A Bold New Rebuilding Plan Grows in Brooklyn

Brooklyn’s notorious Bedford-Atlantic armory — reputed to be the city’s most dangerous homeless shelter — will soon be transformed into a recreational facility, according to one of New York City’s best-known real estate developers.

Richard Kahan, the president and co-founder of Take the Field, a public-private venture that rebuilds athletic facilities at public schools throughout city, has drawn up plans for the armory renovation.

Mr. Kahan told a gathering of about 50 residents in Crown Heights that his organization plans to raise $14 million in public and private funds that will be used to transform the five-story armory building from a 350-bed shelter to a mixed-use facility that will continue to house homeless people but primarily serve as a base for local students and sports leagues. The project, he said, would be part of a new program, the Armory Initiative, to be operated by Take the Field.

Once funding has been secured and detailed architectural plans have been drawn, “we think we can build this in 9 to 12 months,” said Mr. Kahan, who was chairman of the Battery Park City Authority and the New York State Urban Development Corporation. The project, he said, is an extension of his organization’s mission to bring the benefits of sports to city schoolchildren. “This isn’t just an issue of where the kids will play,” he said. “This is an issue about what kinds of lives these kids are going to have.”


Courtesy of the New York Sun (Read the full article here)