Mayor Adams Speaks at Opening of Affordable Housing Project

MAYOR ADAMS OPENS AFFORDABLE HOMES ON FORMER SITE OF SPOFFORD JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER, WHERE HE WAS ONCE HELD

First Residential Building of New Mixed-Use Development Includes 183 Deeply Affordable Homes and Cultural Arts Center, With Studio Space for Emerging Artists

Project Will Ultimately Deliver 740 Affordable Homes, Childcare, Wellness Facility, and Supermarket, Replacing Notorious Detention Facility Closed in 2011

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams today continued efforts to provide New Yorkers with affordable housing options by opening 183 deeply affordable units, in addition to a cultural arts center, on the former site of the Spofford Juvenile Detention Center — the site where he was held at 15 years old — in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx. The detention center was closed in 2011, after 54 years in operation with notoriously poor conditions for the youth detained there. Once complete, the full five-acre redevelopment project — called The Peninsula — will bring 740 affordable homes, an early childhood education center, a wellness center, a one-acre public plaza, and a supermarket to Hunts Point.

Rendering of The Peninsula campus on the site of the former Spofford Juvenile Detention Center in Hunts Point. Credit: WXY Studios

This $121 million, 100-percent affordable housing phase of this project — with retail space and studio space for emerging artists — reflects Mayor Adams’ commitment to place New Yorkers into safe, high-quality, affordable homes, as outlined in his blueprint for the city’s affordable housing crisis, ‘Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness.’ The first phase of the project, completed today, includes 183 affordable homes for New Yorkers earning between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income, with 18 homes specifically reserved for New Yorkers who previously experienced homelessness. The building also offers a wide range of amenities, including a community room, a children’s playroom, a fitness room, and bike storage space.

The development additionally includes a cultural arts center with a state-of-the-art black box theater, an art gallery, a dance studio, a coworking space, and 26 artist studios. Inspiration Point Center for the Arts — a Bronx-based nonprofit — will operate the space, which will also serve as a community space for local events. The ground floor includes a 5,000-square-foot retail space.

When the entire project is complete, The Peninsula will feature:

• Approximately 740 units of 100 percent affordable housing, with studio, one-, two-, three-, and some four- bedroom apartments;

• An early childhood education center designed in coordination with the New York City Department of Education and the New York City School Construction Authority;

• Recreational and community facilities, including artist studios, expanded programming for The Point Community Development Corporation (CDC), and a wellness center to be operated by community partner Urban Health Plan;

• Commercial space, including a supermarket; and

• Open space, including a one-acre landscaped public plaza.

The nearby light industrial building, completed last year, offers several small production-based businesses affordable space to grow and create good jobs in and for the Hunts Point community. Current tenants include bakers, coffee roasters, and noodle, tamale, and greens producers, along with an organic knitting research, development, production, and training center. One building will also be home to a shared incubator kitchen that will be developed jointly with HotBread Kitchen, offering entrepreneurs who cook in their homes the opportunity to expand their production. The light industrial building is projected to create upwards of 100 jobs over the next five years.

The Peninsula project team includes Gilbane Development Company, The Hudson Companies, and MHANY Management. The project was designed collaboratively by WXY Architecture + Urban Design and Body Lawson Associates Architects and Planners.

Bronx

June 22, 2022