Steven L. Green StreetSquash Community Center

Total Project Cost:  $9.0 million
NMTC QEI:  $7.3 million

This new 18,700 square foot building in New York City’s Harlem is StreetSquash’s first permanent home.  The innovative urban youth enrichment program, which teaches 7th to 12th graders squash while promoting their academic success and engaging them in community service, spent its early years with no home of its own, moving from borrowed  space to borrowed space.  Founded in 1999, StreetSquash has expanded from an organization serving 20 students to a strong community presence that will reach over 1,000 public school children next year.  The organization’s most recent growth has been possible because of its new facility.  The Stephen L. Greene StreetSquash Community Center will not only allow StreetSquash to expand its regular programming, including summer and after school programs, but will also allow it to start a program that will provide physical education to 150 public school children each day.  In a city where 23% of high schools and 41% of elementary schools cannot provide regular physical education classes, this is a significant contribution.  The new facility will boast four classrooms and a library as well as eight squash courts, a workout room, locker rooms and administrative offices for 14 staff members.  The building was financed through both private and public sources, including $7.3 million of the National Development Council’s New Markets Tax Credit allocation.