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The new school will be built on this property, which is adjacent to NYU Downtown Hospital
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In response to the growing downtown population and overcrowding in many classrooms, Mayor Michael Bloomberg on February 4 announced the creation of a new school to serve Lower Manhattan students from the kindergarten level through eighth grade.
Through an innovative public-private partnership, the $65 million, five-story school will be approximately 100,000 square feet and create 600 seats for students in a neighborhood identified as having a high need for classroom seats in the Department of Education's (DOE) five-year capital plan. The first school to be constructed on privately-owned land, it will be located on the property adjacent to NYU Downtown Hospital bound by Beekman, William, and Spruce Streets. The site is currently occupied by a parking lot. Construction is expected to begin in February 2006 and should be completed by September 2008.
"Building this new school fulfills a promise we have made to the residents of Lower Manhattan and supports our goal of establishing Lower Manhattan as a family-friendly neighborhood," Mayor Bloomberg said at the press conference in Tweed Courthouse.
The mayor also said that he expects the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) to contribute $20 million to fund the project. The LMDC has said they will "review the proposal." The school will be part of a one-million-square-foot, mixed-use building designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry and developed by the privately-owned Forest City Ratner Companies. The building will include retail and residential space.
Through this project, DOE is able to deliver on its promise to provide new school seats through alternative development methods. While DOE has previously engaged in mixed-use projects on City-owned land, this new school project is the first of its kind.
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| From left: Developer Bruce Ratner, State Sen. Martin Connor, Mayor Bloomberg, and Assembly Speaker Silver announce the construction of a new downtown school |
"This public school answers the immediate need to educate the children of our community in a neighborhood school," said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who represents most of Lower Manhattan. "This is about the future of downtown Manhattan."
Lower Manhattan is fast becoming a true 24/7 neighborhood. Since 2000, 5,500 new housing units have been built in Lower Manhattan and another 15,000 will be built by 2008. As a result of the expansion of housing units, student enrollment is projected to grow by approximately 3,400 students over the next five years and by 4,700 students over the next ten years. Schools in Lower Manhattan are now dealing with the effects of this community expansion. (The) DOE's five-year capital plan projects that in order to meet the need of the communities in the area, four new schools are needed.
The mixed-use building on Beekman Street will fill aproximately one million square feet and is expected to cost $570 million to build. In addition to the new school -- which will have its own entrance -- the building will house two levels of below-grade parking, ground floor retail space, an ambulatory care facility for the NYU hospital, market-rate rental apartments and residential condominium units, and 13,000 square feet of open public space in a plaza to the west of the building.
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Lower Manhattan's Schools
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