Nearly two years have passed since news broke that the long-vacant building at 222 E. 13th St. near Third Avenue would become the Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth.
Today, though, as Out Magazine first reported, the center breaks ground for the facility that will accommodate 18 residents.
Arthur, who died in April 2009, left $300,000 to the Ali Forney Center, an organization supporting homeless LGBT youth, in her will. In 2012, City Council as well as then-Borough President Scott Stringer awarded the Ali Forney Center and the Cooper Square Committee $3.3 million for the residence.
The property had been owned by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Executive Director Carl Siciliano of the Ali Forney Center will be in attendance at the ground breaking with several elected officials. In a press release, Siciliano said: "It meant the world to me that a star of the magnitude of Bea Arthur would do so much to help the Ali Forney Center in our work of housing homeless LGBT youths. I am very grateful that we will now be able to honor Bea and continue to keep her compassion alive through the establishment of the Bea Arthur Residence for Homeless LGBT Youth."
And here's a rendering from July 2012 of what the property will look like when it opens later next year...
Previously on EV Grieve:
A haunted house on 13th Street?
Abandoned 13th Street building becoming the Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth
Here's what the Bea Arthur Residence will look like on East 13th Street
