NYC’s Elizabeth Street Garden Spared Amid Affordable Housing Kerfuffle
117June 26, 2025
New York’sElizabeth Street Garden, which had been set to be demolished to accommodate the construction of affordable housing, will instead be preserved, thanks to a deal struck between First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro and Democratic councilman Christopher Marte, who represents the NoLiTa neighborhood in which the acre-wide green space and sculpture garden is situated. The decision brings to a close a battle that had raged since 2012, when the city, which owns the garden plot, announced plans to construct a 123-unit building to house low-income LGBTQ seniors atop it. Those pushing for the construction pointed to the dire need for the units amid the city’s housing crisis, while those advocating for the garden’s preservation, among them such luminaries as Patti Smith and Robert De Niro, cited the dearth of public green spaces in the area.
The new plan calls for the construction of five times as many affordable housing units as were originally slated to occupy the garden. These will be spread over three different Lower Manhattan addresses, with 123 such units being built at 156–166 Bowery; two hundred at 22 Suffolk Street; and at least three hundred at 100 Gold Street, an address owned by the city. For the plan to be successfully borne out, the city council must first approve the rezoning of all three addresses. Should approval not be forthcoming, the city reserves the right to build on the garden. The garden, too, is subject to new rules under the freshly inked agreement: Whereas it once offered limited visiting hours, it must now welcome the public between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Too, it may be absorbed into the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation at a future date.
“The best way to tackle our city’s housing crisis is to build as much affordable housing as we can,” said New York City mayor Eric Adams in a statement. “The agreement announced today will help us meet that mission by creating more than five times the affordable housing originally planned while preserving a beloved local public space and expanding access to it.”