\u201cThis was an act of determination from the community that was trying to create its own answers and solutions to the problems affecting it,\u201d says Mychal Johnson, a co-founder of South Bronx Unite<\/a>, an organization formed in 2012 to do similar community-driven work. <\/p>\n In 1978, then-Mayor Ed Koch forcibly evicted People\u2019s Detox Center from the building. It operated as a city-owned health clinic until that shuttered in 2013. For over a decade, South Bronx Unite organizers were determined to bring it back into community stewardship. <\/p>\n This month, a community land trust will close on the building. This September, construction will kick off to make their vision a reality: this time as the Health, Education, and Arts (HEArts) Center<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a full circle,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cWhere the needs of the community have still not been satisfied \u2026 we need to do it ourselves.\u201d <\/p>\n \u2018We will not be denied or ignored\u2019<\/p>\n South Bronx Unite was born out of a community struggle<\/a> against a 2012 proposal by New York State and City to grant over $130 million in taxpayer subsidies to online grocer FreshDirect to relocate its diesel trucking warehouse to the South Bronx. Residents sued<\/a> the city and Fresh Direct for its failure to conduct an adequate environmental review. They lost the legal battle<\/a>, but founded the organization.<\/p>\n Just a year later, the former People\u2019s Detox Center \u2014 which was still a health clinic providing acupuncture but run under the city agency Health + Hospitals \u2014 shuttered. <\/p>\n \u201cWe were very well informed about the work being done there, and also saw how the structures who owned the building abandoned it,\u201d says Dr. Melissa Barber, a co-founder of South Bronx Unite. Barber used her medical training in Cuba to mobilize COVID-19 response<\/a> in the South Bronx.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been abandoned for over a decade, and the feeling was that we needed to get this moving, since we know what services can be done here and what the community needs.\u201d<\/p>\n The South Bronx experiences some of the most severe health inequities<\/a> in the United States, and is saturated<\/a> with waste facilities, power plants and warehouses alongside highways carrying diesel trucks. The area is sometimes referred to as \u201cAsthma Alley<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n Between 2013 and 2022, South Bronx Unite led a prolonged, multi-pronged community engagement to reclaim the former People\u2019s Detox Center. They wanted to build excitement and buy-in around the property, \u201cto bring people together to celebrate the concept of a building for us,\u201d Johnson explains. South Bronx Unite hosted an annual HEArts Festival in the building\u2019s cul-de-sac, eventually hosting monthly events outside the property. <\/p>\n They also wanted community ownership. By 2015, South Bronx Unite facilitated the creation of the Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Stewards.<\/a> \u201cThis was the first Bronx-based community land trust, and it\u2019s very unique because we didn\u2019t start out with affordable housing or land acquisition for housing purposes \u2014 we started with a community center,\u201d says Barber, a founding member of the land trust. <\/p>\n Organizers knew they\u2019d have to fight to be heard by city officials, whether it was around the Fresh Direct proposal or future of the health center. In 2015, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio visited the popular South Bronx restaurant La Morada. \u201cOne of our members was eating there with his family and called us \u2014 we had been trying to meet with him forever,\u201d recalls Barber. \u201cWithin 15 minutes, the building was surrounded, like we\u2019re not letting you leave because we need to talk to you.\u201d <\/p>\n She continues: \u201cPress events, city hall marches, we were there \u2026 we showed out as a force to say we will not be denied or ignored, this is what we want.\u201d <\/p>\n Building a vision<\/p>\n They also made pivotal partnerships. The Land Stewards worked closely with the New Economy Project<\/a> and its NYC Community Land Initiative<\/a> coalition. \u201cThey were part of a two-year learning exchange where we did a pretty deep dive training to learn the ins and outs of CLTS, from development to land stewardship to governance,\u201d says Deyanira Del Rio, executive director of New Economy Project.<\/p>\n In 2016, the Land Stewards partnered with architect Nandini Bagchee and her students at the City College of New York to kick off a community design process. <\/p>\n \u201cIt started off in this very hypothetical academic space, but that did allow us to do a lot of the community visioning in a very free and fluid way,\u201d she explains. In 2018, South Bronx Unite secured enough funding to hire Bagchee to create a feasibility study.