Hochul’s $10M pushes a Jackson Heights youth center with a pool past the halfway mark
The state money brings a planned 30,000-square-foot center on 34th Avenue to $33.8 million of its $60 million goal.
Jackson Heights, which has no community swimming pool, is set to get one inside its first Boys and Girls Club after Gov. Kathy Hochul pledged $10 million to the project during a Wednesday, Oct. 14, event at PS 398Q.
Variety, the Boys and Girls Club organization in Queens, will operate the center. Counting the state pledge, public and private backers have now put up $33.8 million. Metropolitan Park contributed $10 million and the City Council $9.3 million. Rep. Grace Meng and Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas each gave $1 million, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer together supplied $2 million, and Assembly Members Steven Raga and Catalina Cruz added $250,000 each.
Where the new Jackson Heights community center will go
The funding pays to buy 70-02 34th Ave., the recently closed BQE Billiards site across the street from PS 398Q. It also covers the next stage of planning, design and community input, which Variety plans to begin right away, while a capital campaign will raise the remaining money. Council Member Shekar Krishnan, who spent years pressing for a center in a neighborhood with little green space, said the effort has passed the halfway point toward its $60 million target.
Plans call for a 30,000-square-foot building with a pool, a basketball court and an auditorium-style theater. It is to offer after-school and summer programs, early childhood education, senior services, workforce development and community events.
When will the Jackson Heights pool open?
Krishnan said he wants work to start as soon as possible, and Variety is aiming to finish toward the end of the decade. “We don’t have a single community pool,” Krishnan said, adding that the neighborhood has needed a space like this for decades.
Hochul said she did not hesitate when asked to help pay for it. “I want New York State to be the number one place in America to raise a family,” she said. The governor, who faces Republican nominee Bruce Blakeman in next month’s governor’s race, denied that the announcement was a rose garden strategy to use her office to boost her reelection.
Quick answers
Where will the Jackson Heights Boys and Girls Club be built?
At 70-02 34th Ave., across from PS 398Q, where BQE Billiards recently closed.
When will the Jackson Heights community pool open?
No date is set. Variety hopes to finish the center toward the end of the decade.
How much money has the project raised?
$33.8 million so far, more than halfway to its $60 million goal.
