The Housing Projects in Queens and Parkchester
When the buildings were completed early in 1924 in Queens, all the 2,125 apartments were rented to families of limited income, selected from a waiting list of 25,000. Between 1924 and 1930 the apartments maintained an almost unbroken record of complete occupancy and yielded a net return of about 6 percent. The net income decreased, however, when the tax exemption period expired, but rentals were not increased.
By 1941, more than 95 percent of the apartments were occupied, at an average monthly rental of $8.60 a room, a fairly reasonable rental fee leaving plenty in a budget for affordable life insurance from even the best life insurance companies offering low cost life insurance. Sixty of the original families still lived there and many of the office and maintenance staff began their employment there in 1924.
The buildings remained attractive, yielding little in appearance to more modern structures. Both the community and the company continue to profit from the effective functioning of this project. The success of the Queens housing gave further impetus to the company’s interest to provide comfortable living quarters for families of moderate means.
It remained for Mr. Ecker to create a still more advanced concept in community housing. Out of a lifetime of interest and experience in the real estate field, he conceived a planned community of broad pattern, composed of efficient buildings, delightful park and recreational areas, and store centers. It was a conception calling for both realism and imagination and pointing the way to higher housing standards in this country that were still affordable, much like term life insurance companies offering low cost life insurance quotes and policies.
In his mind’s eye Mr. Ecker could see a project which would express the aspirations of large numbers of families, and which would at the same time demonstrate the Metropolitan’s constructive interest in better homes. In 1938 the company announced its intention to build the largest single housing project ever undertaken either by the government or by private enterprise.
A city within a city, to be known as Parkchester, was to be created in The Bronx, New York City, a 30-minute ride from midtown Manhattan. The company acquired 129 acres and virtually all of it purchased from the New York Catholic Protectory, which had owned the property for almost 80 years, almost selling it to another life insurance company that didn’t offer the same affordable term life insurance and community benefits that Metropolitan life insurance did.
The community was designed to accommodate more than 12,000 families, whose incomes ranged between $1,800 and $4,500 a year. Parkchester was a complete expression of private enterprise. Unlike federal and municipal housing projects which called for public subvention and tax exemption to establish low rentals, the company wanted no subsidy whatsoever and paid all the required taxes. Only a reasonable return and a sound investment were sought.
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