Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
REMARKS
Council Member Keith Powers presents the SPARK Kips Bay project
0:08:35
·
4 min
Council Member Keith Powers presents the Science Park And Research Campus (SPARC) Kips Bay project, highlighting its significant benefits for his district and the entire city. He emphasizes the project's focus on life sciences, education, and public health infrastructure, replacing the old Brookdale campus with new facilities.
- The project includes a new high school, CUNY facilities, a STEAM Center, and increased dormitory capacity for CUNY students.
- Public realm improvements include new open spaces, a waterfront park, and better pedestrian access.
- The development aims to create good-paying jobs and educational opportunities from pre-K to doctoral level, potentially leading to employment in the on-site life sciences industry.
Keith Powers
0:08:35
Thank you.
0:08:35
Thank you you for the recognition.
0:08:37
Thank you to Chiosalamanca, members of the land use committee for considering today the Science Park And Research Campus in Kips Bay, something we're commonly calling SPARK.
0:08:46
SPARK's Kips Bay SPARK KIPP's Bay project presents a tremendous opportunity for both my district and our entire city to to continue to be on the cutting edge in the life science industry while further investing in education opportunities to connect to those jobs.
0:09:00
The project replaced the dilapidated Brookdale campus with new CUNY facilities, a new high school, public health infrastructure, and a new space to continue develop growing development in life sciences.
0:09:11
At the start of my first term in the city council in 2019, there was a much different vision for that site, one that would bring far fewer jobs and education opportunities and one that the community had deep concerns about.
0:09:22
I'm extremely grateful that when this was announced as a new proposal in 2022, that it came with a lot more opportunities and support from the community.
0:09:30
And I joined with community board six, and its chair, Sandy McKee, to lead a SPARK KIPPES Bay community task board as part of a robust public engagement effort over the last few years.
0:09:41
This is a substantial investment into our neighborhood, the life sciences, and education systems from all over the city.
0:09:47
And the benefits of this project are numerous to list, but I wanna name any of them because they are significant.
0:09:52
We're getting a brand new high school here in Kipps Bay that will be partnering with the SPARK campus to introduce students to the life sciences field, a growing industry.
0:09:59
We will have a new STEAM Center for Manhattan.
0:10:01
This will be the third citywide and the first in our borough.
0:10:05
It'll connect to 10, I believe, 10 public high schools in Manhattan, which is very significant.
0:10:10
We'll have a new CUNY Healthcare and Public Health campus that brings together programs of three flagship schools, Hunter College, BMCC, and the Graduate School of Public Health and Public Policy, all sited together on one site.
0:10:22
Good news is we are replacing the dilapidated dorms that are sitting there today, one that my mom actually was a nursing student and lived in, with a total replacement and a net increase of 80 dorms for CUNY students here in the city and on the East Side.
0:10:37
Educational programming by nonprofits focused on science for local elementary and middle school students throughout the neighborhood, an expansion of three ks seats by nearly 30 seats in the surrounding area, a new start of the state state of the art facility for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, a new ambulatory care and wellness center for Bellevue, project agreements for both project labor agreements for both construction and building maintenance to deliver good paying jobs as a site, a whole acre of new and enhanced public realm improvements, including a new public square and publicly accessible central open space, access for the first time in at least a very long time to the public Bellevue Garden across the street, the conversion of a private parking lot on city owned land to a brand new waterfront park on 30 Fourth Street along the East River.
0:11:22
Wanna thank the speaker for contributing to the cost of that last year as well.
0:11:26
A new accessible pedestrian bridge to the folks on Waterside Plaza who are far from, the rest of the neighborhood and and could deserve, better pedestrian access.
0:11:37
Additional investments in Solar One to continue their work around the city.
0:11:41
And better coordination between the City Planning and Community Board six to find new sites for potential housing.
0:11:46
And I want to commend and thank my colleague, Councilman Rivera for joining that, that, request and, question around how to continue to build housing in the neighborhood.
0:11:58
There's many to name, but I wanna thank the entire EDC EDC EDC team here that's here today and those who are not here, including president Andrew Kimball, Jen Montoya, Gigi Lee, and Julianne Herskowitz for their tireless work and hours of meetings to land the plane on this important project.
0:12:15
I wanna thank my team, Ben Jacobs and Pat Hill, the Council of Land Use and Planning Division for their help.
0:12:22
And I just want to end on this note that I've been here, as a city councilor for now seven years.
0:12:26
This is year eight.
0:12:27
And I have to tell you, it's not every day you get to approve a project that will deliver good paying jobs alongside public education for not only three year olds, for for doctoral students alike, and to hopefully move them into the jobs that will be on the same site.
0:12:39
It's a generational opportunity to invest in New York and improve our education system, grow our life sciences industry, and improve what already is the best neighborhood to live in the entire city.
0:12:49
Yes, I am biased.
0:12:50
I think council member Rivera will join me in that.
0:12:53
I'm immensely proud of this project, and I, of course, hope everyone will support it today.
0:12:57
Thank you.