Holy Innocents Plans

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Holy Innocents, the beautiful Roman Catholic church on Beverley between E17th and E18th has plans for converting the large lot they own diagonally across the street on E17th (their “glorified parking lot” mid-block between Beverley and Cortelyou) into a community center, reports Courier Life:

Judith Tolbert, an organizer for Brooklyn Congregations United (BCU), and Cresci are reaching out to Flatbush residents, local politicians and community business for contributions to make this vision happen.

“We could just put a steel building there for $100,000, but that wouldn’t do much good,” he said.

Instead, Cresci has contacted Custogeorge, Tooman and Allen to create a preliminary design for the center.

“I’m trying to convince residents it won’t be an eye sore,” he said.

Dan Allen, of the firm, is already working with Cresci to restore Holy Innocents, a nationally registered historic place. Cresci estimates that the project will cost $3 million to $4 million “to do it right.” However, Allen’s firm estimates that the total cost will come to over $9 million

The proposed community center will be a modern-style two-story building with class rooms on the second floor, an auditorium on the second and a kitchen in the basement. The space could offer activities for the elderly, after-school programs for kids and an expanded operation of their existing soup kitchen, said Joseph Grannum, Brooklyn Congregations United’s representative for Holy Innocents. The kitchen currently serves around 80 families, but could feed 100 with the additional space, he said.

Full story here.

Tags: Church of the Holy Innocents, proposals
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