<\/p>\n Bagchee wrote in-depth about the process for Urban Omnibus<\/a>. With no physical access to the building, South Bronx residents and architecture students mapped the community\u2019s core needs, and visioned the future of the center through experimental, hands-on workshops.<\/p>\n In 2018, the team finally got access inside the three-story, 22,750-square foot building. They were inspired by an expansive skylight and terraces, originally designed to bring sunlight inside to treat tuberculosis. <\/p>\n A vision took shape: bright, comfortable and flexible space to accommodate health, education and workforce development programs, offices, a commercial kitchen and cafeteria, and a grand theater. <\/p>\n \u201cI was interested in how to maintain this idea of flexibility within the programming and the design, while also having some kind of character or identity to these spaces,\u201d says Bagchee.<\/p>\n As the design progressed, the Land Stewards continually laid pressure on the city to release a \u201crequest for proposals\u201d for the building\u2019s redevelopment. The RFP finally came in 2022. By then, as Barber puts it, \u201cwe had formulated our ideas into realistic pitches of what we could do.\u201d <\/p>\n Elise Goldin, the campaign organizer with New Economy Project, recalled a community visioning session led by the city following the RFP. \u201cThe Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Stewards turned out \u2014 there were probably 100 community members, food, celebration and amazing community vibes,\u201d she recalls. \u201cAnd they all had one unified vision, which was the HEArts Center, which was really powerful.\u201d <\/p>\n Making it real<\/p>\n The Land Stewards needed a development partner to show the city their vision was feasible. Alembic Community Development<\/a> joined the team in 2023 to help develop their RFP. \u201cWe see our role as trying to implement the vision that the land spent over a decade facilitating,\u201d says principal Jonathan Leit. They agreed on a 50\/50 ownership arrangement, split between Alembic and the community land trust. <\/p>\n The city awarded Alembic and the Land Stewards the property in fall of 2023, a massive win for the land trust and South Bronx Unite. It also marked a significant shift for the project, in which the team had to secure at least $40 million to renovate a building in \u201creally rough shape,\u201d as Leit put it. <\/p>\n \u201cThere have been some degrees of separation between the design process, finding the right developer, and then the developer\u2019s own complicated task of trying to keep everything in balance,\u201d notes Bagchee. <\/p>\n Financing was a complex endeavor, which Bagchee sees as unavoidable \u201cunless the government were willing to release funds to the community more directly.\u201d<\/p>\n The team secured financing through federal new market tax credits provided by four different Community Development Financial Institutions, federal and State of New York historic tax credits<\/a>, city capital funds, and state grants for community and climate resilience. (The center will have geothermal power and LEED Gold certification.) This past December, the state awarded the team<\/a> a $2.5 million environmental justice grant. <\/p>\n \u201cMonths before the project is going to break ground, it\u2019s fully funded,\u201d says Barber. \u201cThere were people who outright and blatantly told us it could not be done.\u201d <\/p>\n Closing on the building this month marks the final step before construction. Alembic estimates 24 months of work with an opening in 2028. \u201cThis will be a completely comprehensive gut and reinstallation of new systems,\u201d says Alembic principal Mike Grote. <\/p>\n The skylight and an original stairwell will be restored, while new stairs and an elevator will be added. The back of the building will transform into a double-height, multi-purpose theater. Flexible office and programming space will be throughout all three floors, with the second floor dedicated to office and training space for Green City Force<\/a>.<\/p>\n For the Land Stewards and South Bronx Unite members, there\u2019s no sense of disbelief that their vision is becoming reality \u2014 in their eyes, there\u2019s a sense of destiny that the building is returning to community stewardship. <\/p>\n \u201cIt brings a lot of joy,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cAnd [it\u2019s] showing that we cannot stop here, we can keep doing ground-up, community-envisioned projects to create the healthier outcomes we require.\u201d <\/p>\n \t\t Emily Nonko<\/a>\u00a0is a social justice and solutions-oriented reporter based in Brooklyn, New York. She covers a range of topics for Next City, including arts and culture, housing, movement building and transit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Follow Emily<\/a> .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Emily_Nonko_Nextcity_200_200_80_c1.jpg\")
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