The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board recently completed the rehabilitation of an East Village apartment building into a low-income cooperative featuring 19 units. The building, located at 209 East 7th Street, is sponsored by UHAB with financing from the National Cooperative Bank and the New York State Weatherization Assistance Program.

Residents living in one of twenty-eight apartment buildings near the 2nd Avenue subway construction are being offered a month in a luxury hotel or a stipend ranging from $5,000-9,000 to leave their apartments while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority enhances their buildings. The buildings in their current state cannot withstand the underground construction.

The Alliance for Downtown New York will reveal a plan for Water Street on Monday June 21st. The plan advocates better sight lines to the East River. The plan also proposes a more elaborate entrance to the waterfront, among other improvements.

In 2008, plans for a second station on the No. 7 extension, at 41st Street and 10th Avenue, were cut due to funding shortfalls. Now, the Real Estate Board of New York (RENBY) is encouraging the Bloomberg Administration to reconsider a second station at the site.

Phase One of the 2nd Avenue Subway is set to begin with a boring machine that will drill from East 92nd Street to East 63rd Street. The announcement was made on Friday, May 14th in a ceremony unveiling the 485-ton and 450-feet long machine. The line should be completed by December 2016 and is expected to cost $4.5 billion.

Members of Community Board 3 expressed their concern about out of context development in the East Village. Residents were particularly upset about the recently opened 26-story dorm that opened at the intersection of 12th Street and Third Avenue. Residents also wondered about development plans for the 1.5 million square feet not accounted for in the current proposal.

The New School is moving forward on plans for its 16-story University Center, which will include lecture halls, a 600-bed dormitory and other academic space. The school’s board approved the project this week.

The United States Department of Transportation is looking into the Second Avenue Subway line, the Fulton Street Transit Center, the new PATH Terminal and the Long Island Rail Road extension to Grand Central for potential fiscal abuse or wrongdoings. All of these projects have exceeded their budgets and are taking longer than expected to complete. The evaluation should take ten months.

New York University has proposed a 41-story tower in downtown Brooklyn near its Polytechnic campus. The first 28 floors would serve academic purposes with the remaining floors potentially being leased to other companies. New York University would be able to do this as a result of the air rights it has acquired.

On Wednesday night, N.Y.U. unveiled its plan to add six million square feet of new university space across three locations. Preservation advocates held a news conference before the meeting, opposing the expansion. N.Y.U. President John Sexton has long defended the plan- noting that even with the new additional space, N.Y.U.