NYCFC Stadium In The Bronx Could Be Back On The Table
Plans for a Major League Soccer stadium in New York City may have come full circle, with a new proposal surfacing this week that suggests it could be built on a 20-acre development in the south Bronx.
The site New York City Football Club is considering is next to Yankee Stadium, which is the same place the club wanted to build five years ago until negotiations with the city went south, The New York Times reports.
Under this plan, the stadium would be part of a development from Jorge Madruga of Maddd Equities and Eli Weiss of Joy Construction. If it got the green light from the city, the stadium would be located at East 153rd Street and River Avenue.
The project would also feature 3,000 affordable apartments, a park and a hotel.
“We think the stadium is added value to the entire neighborhood,” Weiss told the Times. “But our core is housing and commercial development. That’s what we know how to do. But the stadium makes sense given where it is.”
However, there is no signed deal yet and nothing has been finalized. A site at Willets Point in Queens is also being discussed.
The club has played its home games in Yankee Stadium since the team's inaugural season four years ago, but it has tried to move forward on plans for a stadium in Queens and near Columbia University in Manhattan.
A spokesperson for NYCFC told the newspaper that the club “is actively pursuing a permanent home in N.Y.C. and exploring several options, including working with Maddd Equities in the Bronx. We continue to engage in meaningful dialogue to understand what may be feasible on their site.”
Related Cos. and Somerset Partners’ pitched a plan earlier this year to build a 26,000-seat stadium and 550 affordable apartments at Harlem River Yards, a state-owned site along the waterfront.
The plan was part of a response to a request for expressions of interest for developers to take on a 12.8-acre stretch of land in the area.
NYCFC declined to comment on that particular idea, saying only that it was continuing to look for a “new home” in a “number of possible locations.”
