Some Housing? No Housing? The Impact of SoHo/NoHo Rezoning More than Three Years In

In December 2021, the City Council passed the de Blasio administration’s contentious proposal to rezone SoHo, NoHo, and Chinatown. The goal of the plan was to address the lack of new affordable housing in these communities by allowing for larger developments and more “as-of-right” developments that would include new residential components. The City’s 10-year study of the rezoning’s impacts on the three neighborhoods predicted 1,829 new housing units, up to 573 of which would be affordable. Now, a third of the way through that decade-long period, a new Village Preservation analysis reveals a more accurate number for new housing thus far: zero.

The report, The Rezoning of SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown: Taking Stock at the One-Third Mark, shows that none of the affordable housing units anticipated by the City have been realized. In fact, no housing units, affordable or otherwise, have been built. Furthermore, two planned developments will result in the loss of rent-regulated apartments, something the City claimed would not result from the rezoning. Two other residential proposals include no affordable housing, while another site that was projected for  housing development is now an office tower with commercial retail space. More than three years into the City’s plan, rezoning has so far failed in its promise to improve housing availability for NYC renters.

Opponents of rezoning SoHo, NoHo, and Chinatown, including Village Preservation, predicted these results more than three years ago. The plan, we noted, would lead to the destruction of rent-regulated housing. Loopholes would let developers build housing without any affordable option. Commercial development would likely be built as a result of the rezoning rather than promised affordable housing. The City turned a deaf ear to these concerns, leading to no new affordable housing yet built in the rezoned neighborhoods.

Instead, we have projects like 360 Bowery, which had been planned to include 124 residential units, 20–30% of which would have been affordable. Instead, the 283-ft.-tall tower offers only office and commercial retail space; in October 2024, Chobani LLC was reportedly leasing the entire building.

Then there’s 30 and 32 Thompson Street, buildings with rent-regulated apartments that have been demolished since rezoning. Initially, the City predicted a structure with 34 residential units, with up to 10 listed as affordable, but later withdrew that projection. In December 2024, plans were filed for two 20-plus-story buildings on the sites but have not yet been approved.

Meanwhile, two conversions — at 40 Wooster Street and 43 Bleecker Street — will have no affordable units, and in fact were designed so their residential spaces would be just below the amount that would trigger affordability requirements.

The City’s rationale for this upzoning effort was that loosening existing zoning regulations would yield more housing, both market-rate and greatly needed affordable, across these three neighborhoods. So far, the plan has fallen well short of those promises, and the difference between projections and reality may only grow as future developments — including, for the first time, from private universities — progress. 

Village Preservation will continue to monitor how this rezoning lives up to its promises and advocate for reforms in rezoning that will address the real affordable housing needs of New Yorkers.

Read the full report here, and learn more about the SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown rezoning here.