Re-envisioning Bed-Stuy Restoration’s Fulton Street Home

Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation is kicking off a community planning process to re-envision Restoration Plaza, its long time Fulton Street home. We recently finalized our five-year strategic plan to help disrupt and close the racial wealth gap based on the tenets of excellence, collaboration, and innovation with community remaining at its core.

Re-envisioning Restoration Plaza is front and center of our strategic plan.

We’re proud to partner with architect Sir David Adjaye OBE — whose iconic works have included the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Nobel Peace Center — to re-imagine Restoration Plaza, its physical home on Fulton Street, frequently referred to as the Town Hall of Central Brooklyn.

As the city and borough attract a huge range of national and international employers, industries from technology to construction, light manufacturing, retail, hospitality, health and food services are more robust in Brooklyn than ever before. Our plan helps foster an equitable Brooklyn economy in which longtime residents can benefit in a real and permanent way from those investments.

A Symbol of Ownership, Pride and Economic Stability for Central Brooklyn

In the weeks and months to come, we will work closely with Central Brooklyn to get input to create a new symbol of ownership, pride and economic stability. The way in which our new home functions will be decided in lock-step with you with four centers of excellence anchor the Plaza:

• Center for Personal Financial Health – Will aim to help local residents and families increase their savings and net worth by earning and saving more, with services like financial and homeownership guidance as well as career counselling and networking help.

• Center for Community Asset Building – Will work to ensure that new investments in local infrastructure, housing, business arts and culture are fashioned to include, rather than displace, low- and moderate-income residents.

• Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise – Will lead the work to reimagine Restoration Plaza as a hub for entrepreneurship, middle-income jobs, skills development and training. The strategic plan envisions over 400,000 square feet of office space, a major expansion of Restoration’s current footprint which will help bring its mission of attracting businesses focused on the elevation of Central Brooklyn residents to scale.

• RestorationART – Will continue to grow as a leading cultural destination in Brooklyn, a 24/7 creative complex within Restoration Plaza that reflects the diverse stories of people of African descent; celebrates Black excellence, delving into the issues of our time, including race, equity and diversity; and attracts artists in theater, dance, music, and visual arts from around the corner and around the world. It will set the tone of Restoration Plaza as elevating the financial and cultural priorities of communities of color in Central Brooklyn while welcoming of all residents.

Together, these resources will help our community create a template for disrupting and closing the racial wealth gap – a model that can be replicated in other communities.

Our Leaders & Supporters

“For fifty years, Restoration has represented the blood, sweat and tears of activists, community organizers, and artists who struggled to create something important and beautiful for African American and Caribbean residents of Central Brooklyn—delivering resources like thousands of units of housing, a supermarket, small businesses, banks, and world-class art to a neighborhood long stifled by harmful policies like redlining,” said Colvin Grannum, President of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. “But today we face a new challenge. As Brooklyn has transformed into a hub of new-economy jobs like tech and hospitality, it now must become our sacred mission to ensure residents of communities, like Central Brooklyn, that have been subject to systemic and racial discrimination have access to those opportunities and are supported in their desire to build assets and create wealth. We are committed to working with local residents to create a campus that will serve as an anchor for the economic justice of our neighborhood, and a symbolic cultural center of the Black community.”

“Brooklyn is undergoing a massive transformation into a destination that is catching the eye of tech and hospitality jobs,” said Kevin Chavers, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation Board Chair. “It’s our mission and responsibility to ensure that those jobs go to Brooklynites of color who define and built this community. With the re-imagining of Restoration, we are confident that this impactful institution will provide our community with direct access to these jobs and the necessary skills to overtake this new opportunity presented to us.”

“Our team is embarking on a notable mission to re-imagine Restoration Plaza and showcase its impact on the Bed Stuy community and the country,” said Sir David Adjaye OBE. “As the nation’s first CDC, Restoration has a long history of setting a high standard for the advancement of African American and Caribbean residents who built Central Brooklyn and poured their soul into the community. It’s our honor to be a part of this powerful five-year plan to remake this iconic community epicenter and tackle the large challenge of sustained wealth through the closure of a heartbreaking wealth gap in this city.”

“Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration has been a staple in its community for over 50 years,” said Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President. “The possibilities that will come as a result of its re-envisioning are endless and I’m proud of Restoration’s leadership and commitment to disrupting and closing the wealth gap for our community.”

“My district office is based in Restoration Plaza, so I have a deep appreciation for how instrumental this organization has been in bringing Central Brooklyn essential services from a major supermarket to a range of retail and office space to great art,” said Robert Cornegy, Jr., NYC Council Member for the 36th District. “As Restoration re-imagines its campus and embarks on a new chapter to disrupt and close the racial wealth gap, I stand with the organization because I know it will continue to have a profound impact on this community.”

"Bed-Stuy is booming, with new housing, businesses and retail moving in every day. But it's important that all this success is equally available to everyone," said Laurie Cumbo, New York City Council Majority Leader. “It's incredibly exciting to see Restoration's stellar leadership working to ensure that the area's long-time residents are afforded the same level of access to the influx of resources in Brooklyn, and the opportunities that come along with them.”

“From assisting Central Brooklyn residents with finding employment and reducing debt to bringing the community essential services like housing and a supermarket, Restoration has long been an important community anchor,” said Senator Velmanette Montgomery of the 25th Senate District. “I applaud Restoration for launching a planning process to reimagine Restoration Plaza as a new symbol of ownership, pride and economic stability for Central Brooklyn so the organization can zero in on disrupting and closing the racial wealth gap.”

“Our community has endured a lot of change over the past few decades but Restoration has always been there fighting for the same things that I have throughout my career: providing economic opportunity for Bed Stuy’s longtime residents and improving the neighborhood’s quality of life,” said Tremaine S. Wright, Assemblymember for the 56th District of the New York State Assembly. “I commend the leadership of Restoration for beginning a community driven process to reimagine Restoration Plaza so it can better fulfill its mission of closing the gaps in family and community wealth.”

“Restoration is both a cultural anchor for Central Brooklyn and a leader in the fight for an equitable Brooklyn economy where longtime residents can share in new investments and prosperity,” said Walter T. Mosley, Assemblymember for the 57th District of the New York State Assembly. “I am proud to support Restoration as they begin this important community planning process to reimagine their home, Restoration Plaza, so this historic organization can achieve its mission of helping residents of color build assets and create wealth.”

"I am hopeful that Restoration will help close the racial wealth gap in Central Brooklyn and Restoration Plaza should be carefully configured in a way that will help achieve the closing of this gap and better class parity within our changing community, said Alicka Ampry-Samuel, Council Member for District 41. The deliberative community planning-process Restoration is embarking on is a noted and appreciated need. Their role as an anchor for promoting economic opportunities should be leveraged for everyone within the wider Brooklyn community."

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