Join us for a Sneak Peek with Carlo Casa as he discusses his report Housing and the Interborough Express (IBX).
The report makes a simple case: New York City can ease its housing shortage if it treats the Interborough Express as more than a rail project. By running a 14-mile line through Brooklyn and Queens, the IBX could connect large stretches of land where new housing and economic hubs could rise within a ten-minute walk of each station. Building Congress staff mapped every stop, walked the corridor, and pinpointed spots that could best accommodate roughly 50 dwellings per acre, once zoning rules are updated. Pairing the new transit link with targeted rezonings, mixed-use streets, and basic infrastructure upgrades would create walkable, 24/7 neighborhoods, shorten commutes, and bring fresh investment to areas that have waited too long. The report urges city and state leaders to lock in those zoning changes now, align housing goals with the 2025-2029 MTA Capital Plan funds already set aside for the IBX, and rally public- and private-sector partners so the corridor becomes a model for transit-oriented development citywide. We believe that with modest zoning changes, we could create over 83,000 new homes along the IBX corridor.
Key Takeaways:
  • The light-rail line would add 19 stations along a 14-mile right-of-way, linking 17 subway lines and the LIRR and serving up to 115,000 daily riders and creating 32,000 jobs.
  • The corridor holds 228,256 homes today; smart rezoning can add about 70,000 more, to meet target of 50 Du/Ac.
  • Many proposed stations already sit beside commercial hubs, strategic redevelopment zones, or city-owned land: places like Broadway Junction and the Brooklyn Army Terminal.
  • The report urges creation of an IBX Transit-Oriented Development Special District to align zoning, infrastructure, and transit from day one, unlocking an extra 10,000 units with modest zoning changes.
Carlo Casa is the Director of Policy and Research at New York Building Congress, where he turns data into plain-language policy documents that aim to move housing and infrastructure projects from idea to groundbreaking. He directs the organization’s research agenda, producing reports, testimonies, and policy memos that guide 500 member firms and 250,000 building professionals on topics such as housing, construction spending projections, transit-oriented development, and energy planning. Earlier in his career, Carlo built traffic and revenue models for MTA Bridges and Tunnels, work that informed New York’s congestion-pricing plan and long-range financial forecasts.