GREENPOINT — The northernmost neighborhood of Brooklyn notoriously has been one of the more pricey areas in the borough, but for some, that is about to change. 

Greenpoint Landing Associates, an affiliate of the Park Tower Group, a major real estate development firm, hosted a ribbon cutting with elected officials recently celebrating the opening of 35 Commercial Street: a fully affordable luxury building in Greenpoint consisting of 374 units.

The 22-story complex is located along the waterfront, is fully electric, and offers 11,000 square feet of amenities.

According to a press release, “All 374 residences are income targeted through the ELLA program (Extremely Low and Low-Income Affordability), with 57 units set aside for formerly homeless applicants. 

“The units are available to New Yorkers earning between 30 and 110 percent of the area median income (AMI). Rents for studios at the 30 percent AMI level start at just over $400 per month.”

Thirty-three percent of the units have already been leased. 

“The vision behind Greenpoint Landing was well underway even before 2005, when the City of New York rezoned the site and the entirety of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg waterfront for residential use,” explained Park Tower Group President Marian Klein, adding that now, nearly 20 years after the rezoning, 11 residential buildings — including 35 Commercial Street — have opened within Greenpoint Landing. 

“But while 374 families will ultimately be calling this beautiful building home, make no mistake that there is still a housing crisis in New York,” Klein said. “Evidence of that is the 90,000 applications we received for less than 400 units. That is a true wake-up call for every one of us to continue to do more.”

Leila Bozorg, City of New York executive director for housing, said, “Unfortunately, as of late, housing news is mostly doom and gloom. But we would ultimately love to continue with this momentum and build more, build faster, and build in more neighborhoods.” 

Adolfo Carrión Jr., commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, acknowledged that New York is living through a housing emergency “with a 1.4 percent vacancy rate.”

Carrión noted that if you are a low-income person in this city, your chances of finding affordable housing anywhere in the city are “near zero.” 

“Although with this new luxury building addition at 35 Commercial Street, we will be giving people the respect, dignity, and honor that they deserve — a safe, clean, affordable, elegant home.”

Lincoln Restler, councilman for the 33rd District (representing Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo, Fulton Ferry, Greenpoint, Vinegar Hill, and Williamsburg), said that this affordable housing development is something that working-class New Yorkers deserve, calling it “an extraordinary victory for the Greenpoint community.”

“The units are at rents that longtime Greenpoint residents can actually afford,” Restler pointed out. “And they are of the same caliber and quality of housing as the other developments that Park Tower is building along the waterfront, which is a great thing.”

“Our neighborhood has become one of the most expensive in Brooklyn, and it’s harder and harder for working families to figure out how to continue to call Greenpoint home. But with these 374 affordable apartments, this is how one continues to maintain Greenpoint as a socioeconomically diverse and dynamic neighborhood,” Restler said.