Hester Street is working with South Bronx Unite (SBU) to build on an extensive community engagement process started in 2013 to produce a forward-looking plan for the adaptive reuse of the vacant but historic Lincoln Hospital building in the Mott Haven area of the South Bronx. The new H.E.ARTs Center will seek to transform the site into a community-driven health and arts facility that will provide permanently affordable space for a number of Bronx-based organizations and also anchor the Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Stewards trust. HST will be offering critical pre-development support to SBU to make this project a reality, including conducting feasibility surveys, financial appraisals, architectural analyses and general project planning.
In the face of rising real estate speculation and the threat of displacement in the South Bronx, this space will have the potential to address long-term structural deficits in public health, education and youth development, and arts and cultural programming. The H.E.Arts Center will serve as a vital community anchor and an important tool for local empowerment and self-determination as well as neighborhood preservation and anti-displacement. The project has achieved broad-based support from dozens of local CBOs, small
businesses, elected officials, City Councilmembers and city agencies.