Rendition Courtesy of NYCEDC
According to the EDC, the Spofford project will include 740 units of 100 percent affordable housing and 170,000 square-feet of recreational, commercial, and light-industrial space.
By Forum Staff
Now that’s rehabilitation.
The City Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development recently announced plans to transform the site of the infamous Spofford Juvenile Detention Center in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx into a 5-acre campus featuring 100 percent affordable housing, jobs, and recreational space.
The Spofford eyesore was shuttered in 2011 in response to a decades-long movement by criminal justice reform activists and community advocates. Under the plan announced last Thursday, the facility will be demolished and replaced with a live-work campus known as The Peninsula.
According to the EDC, the project forges a new model in neighborhood development by embedding quality manufacturing jobs, health and wellness, and open-space recreation in a new residential community.
The $300 million project will create approximately:
- 740 units of 100 percent affordable housing
- 52,000 square-feet of open/recreational space, including a new public plaza
- 49,000 square-feet of light-industrial space
- 48,000 square-feet of community facility space (15,000 square- feet artist workspace anticipated)
- 21,000 square-feet of ground-floor retail/commercial space
“With over 700 affordable apartments, space for community organizations and light manufacturing space, The Peninsula will erase the memory of Spofford and replace it with homes and job opportunities that benefit the people of the South Bronx,” said NYCEDC President Maria Torres-Springer.
In June 2015, EDC issued a request for expressions of interest to redevelop the vacant site with responses due October 2015. The winning proposal was The Peninsula, LLC, a joint submission by Gilbane Development Company, Hudson Companies, and Mutual Housing Association of New York. The development team, according to EDC, is working closely with long-time community stakeholders and operators, including The Point Community Development Corporation, Urban Health Plan, Sustainable South Bronx, The Knowledge House, Casita Maria, Rocking the Boat, and BronxWorks.
Development of The Peninsula will occur in three phases, EDC indicated, with Phase I to be completed in 2021, Phase II to be completed in 2022, and anticipated completion of Phase III in 2024. The project is expected to create 177 permanent jobs and more than 1,600 temporary construction jobs; and the selected development team has committed to a 35-percent Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise goal. Additionally, the development team has pledged to participate in HireNYC, a free NYCEDC program that connects the City’s workforce development services to various projects.
“Years of advocacy by community and civic organizations for the productive reuse of the former Spofford Juvenile Detention Facility in Hunts Point are finally bearing fruit, and our borough is grateful for that,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. “This project will transform a former youth prison into a mixed-use project that will bring Bronx partners together to develop new housing, create new jobs and change a blighted property into a true amenity for the Hunts Point community and the entire borough of The Bronx. I look forward to a continued partnership with the New York City Economic Development Corporation and their development and community partners as we bring The Peninsula to fruition.”
