The first phase of a nearly 2,000-home development on a megachurch’s East New York campus is open, with 453 more homes and a child-care center on the way. Whether it keeps longtime Brooklyn families in place depends on how far its rents sit from what the neighborhood actually earns.
East New York has a new block of homes that cannot be flipped, sold at market rate or priced out of reach when the next rezoning hits. On October 15, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani cut the ribbon on the first phase of the Innovative Urban Village, a development on the 10.5-acre campus of the Christian Cultural Center. The first building delivers 386 permanently affordable apartments, and construction has topped out on a second phase with 453 more homes, a 12,600-square-foot child-care facility, neighborhood retail and a playground. At full build-out, the church and its development partner, the Gotham Organization, plan nearly 2,000 permanently affordable homes across 10 buildings, along with a grocery store, a workforce development center, a performing arts center and about three acres of open space. As we reported Saturday, New York is turning church land into affordable housing, and this campus is now the clearest example of what that can look like at scale.
The first phase cost about $270 million, according to the governor’s office. Federal low-income housing tax credits are expected to generate more than $115 million in equity, the state added more than $47 million in subsidy, and Goldman Sachs and the city’s housing agency filled out the rest. Ninety-four apartments are set aside for households that need on-site support, including survivors of domestic violence and people who have experienced homelessness. “Housing should be connected to the full range of resources people and families need to thrive,” said the Rev. A.R. Bernard, the church’s founder and senior pastor, who began imagining the project around the time large parts of East New York were rezoned in 2016.
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Sources: NYC Mayor’s Office, Oct. 15, 2026; Office of Gov. Kathy Hochul, Oct. 15, 2026; City Limits; 6sqft; NYC HPD; Data USA.