About the cooperative
About Kings Bay Houses
Four eight-story brick buildings, 540 apartments, and one idea carried since 1957: housing owned by the families who live in it.
Kings Bay Housing Co., Inc. was incorporated on 13 May 1957, and the buildings opened the following year on a 221,280 square foot site in Sheepshead Bay. They were built under New York State’s Mitchell-Lama program, which financed limited-profit housing for middle-income families. The co-op has stayed in the program ever since: residents hold shares and a proprietary lease rather than a tenancy, and a Board of Directors elected by the shareholders sets policy.
- Apartments
- 540
- Buildings
- 4Eight stories, brick
- Opened
- 1958Incorporated 13 May 1957
- Site
- 221,280Square feet, about five acres
The record
- Corporation
- Kings Bay Housing Co., Inc.
Incorporated 13 May 1957 - Program
- Mitchell-Lama limited-profit housing, New York State
- Governance
- Board of Directors elected by the shareholders
- Agent
- Metro Management Development, Inc.
- Supervision
- New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)
- Addresses
- 2520, 2540 and 2560 Batchelder Street; 2965 Avenue Z, Brooklyn, NY 11235
The management office is at 2520 Batchelder Street, Basement. No email address and no office hours are published, so the telephone is the way to reach it.
Batchelder Street, where three of the four buildings stand.
Photo of Batchelder Street by GK tramrunner RU, cropped and resized, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
History
How it started
Kings Bay Housing Co., Inc. was incorporated on 13 May 1957, and the buildings went up the following year. The complex was part of New York State’s Mitchell-Lama program, a post-war initiative that gave developers low-interest loans and tax breaks in exchange for keeping housing affordable. Named after the legislators MacNeil Mitchell and Alfred Lama, the program ultimately created over 100,000 units of affordable housing statewide.
Kings Bay Houses was one of many cooperatives built during this period, and it is still going strong more than six decades later.
- 1955
- New York State creates the Mitchell-Lama program, named after the two legislators who wrote it.
- 13 May 1957
- Kings Bay Housing Co., Inc. is incorporated.
- 1958
- The four buildings open on Batchelder Street and Avenue Z, with 540 apartments between them.
- Since then
- Over 100,000 Mitchell-Lama apartments have been built statewide, and Kings Bay Houses has stayed in the program.
The property
The complex
The property sits on a 221,280 square foot lot, about five acres, in Sheepshead Bay, and holds four eight-story brick buildings with a total of 540 apartments. Three buildings line Batchelder Street at 2520, 2540 and 2560, and the fourth faces Avenue Z at 2965.
All four were built in 1958 in the post-war modern style: practical layouts, elevator service and solid brick construction.
| Address | Notes |
|---|---|
| 2520 Batchelder Street | Management office, basement level |
| 2540 Batchelder Street | Residential |
| 2560 Batchelder Street | Residential |
| 2965 Avenue Z | Residential, facing Avenue Z |
The cooperative
How the co-op works
Residents at Kings Bay Houses are not tenants, they are shareholders. Each family holds a proprietary lease tied to its apartment, and everyone has a say in how things are run through a Board of Directors elected by the shareholders.
- Shares
- A household buys shares in Kings Bay Housing Co., Inc. and receives a proprietary lease for one apartment, rather than a tenancy.
- Charges
- Carrying charges, not rent. The monthly charge covers staff, heat, water, insurance, repairs, reserves and the mortgage, and no landlord draws a profit out of the buildings.
- The board
- Resident-elected. Shareholders vote on who runs the co-op, and major decisions go through the Board of Directors.
- Management
- The Board engages the managing agent, Metro Management Development, Inc., which runs the on-site office at 2520 Batchelder Street.
- Oversight
- HPD. New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development supervises the development and keeps it within program guidelines.
- The program
- Mitchell-Lama sets the rules the co-op works under, from the limited-profit structure to the supervision by the city.
A separate co-op
Kings Bay Section II
Kings Bay Houses Section II is a separate cooperative nearby. It has its own board and its own management office, and it is not part of Kings Bay Housing Co., Inc.
This site covers Section I only. Residents of Section II should contact their own management office, not the office at 2520 Batchelder Street.
- Separate corporation
- Section II is its own cooperative, not part of Kings Bay Housing Co., Inc.
- Separate board
- Its shareholders elect their own Board of Directors.
- Separate office
- It runs its own management office, with its own telephone number.
Questions go to the on-site office
Repairs, carrying charges and shareholder paperwork are handled at 2520 Batchelder Street, Basement. There is no published email address, so the telephone is the way in.