Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams today suggested the City build an office building and move multiple city services to Broadway Junction at the Bedford-Stuyvesant/East New York/Ocean Hill Brownsville intersection border to both spur further economic development and provide crucial city services closer to residents that need them.
Adams idea is built on his response to the Citywide Statement of Needs for City Facilities/Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018 that was submitted by Mayor Bill de Blasio last December, in which he noted that the importance of relocating social service agencies to improve transit access for Brooklynites seeking assistance as well as to stimulate economic growth in impacted communities.
Broadway Junction is a major subway thoroughfare where the J, Z, L, A and C lines all stop.
“The siting of City services must be strategic, serving our greater mission to advance holistically beneficial development that helps us raise healthy children and families,” said Adams. “We have an opportunity to transform Broadway Junction, a long-neglected area rich in transit options, into a thriving hub of municipal activity.
Among the government offices that Adams recommended moving to Broadway Junction include the consolidation of six New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) Division of Child Protection Offices serving eastern Brooklyn be combined with a relocated New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DOHMH) Brooklyn Borough Office for Family Child Health Early Intervention Program, a new local site for New York City Department of Homeless Services’ (DHS) Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing (PATH) Center, as well as a consolidated site for New York City Human Resources Administration’s (HRA) Medicaid Offices for East New York and Kings County Hospital.
Taken together with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) Medical Division, which he recommended siting in Broadway Junction last summer after the agency cited its need to move from Rego Park.
In oder to house these agencies, Adams recommends building roughly 300,000 square feet of office space, in which the city services would be anchor tenants with room for private commercial tenants.
Adams spokesperson Stefan Ringel maintained the borough president is putting the idea out there and remains open as to whether the building is privately built or perhaps built as a public/private partnership.
Additionally, Adams used the opportunity of his response to reemphasize several of his priorities for City agencies including calling on the city’s Parks Department to acquire and fund the remaining sections of Bushwick Inlet Park, as promised by the Bloomberg Administration following the rezoning of Greenpoint and Williamsburg in 2005.
Adams also called on the City’s Department of Transportation to replace and expand street bridges crossing over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on South Third, South Fourth, and South Fifth streets, and for the City’s Health + Hospitals system to create a specialized burn unit in Brooklyn.
“We have a duty to ensure all of our residents are able to enjoy a dignified quality of life, requiring investment in open space, health care, and other critical assets. I look forward to continuing to work with the de Blasio administration on these priorities in Brooklyn,” said Adams.
