BROOKLYN — Moving social service agencies and government offices to East New York’s Broadway Junction could be a way to boost economic growth in the area, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said this week.
In response to Mayor de Blasio’s Citywide Statement of Needs for City Facilities for 2017 and 2018, Adams said the city should build a new 300,000 square-foot office building at Broadway Junction to improve commercial opportunities.
The site is a major subway hub that at the intersection of East New York, Ocean Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville and Bushwick. The A, C, J, Z, and L trains as well as several buses running through, he said.
“The siting of city services must be strategic, serving our greater mission to advance holistically beneficial development that helps us raise healthy children and families,” Adams said in a statement.
“We have an opportunity to transform Broadway Junction, a long-neglected area rich in transit options, into a thriving hub of municipal activity.”
Among the Borough President’s suggestions was the proposed consolidation of six Administration for Children’s Services Division of Child Protection offices serving eastern Brooklyn to be combined with a relocated Department of Mental Health and Hygiene Brooklyn Borough Office.
Adams also called for a new site for the Department of Homeless Services Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing Center and to place the NYPD’s Medical Division in the area.
The proposals follow measures the Borough President recommended in response to the city’s East New York Community Plan, which would rezone the neighborhood.
Earlier this year, Adams also advocated to bring government offices to Broadway Junction, among other proposals such as access to jobs and quality open space.
This week, he outlined the importance of protecting industrial business zones, or IBZs, throughout Brooklyn.
“We have a responsibility to preserve our IBZs for the creation of jobs that serve as a pathway to the middle class,” Adams said.
“We have a duty to ensure all of our residents are able to enjoy a dignified quality of life, requiring investment in open space, health care, and other critical assets.”
