Construction has begun on a massive $92 million city-funded animal shelter and clinic at the Bay Plaza Mall in the northeast Bronx.
Animal advocates rejoiced late Thursday morning knowing their longtime efforts to bring an animal shelter to the Bronx were becoming a reality. Construction vehicles moved onto the site shortly after city officials stuck shovels in the ground in celebration.
The city-owned property, which previously housed NYPD trailers, sits in between the Bay Plaza Mall’s Red Lobster restaurant and Project Hope, a senior apartment building. The mall is sandwiched between parts of Co-op City, a massive affordable housing cooperative that its management company, the Riverbay Corporation, says is the largest in the world.
The 2060 Bartow Ave. facility will be a whopping 50,000 square feet with a capacity for 70 dogs, 140 cats, 30 rabbits and 20 animals of other species. Along with admission and adoption services, the center will have a low––cost veterinary clinic.
The facility will have covered exercise runs, courtyards and community space, according to the NYC Department of Design and Construction. The shelter will have an educational program for kids and volunteer opportunities for seniors, city officials said on Thursday.
The city’s animal shelters are overseen by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and operated by nonprofit Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC).
The Co-op City project, which was previously slated to open next fall, has an expected completion in spring 2025. In the absence of an animal shelter in the Bronx, ACC has been operating an animal resource center on East Fordham Road.
While the resource center offers vaccine clinics, pet food and surrender prevention efforts, it doesn’t have the capacity to house animals, Risa Weinstock, the CEO of ACC, told the Bronx Times. If Bronxites need to surrender their pets, ACC helps transport them to the full service shelter in Manhattan, she said.
The…
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