New York is looking for a new plan for an old Chelsea prison.
The Empire State Development Corporation released a request for proposals this week for the Bayview Correctional Facility. The prison, located at 550 West 20th Street near 11th Avenue, closed in 2012.
Officials said in a July 2022 letter to local lawmakers they would require no fewer than 60 supportive housing units for the site. The proposal was part of the agency’s Penn Station redevelopment project and the residences slated for the jail’s redevelopment would contribute to the larger plan’s projected total of 1,800 new units, including 648 rent-restricted or supportive units.
The state’s vision for the Chelsea jail sounds similar to its idea for the redevelopment of the Lincoln Correctional Facility, a shuttered prison at 31-33 West 110th Street in West Harlem. Pitches for that 10,000-square-foot site are an effort by the state to keep developers’ visions for Central Park-adjacent luxury condos at bay and support Gov. Kathy Hochul’s affordable-housing push to add 800,000 housing units in the next decade.
The state’s RFP in Chelsea comes 10 years after the 108,000-square-foot prison closed in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which caused $600,000 of damage at the property.
Officials previously released RFPs in 2013 and 2014, but neither project materialized.
NoVo Foundation, a woman’s advocacy nonprofit led by Warren Buffett’s son, signed a 99-year lease at the former prison in 2015 for $200 million total. Their project, the “Women’s Building,” was intended to be a center for organizations promoting women’s rights. The foundation pulled out in 2019, citing unexpected timelines and costs.
Proposals are due by Dec. 13 at 5 p.m., but it’s not clear when the winner will be announced.
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