Ex-Army Reserve Center to provide housing for homeless vets
BY ALEX MITCHELL
The Doe Fund has fi nalized
its plan to place homeless veterans
in a north Bronx community.
It announced its intention
to develop 90 new units of permanent,
supportive and affordable
housing at 555 Neried
Avenue in Wakefi eld on the
site of the former Joseph A.
Muller Army Reserve Center
on Tuesday, April 16.
Redesigned by MHG Architects,
the four-story, 51,000
square foot development will
convert a currently abandoned
building into 54 studio
units that will house homeless
vets. The remaining 35 affordable
units will be rented to
low-income individuals, with
a preference for local Bronxites,
with one unit set aside for
a live-in superintendent.
On-site building amenities
will include social services administered
by The Doe Fund,
custodial staff, 24-hour security,
a community laundry
room, a bike room and a private
side yard for residents
and their guests.
The building will also include
a 123-seat lecture hall
that will be available to the
Wakefi eld community for ed-
Rendering of a completed 555 Neried Avenue. The Doe Fund
ucational programs, cultural
activities and Community
Board 12 events.
Currently, the ex-military
facility sits next to Montiefi
ore’s Wakefi eld Campus
Annex at 4401 Bronx Boulevard
and the Bronx River
Metro North train tracks,
which runs beneath the soonto
be supportive housing.
The total gut renovation
of the boarded up, fenced off
property is expected to take
until roughly 2021.
The former Army Reserve
Jacobi Medical Center installs ‘off-the-grid’ exterior lighting
BRONX TIMES R 34 EPORTER, MAY 22-28, 2015 BT
Center was acquired by The
Doe Fund in September 2013;
the nonprofi t was able to obtain
the property through the
federal government’s Base Realignment
and Closure program.
The mission of the Doe
Fund is to combat the city’s
homelessness crisis through
affordable housing and necessary
programing.
Since that time, The Doe
Fund says it has worked
closely with Wakefi eld residents
to create a redevelopment
plan that responds to
local community needs, especially
with respect to property
revitalization, affordability
and the creation of new community
spaces.
CB12 expressed support of
the project at its November
2017 board meeting.
CB12 chairman George
Torres also said that the board
worked with The Doe Fund to
create a feasible and successful
plan of action for the property.
The community rejected
an earlier proposal to construct
a 200-bed male shelter.
The Doe Fund won over the
community’s support when it
was reworked into supportive
housing.
“We are so very grateful
for the input from community
members and the surrounding
neighborhood, and for all
of the partners who helped
make this project possible,”
said George T. McDonald,
founder and president of sponsoring
agency. “Together, we
can continue to improve the
lives of our city’s most vulnerable
residents,” he concluded.
The project was funded
by NYC Department of Housing
Preservation and Development,
Sterling National
Bank and Raymond James
Tax Credit Funds, Inc. The
development also received
a social service operating
grant awarded through
NYC’s 15/15 Rental Assistance
Program.
This is one of two major,
recent projects announced by
the Doe Fund in the Bronx. It
previously announced plans
to develop 255 units of affordable,
supportive housing at
1331 Jerome Avenue in Mount
Eden.
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
A plan to make a major hospital’s
campus more energy effi
cient is making progress.
Jacobi Medical Center began
installing new combined
wind and solar street lamps in
March and April that are completely
off the traditional energy
grid as part an $11 million
energy effi ciency program currently
underway at the sprawling
medical center campus.
“These energy enhancements
allow NYC Health +
Hospitals/Jacobi to contribute
to the city’s OneNYC goal of reducing
our carbon emissions
and helping to confront the climate
crisis,” said Christopher
Mastromano, Jacobi Medical
Center CEO.
OneNYC 2050 is a citywide
effort to reduce carbon emissions
and make the city a leader
in confronting climate change.
The nifty outdoor lights
will number 22 when the installation
is completed, and
each have wind turbines and
photovoltaic solar panels on
light posts.
As explained in a previous
Bronx Times article, whether
it is windy or a sunny day,
energy can be collected and
stored in batteries located inside
of each individual unit.
They replace 36 less effi cient
street lamps along the campus
sidewalks and roadways, said
Jacobi spokesman John Doyle.
Doyle said that the exterior
lamps are only the beginning,
and that part of what will follow
will be a replacement of
older light fi xtures with modern
LED lights inside of hospital
buildings.
Some of those fi xtures are
more than 50 years old in certain
sections of the hospital,
said Doyle.
The entire $11 million energy
program is a two-phase
endeavor expected to last
through mid 2020.
The larger project includes
upgrades to the medical center’s
chiller plant (for air conditioning
and cold air), vastly
improved interior lighting
that is expected to reduce energy
usage by up to two-thirds,
replacement or repair of three
air handling units to make
them more energy effi cient, as
well as new controls inside of
buildings.
Solar and wind powered lamps, which are totally off traditional electrical
grid, are now in use on the Jacobi Medical Center campus.
Photo courtesy of Jacobi Medical Center
Pictured is a roadway on the campus looking toward the hospital’s perimeter with Pelham Parkway South.
Photo courtesy of Jacobi Medical Center