NEW YORK CITY-The BAM Cultural District continued its expansion this morning, with the groundbreaking for the Theatre for a New Audience’s 27,500 square foot, 299-seat facility at 262 Ashland Place. The building, which will also include administrative space, a public lobby and a rehearsal room, is set to open in April 2013 and is designed by architect Hugh Hardy. It’s going up in a parking lot owned by the city.

Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corp., tells GlobeSt.com that cultural institutions in the area are key to its ongoing economic development. “They’re economic generators in and of themselves--they produce jobs and they bring tourists into the city and so as engines of economic development they play that role,” Pinsky says. “They also make the city an attractive place for businesses and for residents that, in turn, generate further economic activity throughout the five boroughs.”

In addition to the Theatre for a New Audience coming to the BAM Cultural District, plans are underway to renovate the Strand Theater and the BAM Fisher Building. Joe Chan, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Alliance, says that the BAM Fisher Building--a roughly $50 million renovation--“is going to be a resource for other community and educational groups in the area.” The Theatre for a New Audience also serves over 3,000 public school children a year, he says. The Strand “is a $35 million project that just started construction and is just across the street from the Theatre for a New Audience,” Chan adds.