New Community Center Takes Shape

By Etta Sanders

It may not rival the Second Avenue subway, but Tribeca's first full-fledged community center may have had the longest gestation period of any Downtown project.

		"It took 10 years, a terrorist attack and a huge residential expansion," said Bob Townley, executive director of Manhattan Youth, the organization that will run the center. Now the shell of the space on Warren Street, just west of P.S. 234, is taking shape. The blueprints are drawn, 70 percent of the money has been raised, and construction of the interior is expected to begin in October.
Last month, Townley gave the Trib the most detailed picture to date of what the $8.3 million center will look like and what it will offer when the doors open next spring. He also talked about the money still needed to make it all a reality, as the organization kicks off its first capital campaign.

Listening to Townley talk about the center, his booming voice filled with excitement, you can almost hear the whacking sound of ping-pong paddles and the echoing splash of swimmers that soon will fill the place. Townley's vision of the center's service to members of the community—from babies to seniors—comes from years of providing after-school, day camp and teen programs at Downtown schools. But he still wants input from the people who will use the facility. Neighborhood parents are invited to a round-table discussion May 13 at 10 a.m. at P.S. 234. The discussion is co-sponsored by the Hudson River Park Mothers' Group. Anna Grossman, who founded that group—now grown to 400 members—said the neighborhood needs a place where parents and small children can meet, socialize and break the isolation that they often experience in apartments, especially new parents, and particularly during winter months.

"The sense of community that is gained from being able to congregate in a large public space is priceless," Grossman said.

The 28,000-square-foot center, which will occupy four floors of a new, 30-story residential tower, will be a mix of local "Y" and suburban rec room. Its facilities will include a high-tech recording studio, a theater, and a 75-yard, four-lane pool.

THE MAIN FLOOR
The centerpiece of the ground level will be a 2,600-square-foot room called the Great Hall, with space flexible enough to accommodate parent-and-toddler playgroups, floor hockey, gymnastics, community meetings, bingo games and theater performances. There will also be a small café.

THE ACADEMIC CENTER
The second floor will have three classrooms that can be used for SAT prep, computer classes, small self-help groups and meetings. This floor will also have conference and multimedia rooms.

THE AQUATIC CENTER
A 75-foot swimming pool, a steam room, changing rooms, and a dance and fitness studio will be on the first basement level.

THE ARTS AND ACTIVITY CENTER
A second basement level will contain art studios, music rooms, a teen lounge with games, an 80-seat theater, a recording studio, and a kitchen for cooking classes.

The promise of a community center has long been intertwined with the sale and development of two city-owned properties to the south and west of P.S. 234, known respectively as Sites 5B and 5C. When the deals for the development of those properties were negotiated in 2004, Manhattan Youth was the beneficiary of a trade-off over the size of the buildings. Through those deals, and an agreement for Goldman Sachs to build an 800-foot tower in Battery Park City, Manhattan Youth will receive $3.6 million from the sale of Site 5B to Minskoff Equities and $1 million from Goldman Sachs. The developer of Site 5C, Jack Resnick and Sons, is building the shell of the community center at the base of its 30-story residential building. Councilman Alan Gerson promised another $1 million from the city budget. In February, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation awarded Manhattan Youth a $400,000 grant for the construction of the art rooms.
That leaves Manhattan Youth with the responsibility to raise as much as $2.3 million of an estimated total capital cost of $8.3 million. Townley said that other corporations are interested in contributing, but that it was too early in the discussions to say who or how much. He also plans to call on local residents with corporate connections to assist with fundraising. If the campaign falls short, Manhattan Youth will seek individual donations of $25,000 and up. More precise cost estimates will become known as decisions are made on design and construction details. The choice of one type of flooring over another in the Great Hall could mean a difference of tens of thousands of dollars. One high-priced item will be a $250,000 Plexiglas wall in the Great Hall that will allow the room to be used for active play like floor hockey. "We also want individual changing rooms for the kids," Townley said. "That's a really kid-friendly item and a very expensive item." But the center will also have homier touches like beanbag chairs. "Maybe it has to be a little homespun," he said. "It doesn't have to be like a Tribeca restaurant." A typical day at the center may start with seniors exercising in the pool as parents and toddlers play in the Great Hall. A nutritionist or psychologist may be on hand to give advice. At 3 p.m., the after-school programs will take over the pool and Great Hall, and fill the classrooms and art studios. In the evening, there may be a community meeting, dance and cooking classes, rehearsals of an adult chorus and teenagers broadcasting a radio show. Townley wants the center to be for all ages, but feels a particular need to give neighborhood teenagers a place to go. (Manhattan Youth had to close its Warren Street youth center in June 2004 because of a lack of finances.) Last month, Townley sat in an I.S. 89 classroom with 15 middle- and high-school students to hear their ideas. "A community center," he told them, "is something the community owns, and you're the community." Some students suggested Friday night movies with free popcorn and "hanging out games." Others said the center should have workout equipment like treadmills and weights, because gyms aren't open to teenagers. "We really just want a place to hang out," said 16-year-old Veronica Venture. "A place to have fun that our parents would let us go to." Townley also has strong feelings about what he does not want the center to be—a place that charges annual membership fees like a health club, for example. Prices for programs will be geared to middle-class families, he said. Townley has been so closely identified with a neighborhood community center for so long that at a recent community board meeting Councilman Alan Gerson, in a slip of the tongue, referred to the facility as the Townley Center. That makes Townley laugh. "It's going to be just the Downtown Community Center," he said. "I would like it to be a sweet little community center."