By Carsen Holaday
On Tuesday night members of the Bronx Parks Committee Community Board 4, along with members of the community, met via Zoom for their monthly meeting. One of the highlights of the evening was an update by Annie Tirschwell, co-founder of Type A Projects, on the highly anticipated Bronx Point Project.
The Bronx Point Project is a development along the Harlem River in the Lower Concourse neighborhood of the South Bronx. The site will bring cultural facilities, new infrastructure geared towards growth, permanent jobs, new open space and 530,000 square feet of affordable housing to the Bronx community. The mixed-use development will include a new playground, over 10,000 square feet of retail space, a new waterfront esplanade and the first location of the Universal Hip Hop Museum.
The project recently closed on financing, which means that construction can start.
“It’s been a really, really long road,” Tirschwell said. “We’re so incredibly grateful that we were able to have deep conversations, working sessions, and meetings of the minds [with the community] where we were able to come to a project that we think represents most of the community’s input.”
The shoreline along the site will be reconstructed and stabilized from March to August of this year, followed by a year-long pause before the actual building and development. According to the construction schedule, Bronx Point will be completed around December of 2023.
Following Annie Tirschwell’s presentation, Katie Archer of L+M Development took the floor of the community board meeting to discuss the Bronx Point Project’s local recruitment for employment opportunities.
“Right now we’re kind of creating this database of people who are looking for work and we’re working with all of our workforce partners,” Archer said. “They’re currently doing outreach for the site’s security positions. “We really need to start hiring people now.”
After the update on the Bronx Point Project, Publicolor NYC’s Director of School and Community Relations Irma Nepomuceno presented an overview of Publicolor’s program. Publicolor NYC is a stay-in-school youth development program that does community outreach to encourage safe and nurturing learning environments for students. Nepomuceno discussed potential partnership ideas with Community Board 4 members.
For more information on the Bronx Point Project or its local hiring process, visit their website.
