HELL’S KITCHEN — A West Side refuge for homeless youth will get a sparkling new home topped with affordable housing, according to city documents.
Covenant House, located at 460 West 41st St., will get a “state-of-the-art facility” that will house its national headquarters as well as local programs, the city’s Economic Development Corporation confirmed.
The new development will also build housing that is approximately 40 percent affordable, including 100 units of supportive housing, EDC confirmed.
The new complex will be constructed between West 40 and 41 Streets and 10th and Dyer avenues. That lot currently contains the current Covenant House building, the now-vacated Hunter College Voorhees Campus, which is city-owned, and a Port Authority parking lot and bus ramp.
In a June 30 letter to the EDC and the Department of Housing Preservation & Development, Community Board 4 also requested that the development plan preserve and restore the West 40th Street Carnegie Library. They want 50 percent of the affordable units to be 2-bedrooms or larger, and they want to make sure all units are permanently affordable.
They also requested that the building’s design include façade articulation and that it “avoid looking like a dystopian glass box.”
Covenant House said they would put use the space to good use for “our range of services including health, residential, employment, education, life skills, and more.”
“We are excited by the opportunity to partner with the city to build a state of the art facility that will support Covenant House’s vital work serving thousands of homeless youth each year,” spokesman Tom Manning said in a statement. “By working with the city and community partners we are able to better fulfill our mission while also generating affordable housing and creating a more enjoyable streetscape and pedestrian environment on the block.”
The plans account for a revival of the West 41st Street 7 train station, which was initially part of 7 train expansion plans but was ditched due to cost overruns. The plans “provide an easement for a ventilation building for the future Number 7 line West 41st station extension."
