In the News

April 20, 1997, Sunday
The City Weekly Desk

'Anchor' for Neglected Area

By ANDREA K. WALKER

For 20 years, the abandoned Morrisania Hospital building was a symbol of everything that had gone wrong in the Bronx. Vagabonds and drug addicts shared the dank, dark space with rats. The windows were broken and missing, the floors and walls had been stripped bare. Forgotten and empty, it towered over its equally overlooked neighborhood, the poorest Congressional district in the nation.

Now, after 14 months of reconstruction, the hospital, whose opening in the 1920's was seen as a sign of the borough's rising prosperity, has been reborn. The sprawling block-long building will soon become home to more than 100 low-income families as well as a training center for child-care and catering industry jobs.

The story of Morrisania Hospital's rebirth is about more than just renovating a gutted shell. It is also about erasing a major remaining sign of urban decline and giving an impoverished neighborhood a core for economic development. ''It means all sorts of wonderful things,'' said Margarita Hunt, district manager for Community Board 4. ''We now have much-needed new homes and an anchor to the community that will spur economic development.''

The transformation of Morrisania was the first big job of the Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation, in collaboration with other groups. The huge neo-Renaissance building had been all but ignored since the hospital closed in 1976. But securing the right to use it for apartments tested the political savvy and determination of the fledgling group. Among the difficulties were rallying political support and gathering the needed $23 million in state, Federal and private money.

Of 132 new apartments, 48 have been set aside for the homeless. Tenants are to begin moving in next month. A day-care center for 72 children has been created, as well as a clinic and a state-of-the art kitchen for local residents to learn professional cooking and catering. A small building, once the ambulance garage, has been turned into a community gym. A public school will eventually occupy an adjacent building.

''Lots of times people see new residents coming into their neighborhood and getting services,'' said Nancy Biberman, president of the development organization, ''and they feel as if they've lived here and gotten nothing. This is for the community.''

Hurdles remain, including funding to run the day-care center and cooking and catering classes. But last week Ms. Biberman was delighted to learn that Brooke Astor had donated $1 million to the building's reserve fund.