Photo of homeless living by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
NEW YORK CITY—Covenant House New York is redeveloping its facilities in a partnership with the developer Gotham Organization. Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group has provided a $61 million mortgage loan for the borrower to upgrade its current location at 550 Tenth Ave. between W. 40th and W. 41st streets in Hudson Yards.
Founded in 1972, Covenant House is the largest privately funded agency in the Americas that works to help youth overcome homelessness. Each year it serves almost 89,000 young people in 31 cities and six countries. Last year, Covenant House New York chose Gotham as its development partner. Gotham has been in business for more than 100 years and has extensive experience in working with non-profits.
The new facility will offer a youth shelter, health center, legal aid, educational services, counseling and job training at one location. Gotham has already begun site preparations. With the first phase of the project, they have partially demolished the existing structure to construct a 12-story, 80,000-square-foot facility.
“For over four decades, youth overcoming homelessness in New York City have found safety and shelter from the streets at our Covenant House,” says Sister Nancy Downing, executive director of Covenant House New York. She notes it's the first time in the organization's 47-year history that they will design and build a new, ground-up residential facility.
“The new Covenant House facility will be designed to the particular needs of our youths, allowing us to provide robust services and coordinated care, expanding the scope of our work and the number of young people we can serve,” she adds. Services will continue throughout the construction with no displacement of existing Covenant House residents. The construction is expected to be completed in 2021.
In phase two, Gotham plans to purchase the balance of the existing site following Covenant House's relocation into its new facility. The developer will subsequently build an approximately 42-story mixed-use, mixed-income residential high rise including market rate and inclusionary housing.
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Betsy Kim
Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.
