City Files Building Plans For Inwood Library Redevelopment

INWOOD, NY — The city Department of Housing Preservation and Development pre-filed plans with the Department of Buildings to construct a controversial redevelopment of Inwood's New York Public Library branch.

The plans, filed at the end of March, revealed specific details about the city's plans. The redeveloped 14-story residential development and library will rise 143-feet-tall and contain 174 below-market-rate apartment units, according to the building plans. Residents of the new building will have access to amenities such as bike parking spaces, a laundry room and recreation space.

The total size of the development will be 144,679 square feet, with 118,432 square feet dedicated for the residential portion and 26,247 square feet dedicated for the library and community facilities, according to the building plans.

Library officials have yet to announce when the redevelopment will begin, but the latest filing shows that plans are in motion. Demolition plans for the current library branch have not yet been filed, according to the city Department of Buildings.

A temporary library site will be established in a 1,700-square-foot space in 4857 Broadway, an apartment building located between Academy and West 204th streets, while the library is being redeveloped. The temporary site is located one block away from the library's current location.

The city will hand over the Inwood library branch on Broadway between Dyckman and Academy streets to a development team composed of the Community League of the Heights (CLOTH), Ranger Properties, Alembic, and the Children's Village, HPD announced. That team's winning bid calls for the construction of a new three-level library branch in the development, HPD announced in 2018.

All 175 apartments in the new development — named "The Eliza" after Eliza Hamilton — will be offered rents below the market rate, city officials announced. The apartments will be a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom apartments, city officials said.

The units will be eligible for individuals earning between $20,040 and $40,080 per year and families earning between $25,770 and $51,540 per year, city officials said. Twenty percent of the units will be reserved for families of up to three earning less than $26,000 per year and an additional number of apartments will be reserved for formerly homeless residents, city officials said.

Read more about the planned redevelopment here.