The eight-story project will give five displaced community organizations a permanent home, with construction expected to finish in 2030.
By David LaGuerre | November 9, 2026
New York City officials broke ground Monday on a $184 million reconstruction of 70 Mulberry Street, a former school and community center in Chinatown that was severely damaged by fire in January 2020.
The city’s Nov. 9 announcement describes an eight-story building that will provide permanent space for five community organizations and about 30% more public space than the original facility. Construction is expected to be completed in 2030.
The project is in Manhattan, not the Mohawk Valley. It is a statewide cultural-development story about rebuilding a public institution that has served generations of immigrants and restoring space for senior, arts, educational and recreational services.
Five organizations are expected to return
The building’s planned occupants are CPC Chinatown Senior Citizen Center, United East Athletic Association, Chen Dance Center, Museum of Chinese in America and Chinatown Manpower Project.
According to the city, the January 23, 2020, fire forced the organizations to move elsewhere. Many have continued programs in temporary locations at reduced capacity. The reconstruction is intended to give all five permanent homes again.
“After the terrible fire in 2020, those organizations and the people who depend on them were forced to carry on elsewhere,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in the announcement. “Now, we’re bringing them home.”
The groundbreaking begins the construction phase. It is not a reopening, and the announcement does not provide new public visiting hours for the future center.
Historic elements will remain
The original five-story building was designed by C.B.J. Snyder and built in 1892 as Public School 23. It became a community facility after the school closed in the mid-1970s, according to the city.
Two stories of the original façade and the historic stairwell have been preserved. The new construction will combine those elements with modern building systems and expanded program space.
Plans call for six community rooms. Two on the top floor can be combined into a larger space. A new kitchen will serve the senior center, while a sixth-floor multipurpose room overlooking Columbus Park will host performances, sports, lectures, receptions and other activities.
That room will connect to landscaped terraces along Mulberry and Bayard streets. The city says the connected spaces will accommodate up to 475 people.
Accessibility and energy targets
The facility will have three elevators, a new lobby and accessible restrooms. Officials say it will comply fully with the Americans with Disabilities Act. New mechanical, electrical, plumbing, heating, cooling, fire-alarm and security systems are part of the project.
The main building will be all-electric, with emergency generators for backup. A rooftop solar canopy and solar technology incorporated into the façade are expected to generate up to 410 megawatt-hours of electricity each year, meeting as much as 30% of annual demand.
The city also projects that the building will use less than half the energy of a modern, energy-efficient commercial building and says it is expected to achieve LEED Platinum certification. Those are design goals and projections, not measured performance from an occupied facility.
The project will set targets for reused and locally sourced materials to reduce the environmental impact of construction.
Art will preserve memories of the building
Artist Jennifer Wen Ma’s planned three-part installation, Wings of Everchange 易之翼, will connect the building’s history with stories from the community. It was commissioned through the city’s Percent for Art program.
The centerpiece is a suspended sculpture approximately 33 feet long. The city says it will use metal, glass and objects salvaged from the fire. Amber glass orbs will hold memories and stories dedicated to individuals or groups, forming part of an oral-history archive.
The installation also includes an ink painting on glass panels along the stairwell and an oral-history component developed with the community. The Department of Design and Construction’s earlier art-project announcement provides additional background.
Construction schedule remains a projection
The Department of Design and Construction is working with design firm Grimshaw and Hunter Roberts Construction Group. The city says the project uses a Construction Manager-Build delivery method, bringing designers and builders together earlier in the process.
Officials expect completion in 2030. Readers should treat that as the current construction forecast rather than a guaranteed opening date. The five organizations’ existing programs remain separate from the future building’s construction schedule.
Source: New York City Mayor’s Office, November 9, 2026 announcement. Costs, dimensions, capacity, energy targets and completion expectations are attributed to the city. Images on the official announcement are architectural and artwork renderings, not photographs of a completed building.