A four-building mixed-use complex at 240 Nassau Street in Vinegar Hill is about to step into the city’s public land-use arena, bringing plans for roughly 1,500 apartments, a large K-8 public school and a stack of community and cultural spaces. The project would take over the current Madison Square Boys & Girls Club Navy Yard Clubhouse site and introduce a significant amount of new public open space on the block.
The Department of City Planning has issued a 30-day certification notice that will kick off the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) in July, according to New York YIMBY. That step moves the proposal out of environmental scoping and into formal public review, setting up the schedule for community board hearings and a series of agency votes.
What the plan would deliver
Project materials from Alloy Development outline roughly 1,500 rental apartments spread across three new residential buildings, about 305 affordable units with roughly 95 reserved for seniors, and around 28,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and other community-serving uses, according to 240 Nassau Street. Public real-estate filings indicate Alloy acquired the site in 2023 as part of the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club sale, per Traded.
School, community and cultural facilities
Official paperwork filed with the Educational Construction Fund calls for about 121,000 gross square feet of public school space to replace the aging Navy Street building, as detailed in the SEQRA materials in the City Record. Local reporting adds that the replacement is envisioned as a roughly 120,000-square-foot K-8 school designed by Architecture Research Office, and that P.S. 287 students would be temporarily relocated while the new facility is built, according to New York YIMBY.
Public space and design
Renderings and program documents describe roughly 36,000 square feet of new outdoor space, including about 21,000 square feet of publicly accessible play areas, an outdoor stage and café seating, with a community center and a 15,000-square-foot cultural center planned at the base of one building, according to 240 Nassau Street. The state Environmental Notice Bulletin and the SEQRA record have placed a draft scope and positive declaration on the public record, launching the environmental review that will run alongside ULURP, per the DEC Environmental Notice Bulletin.
Timeline and approvals
The SEQRA filing for the project makes clear that the applicants will seek a rezoning and other discretionary actions, including zoning map and text amendments, a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing designation and special permits. All of those would need to clear ULURP and related agency review before any construction can begin, according to the City Record. Local coverage and developer materials indicate the team aims to move through public review over the coming year and, if approvals are granted, start construction as early as 2027, per CityRealty.
Community outreach and next steps
The developer says it has been running an extensive outreach effort and has arranged interim after-school programming and space for youth groups while the site is under review, and local outlets have tracked those efforts along with the long history of the Navy Yard Clubhouse in the area. Public testimony, community board meetings and the ULURP hearings starting this summer will be the main venues for neighbors to weigh in on the plan; for additional background reporting see Brownstoner and the sale listing on Traded.
