3500 Park Apartments

Organization Name: The Bridge; ESKW/Architects

Project Title: 3500 Park Apartments

Project Location: Bronx, NY

Project Description:
3500 Park Apartments is a 7-story building that provides 115 studio and 2-bedroom apartments for integrated supportive and affordable housing. Sixty-nine studios are for formerly homeless individuals with services and rent subsidies supported through the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative. The remaining 46 units, including a live-in super, serve low-income seniors and families at or below 60% area median income. Building amenities include 24/7 front desk coverage, two elevators, multi-purpose room with a warming kitchen, laundry room, computer lab, playroom, and outdoor recreational space with access to a community garden and walking path. Energy-saving measures include solar roof panels and Energy Star appliances, while triple-pane windows satisfy noise reduction requirements. Concrete brick and wood panels represent a quality that raises the standard for this type of housing. Completed October 2020, the project has already welcomed some supportive residents. Community tenants, selected through a lottery system, are moving in through November and December. Opened during Covid-19, the building allows for social distancing throughout the interior spaces as well as outside in the large backyard.

Community Impact:
As the Bridge’s largest building to date, this modern, eco-friendly development has erased an unsightly parking lot along Park Avenue and will create neighbor-to-neighbor linkages between tenants and a wide array of existing community-based services and businesses. In addition to on-site case management and access to medical, educational, and job training programs, the project’s attention to quality design features and amenities promotes a sense of pride, dignity, and rootedness in the community, while contributing to the streetscape and conveying a welcoming presence to the community.
3500 Park increases affordable housing in a community that has been seriously impacted by the pandemic. Other benefits are providing safety and security with 24-hour staffing, cameras, and lighting; creating 15 new jobs including for qualified local residents as case managers, pre-professionals, and maintenance staff; providing a 50% preference to Bronx residents for the affordable units; and stimulating the local economy by using neighborhood businesses. The need for housing has never been greater, as illustrated by receiving over 14,000 applications through the lottery for 45 community units.

Organization Description:
The Bridge, now in its 66th year, is a multi-service, multi-borough agency recognized as a leading housing innovator for its programmatic approach to serving vulnerable New Yorkers. In addition to housing that serves 1,400+ people, it offers integrated behavioral health and primary health at its Clinical Hub. More than 3,200 people access Bridge services including housing, mental health and substance abuse treatment, vocational services, Aging Services Program, 7 ACT teams and coordinated care that assist them to live more successfully in the community.

Team Members:

HPD, HFA, Boston Financial, JPMorgan Chase, Leviticus Fund, CSH, ShermanLaw, Mega Contracting, A. Larovere Consulting, Bright Power, SWA, Silman, Loring Consulting Engineers, Strandberg & Associates