By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — Reports that Gov. Andrew Cuomo may shutter a prison in Chelsea are sparking a mix of hopes and fears on the West side.
The Bayview Correctional Facility, a medium security women's prison located on West 20th Street and Eleventh Avenue, is one of three prisons in the city that Cuomo is considering closing, sources told the New York Post. The others are Lincoln Correctional Facility on West 110th St. and Fulton Correctional Facility in the Bronx.
The facility, constructed in 1931 as the Seaman's House YMCA, carries a rich history — for 30 years, it offered beds for the night to merchant sailors, World War II veterans and Coast Guardsmen. But it does not possess landmarks status, a point that has some neighborhood leaders concerned the cash-strapped state might sell it to the highest bidder.
"It's a handsome building," said Edward Kirkland, co-chair of Community Board 4's landmarks committee, citing the structure's brick and stone façade and maritime motifs. "God knows what they could put on top of it."
Now, taking Bayview to the Landmarks Preservation Commission was one of the CB4 committee's "class A priorities," according to Kirkland.
Save Chelsea co-president Lesley Doyel, who recalled childhood walks with her mother to donate books to the Y, wrote in an e-mail that she worried the prison, located on prime real estate across from Chelsea Piers, could turn into another mega-development.
"The current trends in West Chelsea, and the proposed addition of many stories to the Chelsea Market building would seem to be cause for concern and vigilance," Doyel wrote.
The site already hosts one preservation battle — four decades ago, painter Knox Martin put a huge pink and red mural on the prison's south side. But development across the street on Jean Nouvel's artsy, luxury condo development now mostly obstructs views of the mural, which Martin said Tuesday had been his "way of imparting the greatest dignity to a women's prison."
The worst case scenario, in the view of neighborhood leaders, would be either total demolition of the structure, or sale to a luxury developer who would alter the exterior.
But some said that if the prison did close, there could be at least one potential benefit for the community.
Both Doyel and Joe Restuccia, chair of CB4's health, housing and human services committee, both brought up the possibility of converting at least part of the building into affordable housing units.
While Restuccia praised Bayview as a very quiet, "very good neighbor," that provided valuable work release programs, he noted that the facility's size could hold several hundred housing units.
"If there is a closure, and it's unavoidable," he said, "we should look at it as an opportunity."
