The Hip Hop Museum is on track to open in 2026, following a major financial milestone that brings its long-anticipated Bronx debut one step closer to reality.
Ponce Bank announced that it has officially provided a $49 million loan to help build the museum at 585 Exterior St. in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. The loan is a significant part of the overall funding for the project. Earlier this year, a smaller loan of approximately $3 million was finalized to support preliminary development, along with an $8.5 million New Market Tax Credit loan from New Jersey Community Capital, a nonprofit community development financial institution.
The new location of the Hip Hop Museum, which was originally founded in 2015 by hip hop pioneers Rocky Bucano, Kurtis Blow, Grandwizzard Theodore, Joe Conzo Jr. and Grandmaster Melle Mel, is now slated to open next year as the anchor of the mixed-use Bronx Point development along the Harlem River.
“This marks a major milestone in our journey,” Bucano, the CEO of the Hip Hop Museum, said. “Ponce Bank’s commitment highlights the importance of investing in institutions that preserve culture and create opportunity in the communities where it all began. Their support brings us one step closer to opening Hip Hop’s permanent home in the Bronx.”
The museum will span 55,000 square feet and feature immersive exhibitions, live performances, archival collections and educational programming tracing Hip-Hop’s rise from the Bronx to the global cultural force that it is today. The main mission of the Hip Hop Museum is to honor the roots of the musical genre, celebrate its pioneers and inspire the next generation of Hip-Hop artists through creativity, education and community engagement.
“As a community bank founded in the Bronx, we’re proud to support the Hip Hop Museum and everything it stands for,” Ponce Bank President and CEO Carlos P. Naudon said. “Hip Hop shaped the world, and it started right here. Supporting this project is not only about honoring our shared roots, but also about investing in the future of creativity, community and the Bronx itself.”
For many people, Hip-Hop serves as a language used for storytelling. Ponce Bank views the museum as a great local space to archive, document and celebrate this language.
“This project is about more than a museum. It’s about honoring a movement that began in our streets and continues to inspire across generations,” Ponce Bank Head of Commercial Lending Ioannis Kouzilos said. “To lend to an institution that reflects the Bronx’s roots while building something new for its future is exactly what community banking is about.”
