The notorious Spofford Juvenile Detention Center in Hunts Point will be redeveloped for a new use with input from the local community.
The shuttered lockup – a dismal jail made infamous by rap lyrics and detainee horror stories – will be the subject of a “revisioning and community outreach process” starting this summer, according to the Bloomberg administration.
The process will last up to 12 months and culminate with a public request for proposals. Local leaders and entrepreneurs such as Sustainable South Bronx founder Majora Carter have already shown interest, with housing, healthcare and a food market mentioned as potential options.
“We are starting a thorough process to determine the appropriate reuse of the site, which will include engaging the community, stakeholders, elected officials and others to help us create and refine a redevelopment plan,” said Eric Bederman, spokesman for the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
The juvenile jail held hundreds of youth in vermin-infested cells until 2011, when the city Administration for Children’s Services closed the detention center that ACS Commissioner John Mattingly called a “Dickensian building” unfit for modern times.