Financing has closed for the $607 million comprehensive modernization of Nostrand Houses, a 16-building public housing development at 2241 Batchelder Street in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Led by the New York City Housing Authority, the New York City Public Housing Preservation Trust, and the New York City Housing Development Corporation, the project will fully rehabilitate 1,148 apartments and modernize building systems across the development for approximately 2,000 residents. The scope also includes new elevators, upgraded security systems, enhanced accessibility, and a new on-site property management office staffed by more than 40 personnel.
Nostrand Houses, via Google Maps.
The closing, finalized on September 29, is the first to be reached through the Public Housing Preservation Trust and follows our last update in August 2025, when the Trust Board approved Community Modernization Group, a joint venture led by SLSCO LP, as design-build team for what was then scoped as a $400 million renovation. The milestone comes nearly three years after Nostrand Houses residents voted in December 2023 to become the first NYCHA development to join the Trust.
Every kitchen and bathroom will be renovated down to the wall structure, with new finishes, fixtures, and plumbing components. Apartments will receive new appliances, quartz countertops, scratch-resistant flooring, energy-efficient double-pane windows, window heat pump systems for resident-controlled heating and cooling, dedicated laundry hookups, and new intercom systems, with lead and mold remediation throughout. Accessibility improvements span 81 apartments upgraded for residents with mobility needs and 48 for residents with visual or hearing impairments. Security upgrades include new access-control systems, expanded CCTV coverage, and an on-site security guard.
Nostrand Houses layout, via nyc.gov.
Resident services will be provided by Kings Bay Y, selected in coordination with residents, and the Trust is partnering with NYC Kids RISE to establish the Nostrand Houses Community Scholarship, contributing $100 annually to the scholarship accounts of children living in the development through high school graduation. Three additional NYCHA developments, Bronx River Addition, Unity Towers, and Hylan Houses, have since voted to join the Trust, with further elections ongoing.
Nostrand Houses was completed in December 1950 as part of NYCHA’s postwar construction program, on land once occupied by the Sheepshead Bay Race Track. Earlier this year, the development was nominated to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
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So many of the “horror stories” of public housing on TV show leaking drain pipes in the kitchens and bathrooms, with falling plaster on the lower floor. Of course, the paint used in that era was good “oil and lead paint.” The elevator machines are likely past their service life, dating from 1950. They might still have controllers with mechanical relays instead of the modern solid-state units. This seems a good housing preservation project, though the cost of over half a million per unit seems a lot.