A proactive think tank is advocating for City Hall to transform the City University of New York’s (CUNY) underused lands and parking areas throughout the five boroughs into much-needed affordable housing.
The Center for an Urban Future has put forth this proposal in a recent report, urging the Mamdani administration to explore the potential of developing housing on these often-overlooked sites.
“This concept offers significant potential for the mayor to capitalize on,” stated Eli Dvorkin, the center’s editorial and policy director. “CUNY campuses present numerous opportunities with their unused spaces.”
By establishing long-term leases for these housing projects on CUNY grounds, the city and CUNY programs could secure an annual revenue stream ranging from $30 million to $55 million, while simultaneously tackling New York City’s housing shortage, the report suggests.
This strategy would be akin to the current approach on New York City Housing Authority sites, where public lands remain in city hands while generating income through newly constructed privately-developed apartments.
Implementing this initiative on CUNY’s underutilized properties would necessitate support from Albany and CUNY’s board of trustees. CUNY’s senior colleges rely on state funding and tuition fees, while the state Dormitory Authority is responsible for overseeing construction projects on campus.
But state officials would be hard-pressed not to unlock the potential to address the city’s dire need to add to the city’s housing stock by utilizing publicly-owned CUNY property — if Mamdani takes the lead, Dvorkin said.
Upon taking office, Mamdani created the Land Inventory Fast Track Task Force via executive order to identify city-owned properties suitable for housing development.
“This strategy could also be combined with the transfer of existing, unused air rights to unlock additional housing and revenue potential,” the center’s report said. “All told, these steps could generate between $30 million and $55 million in annual lease payments—and $3.0 to $5.4 billion over a 99-year lease period, providing a stable revenue stream that could support bond financing.”
Six CUNY campuses contain more than 40 acres of property.
CUNY collectively controls more than 80 acres of parking lots along the periphery of its campuses. It has occasionally looked at selling off some of its 300 buildings to generate millions of dollars of additional revenue for its academic programs.
For example:
- At Queens College in Flushing, 12% of the campus is used for 17 parking lots. Two lots along 61st Road—15N and 15S—sit directly across from residential zoning and near a larger interior parking facility.
The 2.2 acres in these sites could support more than 200 new homes with upzoning aligned with surrounding development—and generate approximately $1.2 to $1.9 million in annual revenue, while requiring Queens College to give up only a small share of its existing parking .
Additional upzoning could more than double the number of homes—and the revenue potential—from the Queens College site, the report said.
- At Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, roughly 15% of the campus is devoted to parking, including several lots near Pembroke Street adjacent to residential blocks and located within a mile of the B and Q subway lines.
Redeveloping just a portion of these parking lots into new housing could generate $800,000 to $1.4 million in annual revenue, with minimal impact on core campus operations, the report said.
- The College of Staten Island sprawling Willowbrook campus covers 204 acres. More than 25 acres—more than 10% of the campus—is devoted to parking.
Portions of its south campus parking areas border residential neighborhoods and vacant parcels, and could be redeveloped into housing.
Even under conservative assumptions, redevelopment of a single, 5-acre parking site could generate roughly $500,000 to $900,000 in annual revenue, while preserving the vast majority of campus parking, the report said.
More ambitiously, the island campus could easily accommodate four of these projects, generating anywhere from $2 million to $3.6 million in annual revenue, Urban Future said.
- Similar development opportunities exist at other large campuses, including Lehman College in The Bronx’s Bedford Park neighborhood; York College in Jamaica, Queens; Brooklyn College in Midwood; City College in Hamilton Heights; Bronx Community College in University Heights, and Queensborough Community College in Bayside.
The campuses sit in residential neighborhoods with growing demand for housing and have underutilized campus land along their edges, the report said.
“Even under cautious assumptions ,the fiscal potential is substantial,” the report said. “Across a 99-year lease period, these projects could generate up to $5.4 billion in new revenue from lease payments alone.”
At least some of the revenue generated through long-term ground leases could be used to boost funding for CUNY programs aimed at improving on-time graduation rates, the report said.
Additional funds could be directed toward addressing aging campus buildings with CUNY having a backlog of a $7 billion backlog in unmet capital needs.
“By coordinating with CUNY and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, City Hall can help transform underutilized campus land into a long-term, income-producing asset—strengthening one of the city’s most vital institutions while helping New York meet the fiscal challenges ahead,” the center said in its report.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office and CUNY didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
