A new $76 million Bronx Mental Health Redevelopment and Children’s Center campus for the Bronx Psychiatric Center is bringing $25.5 million to local minority and women owned businesses and jobs for the Bronx.
The project was awarded to J. Kokolakis Contracting, Inc. (JKC), a firm that has renovated or constructed new medical facilities throughout New York, Connecticut and Florida, totaling over one million square feet in space.
The new Bronx campus at 1508 Waters Place, between Waters Place and the Hutchinson River Parkway, will have state-of-the-art facilities, more functional inter-connectivity, and a more compact campus to provide more efficient mental services to the public, officials said.
The project will consist of a new 186,000-square foot, central services building, an 86 bed Children’s Center, that includes medical treatment areas, administrative offices, classrooms, a gymnasium, a 114 seat auditorium, swimming pool, dining facilities and laundry facilities and a new Central Utility Plan designed to provide heating and cooling for the entire $400 million campus facility.
The project is expected to be completed by October 2014.
“We are fortunate to have the opportunity to continue our long and successful collaboration with the both Jacobs Architecture and Dormitory Authority of the State of New York,” said JKC president Joseph Kokolakis.
“Community participation will be strongly encouraged,” he said. “The goal of the project team is to maximize community involvement and benefit, be it from comments and suggestions or from new jobs and skills training.”
Kokolakis noted that working with local businesses on the project, over $18 million of work has gone to local Minority Owned Business Enterprises and $7.5 million to Woman Owned Business Enterprises, thus far.
“In addition, we have committed to hiring locally and are on track to utilizing Bronx residents for over 25% of all on-site labor.”
Senator Jeff Klein called the establishment of the state center in Morris Park “another indication that the Bronx is on the rise.”
“Any new development that seeks to create jobs in the Bronx, maintain a dialogue with the greater community and provide a critical service to the Bronx and New York City at large is a welcome addition to the neighborhood and I look forward to following this project’s progress in the coming year.”
Kirsten Sanchez can be reach via e-mail at ksanchez@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3394
