New York City Officials Planning for Major Expansion

NEW YORK — In an effort to alleviate crowded conditions in the city’s jails, New York City officials proposed a plan to build a $375 million detention center on a former dump site in the South Bronx and reopen the shuttered Brooklyn House of Detention after a $245 million expansion.

Officials are currently in negotiations with the city’s Economic Development Corp. to acquire the proposed site of the new Bronx jail, located in the Oak Point section of Hunts Point.

The Brooklyn center, a source of contention for borough residents who wanted to convert the closed facility into a residential development, will likely include space for apartments and retail stores.

Both the Bronx jail and the reopened Brooklyn center are slated to receive thousands of inmates from Rikers Island, while the island’s jail facilities undergo upgrades and repairs.

The Bronx area is the location of several major development projects, including the construction of a new Yankee Stadium and the conversion of the Bronx Terminal Market into the Gateway shopping center.