Staten Island will get $92M rec center, NYC’s first in nearly a decade

Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center

Rendering of the new Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center, which is expected to be completed on the North Shore in late 2025. (Courtesy of NYC Parks)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As an early Christmas present, Staten Islanders have gotten their first glimpse at the new $92 million recreation center slated for the borough’s North Shore.

Last week, the city Parks Department unveiled the official design of the new Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center, which will replace the beloved Tompkinsville Cromwell Recreation Center that was demolished in 2013.

“We’re so excited that this innovative design is complete and brings us one step closer to a brand-new recreation center for Staten Islanders,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue. “Mary Cali Dalton represents the best of Parks, and we hope that this recreation center will continue her legacy of bringing folks together for active recreation and fun.”

Dalton, the new center’s namesake, began her career at NYC Parks as a Work Experience Program participant in 1999, before being hired as a playground associate in 2000. Shortly after, she was promoted to a recreational specialist, before assuming the role of borough director of recreation for Staten Island in 2002.

The original Cromwell Center, which was located on Pier 6, had been shuttered since 2010 when it suffered a devastating collapse after 74 years of serving the North Shore community.

The new recreation center, which is expected to break ground in summer 2023 and be completed by the end of 2025, will be the first-ever design-build project for NYC Parks and will be the first new NYC Parks recreation center to be built in the last seven years.

Design-build is a project delivery system in which a single entity, which may include one or more firms, is responsible to the city for both the design and construction of a project, often reducing the total cost and amount of time required to complete the initiative by eliminating potential discrepancies between the designers and builders.

“Using design-build project delivery, the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) will be able to construct the new Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center a full two-and-a-half years faster than it could have under New York State’s old lowest bidder design-bid-build contracting method,” said DDC Commissioner Thomas Foley.

Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center

Rendering of the new Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center, which is expected to be completed on the North Shore in late 2025. (Courtesy of NYC Parks)

The new recreation center will be built above the Lyons Pool parking lot to ensure that parking is maintained and that the new building meets the elevation requirements necessitated by its proximity to a coastal flood zone.

Plans have been in the works since 2017 for the 45,000-square-foot, three-level building, with an early feasibility study determining that the Lyons Pool parking lot site would be ideal for the center, because it’s near the existing Lyons Pool recreational facility, it’s easily accessible via mass transit and it’s a city-owned property with existing utilities.

“The new Center will be a beautiful addition to the Staten Island waterfront, located adjacent to an existing pool complex, and will add new recreation areas and community space in an environmentally efficient and resilient design,” Foley said.

The new recreation center will feature a wide range of amenities, including sports courts for basketball, volleyball and pickleball, exercise equipment and numerous multi-purpose rooms to be used for a variety of recreational programming. It will also include a covered garage, electric vehicle charging stations and solar panels.

The project has been funded with a $92 million allocation through the Bay Street Neighborhood plan, a $250 million investment in housing, public space, waterfront access, education, transportation, economic development and infrastructure on the borough’s North Shore.

“The closure of Tompkinsville Cromwell Recreation Center was a major loss for our North Shore community, and I am so encouraged that plans for the new Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center are full steam ahead. The importance of safe, clean and accessible recreational and fitness spaces — particularly in areas lacking such resources — cannot be overstated for the physical, mental, and emotional health and wellbeing of our district’s residents,” said Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks (D-North Shore).

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