Ribbon-cutting for new affordable housing complex of NYC hip-hop museum

BRONX - Officials and community members were on hand Thursday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony that will increase housing availability in the South Bronx.

"These apartments are more than just brick and mortar, but they represent the promise, the potential of a brighter future for our families and our children," said Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson.

Called Bronx Point, Phase 1 includes 542 modern units of affordable housing now available to New Yorkers struggling to afford places of their own. The development will also have retail space, an outside workout area, and a public park, all on 2.8 acres of waterfront access right next to the Harlem River.

"We obviously know that we have a housing crisis in NYC, and so every unit that we get is a unit that we need, and we're gonna hold on to," said Diana Ayala, Bronx City Councilwoman.

Even more significantly, Bronx Point will house the much anticipated Universal Hip Hop Museum, the first museum solely dedicated to music's biggest-selling genre located in the borough where the genre began 50 years ago this year.

Pioneering female MC Roxanne Shante was on the committee that selected the location.

"It just seems like when you know that it's supposed to happen and when it's the right place, right time with the right people everything goes right," Shante said. 

The project's price tag was $349M but what it will come to mean for this part of the city is priceless

"Especially those apartments that are dedicated to the formerly homeless. Projects like this play an essential role in tackling our housing crisis," said Dan Garodnick, the NYC Planning Department director.

The lottery to apply for Bronx Point apartments is now underway and, separately, the Hip Hop Museum is still on track to open in the fall of 2025.