It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like progress is finally being made on plans to turn the long-vacant Greenpoint Hospital site into a mixed-use affordable housing campus, as multiple outlets have reported.
The project, a joint operation between Hudson Companies, St. Nicks Alliance, and Project Renewal, recently garnered $66 million in financing, allowing construction to move ahead. According to BK Reader, “the redevelopment will require the rehabilitation of two existing buildings, as well as the construction of two new buildings,” they write. “The 54,000-square-foot campus will be located at 19 Debevoise Avenue in East Williamsburg.”
Phase 1 of the project will relocate the Barbara Kleiman men’s shelter, which has long operated on the former hospital’s grounds, to a renovated part of the hospital building.
Aside from the renovated 200-bed men’s shelter, the campus will offer over 500 units of affordable housing, as well as a health clinic, senior center, workforce development center, and cafe.
“The development of the site is long overdue thanks to corruption,” we wrote back in 2018. “In 2012, the Great American Construction Corporation won the contract to convert the Nurses Quarters of Greenpoint Hospital into affordable housing but suddenly backed out of the project when its senior executive was indicted on bribery charges on an unrelated project. Since Great American’s backing out, rebidding the building remained abandoned for years.”
Considering that the hospital first shuttered in 1982, we certainly welcome the news that the project is finally on its way!