Nearly 15 years after the closure of the former Lincoln Recovery Center, South Bronx community leaders broke ground Wednesday on a $44 million center that aims to carry the site’s legacy of holistic health into a new generation.
Following over a decade of advocacy to reclaim the site, the HEArts Center is set to open in 2028. The long-vacant, 26,805-square-foot building will become a resident-led community hub for health, education, workforce development, arts and cultural programming.
“I just feel very fortunate to have this tangible example that folks across the city can have about what it really takes and what it looks like when communities create their own opportunities, not from the top down, but from the ground up,” said South Bronx Unite co-founder Mychal Johnson.
The vision for the HEArts Center was created through years of community planning. Organizers from South Bronx Unite asked community members what they would like to see in their neighborhood. Answers ranged from educational opportunities and access to jobs to a place for arts and culture to thrive.
The final plan for the site includes a 120-seat auditorium, wellness spaces for holistic and preventive health services, classrooms and meeting rooms, workforce development programs for green jobs and educational programming, and office space. The center is also considering a commercial kitchen and cafeteria that would provide nutritious meals while teaching community members how to cook.
The radical history of the People’s Detox Center
The HEArts Center sits on the site of the former Lincoln Recovery Center on 140th Street in Mott Haven. The building was built in 1931 as a Works Progress Administration project, then known as the Mott Haven Medical Center. Lincoln Hospital, the only hospital serving the South Bronx, acquired the building to expand its reach in the neighborhood.
Referred to as “the butcher shop,” the facility was plagued with short staffing, poor hygiene and overall crumbling conditions.
One of the catalysts for the takeover was the avoidable death of Carmen Rodriguez, who died after a botched abortion after hospital staff failed to notice that she had a heart condition on her record.
In 1970, the Puerto Rican Marxist-Leninist group the Young Lords, the Black Panthers and other activists took over Lincoln Hospital in protest of inadequate care and long-term medical neglect in the community.
Their demands included no cutbacks in hospital staff and care, the full completion and staffing of Lincoln Hospital, a set minimum wage for hospital workers, a 24-hour complaint table and a holistic approach to nutrition, substance abuse treatment and child and senior care.
At the height of the heroin epidemic, the activists formed the Lincoln Detox Center, also known as the People’s Detox Center. Challenging methadone, the primary long-term treatment for opioid addiction at the time, the detox center introduced acupuncture, which was then emerging in the Western world as an alternative to traditional drug treatment.
Under orders from then-Mayor Ed Koch, the NYPD surrounded the building until the takeover ended, with Young Lords escaping in medical coats and scrubs. Although removed from its radical beginnings, the center continued treating community members with holistic practices until its closure in 2010.
Juan Cortez, founder of Qi Zone Wellness and associate director of the holistic health program at OnPoint NYC, said his journey with acupuncture and recovery began inside the building in 2005. He received acupuncture treatments and attended support groups before returning the following year to train as an acupuncture detoxification specialist and intern counselor.
Standing alongside Young Lord and acupuncturist Walter Bosque, one of the original members who brought the practice to the South Bronx, Cortez praised the center’s comeback.
“When they shut this building down, I thought that the work was going to end, and I thought that that history would be lost,” Cortez said. “So I dedicated my life to ensuring that that history stays alive. But today is evidence that that history is going to stay alive.”
Bosque was brought to tears as he stood in front of the building.
A new future
NYC Health + Hospitals moved addiction services in 2010 from the off-site center to the main hospital site, leaving the building vacant and dilapidated.
As real estate interest in the South Bronx grew, including FreshDirect’s move to the waterfront, community members sought to keep the neighborhood, including the site, from being absorbed into the private real estate market.
In 2013, the Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Trust was formed to remove land from the real estate market and put it into the hands of the community for long-term community benefit.
In 2022, the New York City Economic Development Corporation and NYC Health + Hospitals issued a request for proposals for the vacant site. The Mott Haven-Port Morris Land Stewards’ proposal for the center was selected in 2023, granting the group a 49-year sublease with two 25-year renewal options.
The land trust acquired the land, working alongside nonprofit developer Alembic Corporation, to transform the former detox center into the HEArts Center.
“For over a decade, as a collective unit in the underdog, we have fearlessly fought to acquire this space because we refuse to give up on the belief that we, as a community, deserve the same access and the same resources and the same response to our families,” said Dr. Melissa Barber, president of the Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Trust.
Funding for the project was secured from a combination of private and public sources, including city and state grants awarded over several administrations.
South Bronx Unite will hold a community celebration for the HEArts center opening on Saturday, September 26.
Reach Marina Samuel at msamuel@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
