A proposed 911 call center that would have put a 37-story building in a Bronx flood plain is going back to the drawing board after the cost shot up to almost $1 billion.
The city had for two years estimated the cost of the 400,000-square-foot building at $670 million, but that jumped to $957 million when a proposed contract with Tishman Technologies was published last month.
“We are scaling back the project in order to maintain the essential elements, but at a lower cost,” said Matthew Monahan, spokesman for the Department of Design and Construction. “The early projected numbers were at another time in the city’s economic history.”
The NYPD says the center is a critical relief valve for the city’s 1 million 911 calls each month, which are all routed to MetroTech Center in Brooklyn.
The Bronx center would take half those calls when finished, but could handle all the calls in an emergency - and would be built to withstand an earthquake, a hurricane, a flood or a terrorist bomb.
Design documents say 750 people would work at the 911 center, requiring a 500-car garage. The city had hoped to finish the building by the end of next year.
Neighbors in Morris Park hated the idea of a 363-foot tower on a 9-acre office park site, as well as all those cars coursing through neighborhood streets, said City Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx), who represents the area. Read more..
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