Wealthy Manhattan Neighborhood in Uproar Over Plans to Build $3.9 Billion Community Jail
An upscale Manhattan neighborhood is in the news for plans to build a multibillion-dollar prison.
As part of New York City’s plan to close the infamous Rikers Island, new “community-based” jails are being built in every NYC borough except Staten Island—and that includes expensive Manhattan.
The location will be 214-215 White St. in an area close to town with an impressive median price of $4,285,750.
“It’s very unusual,” the state’s prison counsel Jack Donson tells Realtor.com® about the Chinatown area. “Prisoners tend to be built outside of urban areas.”
Chinatown, sometimes called “East Tribeca” or “Two Bridges” in an effort by real estate agents to glamorize the area, has seen a 7.3% price increase since December 2019, topping out at just under $5 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Realtor.com data.
That’s as steep as Nantucket, MA, ($5.3 million) and more expensive than Palm Beach, FL ($3.2 million).
The neighbors are not happy.
“Blood is on your hands,” tweeted one attendee of a recent Zoom meeting to discuss the program’s details, according to The City. “That’s why you’re wearing a pink shirt,” the same person told the representative Pastor Perinithe company entered into a contract to build a prison.
“You will waste years of time and billions of public dollars,” asserted another.
The $3.9 billion prison, designed by HOK, will be located across from Columbus Park, where the most trafficked Canal Street is a thoroughfare. A two-bedroom condo, which is an eight-minute walk from the new jail, is listed at $1.4 million.
The 1,040-bed prison with a capacity of 4,500 inmates is expected to be completed in 2032, according to The City. It is expected to reach 300 meters in length, making it the longest prison in the world.
Neighbors are also not happy with the idea of building regularly. Workers plan to work from 6 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday, and from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Neighbors United Below Canal (NUBC) has filed a lawsuit to stop the project. The group argues that the site should be used for affordable housing instead and suggests that a prison could be built on the site of the former Correctional Facility at 150 Park Row.
That facility was closed in 2021, a few years after being accused of sex trafficking Jeffrey Epstein he died there by suicide in 2019, and has been sitting empty ever since.
“It’s in a place where it won’t be that dangerous to build,” the founder of NUBC Jan Lee he told the one coming out. (Realtor.com has reached out to the group for comment.) However, that site is owned by the federal government, not the city.
Donson questions whether the expensive new prisons will make any real difference to the lives of inmates.
“Is the answer closed [Rikers] and not talk about systemic dysfunctional bureaucracy?” he asks.
Why are new prisons needed?
Critics of Rikers Island say its inconvenient location—it sits on a small island in the East River between the Bronx and LaGuardia Airport—means inmates have to wake up at 3 a.m. to get to court in the city.
These stressful commutes are allegedly used to coerce inmates into confessing to crimes. Additionally, it is very difficult for loved ones or legal counsel to visit the prison.
The new “community-based” prisons – which are common among areas where prices have risen sharply – are all close to courthouses for convenience.
What will happen to home values in the area?
“Construction of a new prison usually lowers prices, as house owners are reluctant to have a big and strong building in their neighborhood and the fear of increased night traffic and crime (although unfounded),” it said. Joel Bernerchief economist at Realtor.com.
“Nobody wants a prison around them, I don’t think it’s crazy to say that,” Douglas Elliman, a 1% leasing agent.Keyan Sanailocal responder, tells Realtor.com. “It’s not a good thing.”
But he argues that it’s not necessarily a big negative either. “It’s a maximum security prison,” he says. “Are you worried? When was the last time you heard about prison break?”
“It adds a level of security,” he adds. “There will be armed guards outside.”
He makes the case that those who find a good place in the city will not let the nearby prison stop them from living in the place of their choice.
“It’s New York. We all live on top of each other. This is not California, where you have a ‘good’ place and you drive 15 minutes to a ‘bad’ place,” he said.
“It is not normal that you go to someone’s house worth $20 million and there is Section 8 next to you [low income] houses. That’s Manhattan. It’s an island with limited space.”
“Real estate depends on both reality and perception,” Jenny Lenzmanaging director of Dolly Lenz Real Estate in Manhattan, tells Realtor.com. “Prison is textbook discrimination, even without real change in safety or crime rates. Some buyers and tenants will automatically reduce nearby properties because they don’t like the organization.”
“However, the result will be very local,” he adds. “Nearby buildings may be affected, but a few blocks away, the impact will be less noticeable.”
Prison does not always hurt values
One need not look too far for an example of a place that has not suffered from the presence of a prison.
An old correctional facility on bustling Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood hasn’t stopped the neighborhood from exploding with high-rise buildings and apartments.
That prison was demolished and a new facility was built on the same site. Designed by HOK and developed by the NYC Department of Design and Construction, the 339-foot-tall building will occupy 712,150 square feet and house 1,040 inmates.
Atlantic Avenue is known for its shopping and has Trader Joe’s, Barnes and Noble, Michaels, and PetSmart—all literally across the street from the jail.
Minutes away are Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill, two of Brooklyn’s most desirable and family-friendly neighborhoods, with median home price tags of $2.95 million and $2.42 million, respectively.
Brooklyn also has a detention center in Sunset Park, which has seen several high-profile inmates, including a rapper. P. Diddyaccused the killer of the United Healthcare CEO Luigi Mangioneand an exiled Chinese billionaire Miles Guo.
The median home price in the area is $650,000—above the national median list price of $399,950.
