Joe Restuccia
Executive Director
Joe Restuccia has been involved in the preservation and creation of affordable housing in the Clinton, Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea neighborhoods of Manhattan since 1980. He started as a tenant organizer at Housing Conservation Coordinators (HCC) before moving to Clinton Housing Development Company (CHDC) in 1983. He held various development and housing management positions until 1986 when he was appointed Executive Director. During his tenure as Executive Director, Mr. Restuccia has overseen organizational growth and the development of more than 1,200 units of affordable housing in 80 buildings on the West Side of Manhattan.
He has been a member of the boards of the Task Force on City Owned Property, the Association of Neighborhood Housing and Development, the Clinton Mutual Housing Association, and the Enterprise Foundation Community Advisory Board. He is a past president of the Clinton Planning Council and has served on the boards of the Clinton Seed Fund, Clinton Housing Association, the Clinton Preservation Fund Advisory Committee, and the Clinton Urban Renewal Area Coordinating Committee. He has represented CHDC on the Hell’s Kitchen/Hudson Yards Alliance. He is a founding member of the Clinton Hell’s Kitchen South Coalition and is currently a Board Member of American Friends of Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, a German social welfare volunteer organization.
A member of Manhattan Community Board #4 since 1982, Mr. Restuccia has served as its vice-chair, and at various times chaired Housing, Land Use, Clinton Steering, Clinton Preservation, & Housing, Health, & Human Services Committees. He has also chaired several community board Task Forces including Times Square Redevelopment, Covenant House Redevelopment, Clinton Special District, Clinton Urban Renewal, 34th Street Rezoning and Affordable Housing Development. In the above capacities, he has led community negotiations and settlements, which produced or preserved 1,540 units of affordable housing in 126 buildings. The Times Square settlement resulted in $25M in city and state funding for affordable housing renovated and acquired in the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Mr. Restuccia is currently a member of Community Board 4’s Port Authority Working Group, the Port Authority’s Bi-State Working Group regarding the reconstruction of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and the Garment Center Steering Committee.
Mr. Restuccia is a recognized expert on the Clinton Special Zoning District; he both consults and has testified as an expert witness on its regulations. He has been a key participant in the extensive discussions regarding the rezoning of Hell’s Kitchen/Hudson Yards, West Chelsea, the Western Railyards and the Garment Center. With extensive experience in negotiating land use and zoning issues with the public sector, Mr. Restuccia has represented CHDC’s affordable housing efforts to bring resolution of difficult development sites with multiple encumbrances in the private sector. These efforts have resulted in the production of 281 units of affordable housing and 1,000 units of market rate housing.
Fluent in French, Italian & Spanish, he is a graduate of University of Grenoble, Michelangelo Institute of Florence in Florence, Italy, and attended New York University. He has resided in Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen since 1979.