21-Story Shelter Building Planned In Midtown, Records Show

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The city plans to sell a Midtown shelter building to a nonprofit that will build a 21-story supportive housing facility in its place, according to filings and a local community board.

The six-story brick building at 225 East 45th St., between Second and Third avenues, was built in 1939 and formerly housed a convent and an orphanage. After being acquired by the city's Department of Homeless Services in 1993, it has for decades housed the New Providence Women's Shelter, a 130-bed facility serving single adult women who are unhoused and are dealing with substance abuse issues.

Now, the city intends to sell the building to Project Renewal, the provider that runs the existing shelter as well as others in the neighborhood. The organization plans to demolish the shelter and replace it with a 216-foot-tall building containing 171 shelter beds, as well as supportive and affordable housing and a medical clinic.

The project was announced Monday in an email from Community Board 6, which wrote that it would "fulfill some of our most pressing district needs, notably the need for more affordable and supportive housing."

The building's affordable housing units would number 130 altogether, including 79 apartments for formerly homeless people and 51 for other low-income residents. All of the apartments will be studios.

A medical clinic will also be included in the project, serving both building residents and the general public. While a similar clinic already exists on-site, patients must walk through the women's shelter to access it, which tends to discourage outside use, according to the community board.

Though it requires no zoning changes to be built, the development will still need to pass through the monthslong public review process known as ULURP, since it involves a sale of city-owned property. As such, residents will have the chance to weigh in, including at a Nov. 15 public hearing hosted by the community board.

The city notes that the project will contribute to Mayor Bill de Blasio's goal of creating and preserving 200,000 affordable homes over the next few years, and Community Board 6 has identified adding affordable housing and supporting homeless residents as its top two most pressing issues.

Still, residents have at times reacted negatively to plans that would house the neighborhood's unsheltered residents — earlier this year, a proposal to convert a hotel on East 40th Street into a family shelter encountered strong pushback, including a harassment campaign targeting community board members who supported the plan. The city ultimately scrapped that shelter amid opposition from the building's owner.