Peakhill Equity, the 23-story building sits on the site of a former Metropolitan Transit Authority substation. The structure, dubbed Substation No. 14, helped power the city’s first subway line as early as 1904, Gothamist reported.
Fetner and Peakhill demolished the substation in 2022, replacing it with the 171-unit, $125 million building, according to the West Side Rag and Peakhill. The property, located between West End Avenue and Broadway, includes 80 micro-studio units, which range from 290 to 340 square feet.
The 52 rent-stabilized apartments are set aside for New Yorkers earning from 70 percent to 130 percent of the area median income (AMI)—a metric that depends on how many people you live with. Currently the AMI for New York City is $113,000 for a two-person household. The apartments available include studios as well as one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments.
There are 18 studio apartments available for households earning from $69,669 to $146,900. The rent for these apartments is $2,032.
The developers have set aside 50 percent of the rent-stabilized apartments for applicants who already live in the area. Another 5 percent of the units will be preferentially given to NYC employees. A small percentage of the apartments are also reserved for residents with mobility, vision, and hearing needs.
Applications must be submitted online or postmarked no later than Feb. 22nd.
If you’re interested and think you might qualify for one of these apartments, you can create a profile and apply online via NYC Housing Connect. For details on this particular lottery, click here. Don’t apply more than once, or you could be disqualified.
Winning a rent-stabilized apartment can be life changing: Rent increases are capped and lease renewals are automatic, providing long-term stability for NYC renters. Need more information on how the housing lottery works? Check out “6 steps for applying to NYC's affordable housing lottery.”
For some advice from successful applicants read “How to land a rental apartment through NYC's affordable housing lottery.” And if you or someone you know is having trouble with the application process, consider reaching out to a housing ambassador in the community.
Note: Brick Underground is in no way affiliated with New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development or the Housing Development Corporation. If you are interested in applying to these or other affordable housing developments, please go to NYC Housing Connect for information and instructions.
Have you successfully won an apartment through the affordable housing lottery? If you have first-person advice to share about the process, we’d love to hear from you. Please send us an email. We respect all requests for anonymity.
