Chelsea Beacon: Vacant Bayview prison on West 20th Street becomes 130 affordable homes
Work has started on Chelsea Beacon, a $167 million project that turns an empty 1930s Art Deco prison in Chelsea into permanently affordable housing.
Construction is underway at the former Bayview Correctional Facility, 550 West 20th Street in Chelsea, which is becoming Chelsea Beacon, a $167 million development with 130 permanently affordable homes. Work started this summer.
Camber Property Group and the Osborne Association are developing the project, and COOKFOX is the architect. The plan keeps the eight-story Art Deco building, including its historic brick facade and its second-floor chapel, and adds an extension to the original structure.
Who can live at Chelsea Beacon
Income limits apply: eligibility tops out at 80 percent of AMI, the area median income. Studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms are planned, alongside supportive housing and short-term transitional residences. Roughly 9,300 square feet of the building is set aside for community space.
The building will also host a new program with 15 beds, called a Short-Term Transitional Residence, for people with mental illness. Over 120 days, participants receive intensive support while they work on their skills, and afterward they move to a more independent housing setting. Urban Pathways will run that program, while Osborne will operate the supportive housing.
From sailors’ dorm to prison to apartments
The building began life as the Seamen’s House YMCA, where merchant sailors rented single rooms. Its 1931 design came from Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, the firm known for the Empire State Building. A drug treatment center moved in during 1967, and in 1974 the state’s Department of Correctional Services took over that operation. It stayed a prison until Hurricane Sandy flooded it, forcing its closure in 2012.
The state issued requests for proposals in 2013 and 2014, but both were canceled after the bidders withdrew. Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a new one in September 2023. It required at least 60 supportive units and 15 short-term transitional residences. In July 2024 the state, working with Empire State Development, picked Camber and Osborne for a plan then called Liberty Landing. The project has since been renamed, and the plans look largely the same.
The architects will restore the street-facing facades and rebuild the interior with all-electric systems. The old chapel will become a library for residents, and nautical mosaic murals from the building’s former indoor pool will go in the new lobby.
Quick answers
Who can qualify for Chelsea Beacon apartments?
Eligibility is capped at 80 percent of the area median income (AMI).
Where is Chelsea Beacon?
It is at 550 West 20th Street in Chelsea, in the former Bayview Correctional Facility.
Who is building Chelsea Beacon?
Camber Property Group and the Osborne Association are developing it, and COOKFOX designed it.
