Senior Center at 196 Albany Avenue, across the street from a 14-story NYCHA building. Image credit: GoogleMaps

City Planning approved new 20-year lease for a Crown Heights senior center. On September 6, 2017, the City Planning Commission approved an application from the Department for the Aging and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to continue the use of a senior center at 196 Albany Avenue in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood. The application sought a new 20-year lease for the center which has been operating at the site since 1972.

The center operates out of the ground and cellar floors of the four-story building, occupying approximately 18,723 square feet of space. The City had also rented the second, third and fourth floors from 1972 to 2016 to operate a childcare center. The building’s owner is currently looking for new tenants for those floors.

Albany Houses, a New York City Housing Authority Project consisting of nine 14-story buildings, containing 1,229 apartments, are located across Albany Avenue from the senior center. The center operates Monday to Friday, providing a variety of social, educational, cultural and nutritional programs geared towards improving the mental and physical health of the center’s clientele. The activities sponsored include arts and crafts, music, bingo, ceramics, movies and exercise programs.

Both Brooklyn Community Board 8 and the Borough President recommended approval of the lease with some conditions. The Community Board requested that DCAS ensure the elevator in the building remain functional at all times and that the building’s owner remediate any flood damages that occur. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams requested the City improve the condition of the intersection with curb extensions, plantings and street benches.

In its report, the Commission found the application to be appropriate. The Commission noted that in a letter from the DFTA the agency had committed to exploring possible intersection improvements with the Department of Transportation and to increasing the amount of tree plantings with the help of the Department of Parks and Recreations.

CPC: Albany Neighborhood Senior Center, Brooklyn (C 150382 PQK) (Sept. 6, 2017).

By: Jonathon Sizemore (Jonathon is the CityLaw Fellow and a New York Law School Graduate, Class of 2016).