On January 28, 2025, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other critical stakeholders announced they are accepting requests for proposals from interested developers to further a project to build a new library with 100 percent affordable housing where the Grand Concourse Library is currently located in the Bronx.
This project is part of the “Living Libraries” initiative. To address the housing shortage in New York City, this initiative focuses on developing new libraries with affordable housing. The Grand Concourse Library is located near the Claremont BronxCare campus and Claremont Park. The new library will occupy the first two floors of a building with affordable housing above. The project’s request for proposals encourages developers to maximize the number of affordable homes by planning for a rezoning of the library site.
Interested development teams are encouraged to consult the Grand Concourse Community Visioning Report, which summarizes the engagement takeaways for both the library and affordable housing components of the project. Since this project was announced in April 2024, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Office of Neighborhood Strategies and New York Public library have engaged the community to identify top priorities for the library and affordable housing portions of the new development, culminating in a report-back presentation delivered to Bronx Community Board 4.
Community engagement for this project included a website and questionnaire (with 270 responses), outreach events at the library and in the neighborhood (with support from local schools and organizations), a community visioning workshop, email updates to the NYC Housing Preservation and Development’s project list, and ongoing meetings with Community Board 4 and local elected officials.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, “To make New York City the best place to raise a family, we have to build affordable housing that surrounds families with everything they need to thrive in our city — and the Grand Concourse Library is that exact kind of project. The Grand Concourse Library will provide 100-percent affordable housing and a newly-renovated, state-of-the-art facility that’s just blocks away from a public park and health care facility — a model for the kind of thoughtful, holistic housing project our city is capable of building. We aren’t stopping there. Our administration will continue to build even more affordable housing and ensure that we are a ‘City of Yes for Families.’”
New York City Executive Director for Housing Leila Bozorg said, “NYPL and HPD’s call for a Grand Concourse ‘living library’ illustrates just what it means to bring a community-centered approach for planning for the future. I thank everyone who came out to lend their ideas during the extensive community visioning process for this competition, and I’m excited to see how respondents propose to turn those visions into a new beacon of education, safety, and community in the Bronx.
By: Chelsea Ramjeawan (Chelsea is the CityLaw intern and a New York Law School student, Class of 2025.)