Exclusive: Greenpoint Hospital To Become Affordable Housing Units

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A hospital that's been vacant for decades has become an eyesore in Brooklyn. Previous mayors had big plans for Greenpoint hospital, but they never got off the ground.

A new announcement from the city could finally change that.

Leila Bozorg, the deputy commissioner for the city's Housing Preservation and Development department, gave CBS2's Lisa Rozner an exclusive look at how the campus will be preserved and transformed in the next few years.

Greenpoint hospital opened in 1915, but a fly infestation and overcrowding left it in disrepair, closing the facility in 1982.

Today, one building is an active homeless shelter with 200 beds, and another is being used by the non-profit St. Nicks Alliance.

Most of the closed down hospital remains empty and have allegedly been used by squatters.

Bozorg says the current homeless shelter will become senior housing. A smoke stack on the site will come down, making way for 500 plus new affordable housing units.

"We're talking the types of homes that are affordable to a family of three for instance making about $28,000, to a family of three making about $75,000. That's a big dent," NYC Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer said.

Fences around the property will come down and an entire street that runs through it will again be open for traffic.

There will also be open space, retail shops, and even a medical facility overseen by St. Nicks Alliance.

The plan now needs to be approved by the local community board as well as the City Council. The commissioner hopes to have shovels in the ground by 2021.