Delancey Street Associates (DSA) and 32BJ SEIU, New York City’s largest property workers service union, announced jobs deal for the massive Essex Crossing development on the Lower East Side.
The agreement will create up to 80 full-time jobs with health insurance, training and retirement benefits across the six-acre project and provide training for local residents to fill those jobs. This marks the first time the union has partnered with a developer for training in a new development.
DSA, a tri-venture comprising BFC Partners, L+M Development Partners and Taconic Investment Partners, will partner with 32BJ and the Lower East Side Employment Network – an array of community workforce development groups – to implement the training program.
The public-private model will allow prospective workers to receive job skills training to enhance their ability to pursue the project’s promising employment opportunities.
“I commend DSA for its commitment to ensuring that Essex Crossing’s neighbors are trained and readied for the dozens of quality property service jobs the project will create,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation President Kyle Kimball.
“From the beginning, the Lower East Side community has been an integral partner on this project, and we look forward to the thousands more jobs, hundreds of units of affordable housing, and commercial and community assets the project will bring to the neighborhood.”
Ron Moelis, CEO and Founding Partner of L+M Development Partners, said the partnership will directly engage local residents through a unique public-private workforce development partnership.
“Along with my partners from BFC and Taconic, we’re thrilled that this deal will ensure that this quintessentially Lower East Side project will provide good jobs for Lower East Siders for years to come.”
32BJ Secretary-Treasurer Kyle Bragg called the deal “a model for residential buildings across our city.”
Essex Crossing was previously known as the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA) and has sat mostly vacant since 1967. The area is the largest undeveloped parcel of land in Manhattan below 96th Street.
DSA is expected to break ground on the first phase of the project in the summer of 2015 with the construction of 561 apartments, 313 of which will be affordable.
The initial phase will also include an expansive new home for the Essex Street Market, the largest movie theater in Manhattan below Union Square, and a 15,000-square foot public park.
Overall, Essex Crossing will include 1,000 residential units – half of which will be affordable – and 850,000 square feet of commercial space.
