www.BXTimes.com BRONX WEEKLY May 5, 2019 14
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 educational 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 soon-tobe
supportive housing.
The total gut renovation of
the boarded up, fenced off property
is expected to take until
roughly 2021.
The former Army Reserve
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.
Rendering of a completed 555 Neried Avenue. The Doe Fund
Jacobi Medical Center installs ‘off-the-grid’ exterior lighting
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
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