Inwood Library Temporary Site Set To Open: What To Know

INWOOD, NY — The New York Public Library recently announced that a long-discussed temporary Inwood branch will open Thursday while redevelopment of the current neighborhood branch gets done.

The temporary branch is located in a 1,700-square-foot space at 4857 Broadway, an apartment building located between Academy and West 204th Streets. The temporary site is one block away from the library's current location.

The city handed over the Inwood library branch on Broadway between Dyckman and Academy streets in 2018 to a development team composed of the Community League of the Heights (CLOTH), Ranger Properties, Alembic, and the Children's Village, the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced at the time. That team's winning bid calls for the construction of a 14-story building with 175 apartments and a new three-level library branch, HPD announced.

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 new Inwood library will occupy space on three floors of the building.

The redevelopment of the library is part of the city's estimated $500 million Inwood rezoning plan that it says will bring 2,600 new affordable housing units to the neighborhood.

The NYPL's announcement of the temporary library opening said that the "planning for the redevelopment of a new Inwood branch is moving forward." The HPD also gave a virtual presentation at the beginning of February to Community Board 12 and said that the new branch will offer "the flexibility, technology, and infrastructure that our community both needs and deserves."

You can read more about the temporary Inwood library here.

A group of Inwood residents called Save Inwood Library have been outspoken critics of the city's plan since it was first announced in January of 2017. The group's members have warned against turning over the library's land to private developers and criticized the city's selection of the Inwood library for redevelopment.

The NYPL also released new renderings for what the Inwood library will look like after the reconstruction.

Read More: Inwood Library Temporary Site Chosen