The center has office space, conference rooms, a commercial kitchen, a community garden, green roofs, and public artwork.
The new $128 million Brownsville Multi-Service Center will bring community-based organizations and Brooklyn Community Board 16 under one roof, with offices, meeting spaces, a commercial kitchen and a community garden. Photo via the Mayor’s Office
by Gabriele Holtermann, Brooklyn Paper
Community-based organizations and Brooklyn Community Board 16 will soon serve residents across Brooklyn from under one roof at a new 60,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art, all-electric community center set to open its doors in Brownsville in the coming months.
The new $128 million Brownsville Multi-Service Center is located at 444 Thomas S. Boyland Street between Pitkin and East New York avenues. The center features 10 office spaces, three flexible conference rooms that can be combined into a large meeting center, a commercial kitchen, a 1,600-square-foot outdoor community garden, green roofs, and public artwork by Brooklyn-based artist Jazmine Hayes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
The four-story building also meets the city’s climate resilience standards. It includes solar panels across three floors and large windows that maximize natural light, and is expected to meet or exceed LEED Gold certification. Additionally, 85 percent of the 11,000 tons of demolition material was sent to recycling facilities. It replaced an older city-owned community center.
The project also achieved another remarkable milestone: The center was completed two years ahead of schedule and cost $10 million less than the projected budget, according to pols. Last year, city officials projected the center would open in spring 2026.
The city’s Department of Design and Construction, which managed the project for the Department of Social Services, used a design-build approach led by Gilbane Building Company and Marvel. The approach, in which a single entity contracts for both design and construction services, helped reduce construction time and costs, city officials said.
“City government should deliver beautiful, sustainable public buildings that serve working people and the communities they call home,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. “And we delivered this one two years ahead of schedule and $10 million under budget. Brownsville deserves investment that is built with care, and that’s exactly what this center represents.”
DDC Commissioner Paul Ochoa noted that it is difficult to build a community without ample community space and pointed out that the center, which will be operated by the Neighborhood Association for Inter-Cultural Affairs, will allow residents of all ages to participate in classes, workshops, and cultural activities.
“This four-story center will soon be home to community-based organizations that will offer programming and services to thousands of neighbors,” Ochoa said. “By bringing organizations, services, and residents under one roof, the center will create so many new opportunities for connection, learning, and community engagement, while also giving local organizations a dedicated place to serve Brownsville.”
DSS Commissioner Erin Dalton expressed her excitement about opening the doors to the community in the coming months.
“We’re proud to unveil the brand-new Brownsville Multi-Service Center, which creates a state-of-the-art home for local organizations to provide services and resources that engage and support the community,” Dalton said. “We are grateful to our agency partners at DDC for developing this sustainable, high-quality building with great efficiency and DCLA for working with an artist that has roots in the community to give this space more meaning. We are excited to open the doors of this resource to the community in the coming months.”
Sydone Thompson, district manager for Brooklyn Community Board 16, pointed to the legacy of Assembly Member Thomas S. Boyland, who unexpectedly died in 1982 at age 39 during his third term representing Bedford Stuyvesant.
“As the doors of the Community Board 16 Brooklyn office at 444 Thomas S. Boyland Street are slated to reopen, we honor the enduring legacy of the man whose name marks this place and renew our charge to serve Brownsville and Ocean Hill with the same valor and dedication,” Thompson said.
In nearby neighborhoods, the Bushwick Multi-Service Center, Bed Stuy’s Restoration Plaza, and Weeksville Heritage Center house similar functions for their communities, although the first two facilities were built decades ago and may be in need of updating.
Hayes’ installation, titled “I Am Protected,” includes four pieces from the series and was commissioned through the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Percent for Art program. Since 1982, New York City’s Percent for Art law has required that 1 percent of the budget for eligible city-funded construction projects be dedicated to public artwork.
The project received the NYC Public Design Commission’s 43rd Annual Award for Excellence in Design in 2025. Hayes’ works incorporate images of braids, cowry shells, and repeating patterns that reflect the cultures and histories of Brownsville while exploring themes of protection, reclamation, and healing.
Hayes, who was born and raised in East New York, noted that each work contains themes honoring the history, present, and future of Brownsville and communities alike.
“With each design at an entry point across the Multi-Service Center, my intent is that every visitor and youth of the Brownsville community is met with an affirmation of curiosity, care, and imagination,” Hayes explained. “May this space be a resourceful and united place of activity and programming for the children, families, and people to come. I am truly grateful to have been a part of this phenomenal accomplishment and team.”
Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Diya Vij said public art not only has the power to transform spaces, but also how visitors perceive them.
“Commissioned by our Percent for Art program, the powerful three-dimensional mural ‘I Am Protected’ by artist Jazmine Hayes is both an amulet and a vision for a just future, infused with input from Brownsville youth, where the surrounding community is honored and held high from now on,” Vij said. “This is the promise of public art — to be both a marker of time and a map for times ahead.”
Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.
Related Stories
Email tips@brownstoner.com with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner on X and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.
Register to leave a comment, or log in if you already have an account
Need a Hand?
Company
Legal
BROWNSTONER NEWSLETTER
Get to know Brooklyn, one neighborhood at a time.

source