346 West 48th Street was part of a row of 7 buildings originally acquired through real estate tax foreclosure by the City of New York in 1977. During that decade, the City was overwhelmed with foreclosed properties and did not have the capacity to manage them. It established the Division of Alternative Management at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to produce strategies to manage and renovate foreclosed buildings. In 1979, the Community Management Program took shape through partnerships with not-for-profit community organizations to own, manage, and renovate buildings for rental and cooperative housing. Through this program, CHDC began to manage and stabilize multiple City-owned buildings, including 342-350 West 48th Street, and multiple buildings on 10th Avenue to renovate and redevelop them as affordable, low- and moderate-income cooperative tenant ownership.

With 10 apartments in the building originally, all were occupied by Greek and Puerto Rican families who had lived there for decades. However, one person's involvement in drug activity led to the building's destabilization. Although the building’s tenant association was strong and well-organized, it was unable to directly confront the drug issues from the one apartment. After a tragic shooting of a tenant leader in 1986 in the adjacent 344 West 48th Street, the police finally took action on the serious drug complaints in this block and made multiple arrests. Increased drug enforcement enabled CHDC to pursue coordinated drug evictions in this row of buildings and stabilize them.

In 1989, this 5-story walk-up proceeded to renovation with CHDC managing the renovation. There was an initial proposal to combine and renovate the building as Section 8 housing, combining different demographics into one building. However, the tenants chose more moderate upgrades instead of a complete gut-renovation because of their attachment to their long-term homes of nearly 50 years. CHDC renovated the building with tenants in-place, renovating critical building systems including electrical systems, kitchens, and bathrooms.

The City sponsored a cooperative conversion plan for 346 West 48th Street in 1989 with restrictions on household income and apartment resales. The 346 West 48th Street HDFC owns this extremely stable building, with co-op members who are long-term residents of the building, many of whom are children of original co-op shareholders. After more than 30 years of cooperative ownership, the HDFC continues to make capital improvements since conversion. The co-op manages resales, budgets, and capital improvements in a responsible way, and retains CHDC as its managing agent who also provides technical assistance.