LES Girls Club kicks off construction

The Lower Eastside Girls Club began construction last Friday for its new mixed-use Community Center On Avenue D And East 7th Street. When completed in 2012, the property will include 78 affordable and market-rate rental residences, in addition to community and retail space. After years of operating its programs out of several rented spaces in the neighborhood, the Girls Club will have a permanent home on the first three floors of the 12-story LEED Gold-certified building, designed by Cutsogeorge Tooman & Allen Architects and developed by the Dermot Company. The 30,000-square-foot headquarters will be the first girls club facility in New York City, a project being built under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace, an $8.4 billion initiative to finance 165,000 units of affordable housing for half a million New Yorkers by 2014. TRD