James Monroe Adams IV for New Yo
Brooklyn Bridge Park
Brooklyn Bridge Park got a $ 40 million donation Thursday to build a sprawling recreation center.
The contribution, the largest ever made to a city park, will allow the fieldhouse to be built near Pier 5 on Furman Street with a competitive cycling track, courts for tennis, volleyball, basketball, or gymnastics, and a boathouse.
The money comes from Joshua Rechnitz, a competitive track cycling enthusiast from a family of wealthy philanthropists.
I am thrilled at the magnitude and genero sity of this gift, which could invigorate the park in the winter months and provide much needed active recreation space for youth all over the borough on a year round basis, said park president Regina Myer.
Advocates have long pushed for more indoor activities at the park, but a previous effort to build a much more modest recreational bubble flopped.
The community has...long fought to bring year-round active recreation with real community access to the park. The news that the park has been offered an incredibly generous $ 40 million donation to achieve this goal is a welcome step forward, said state Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Brooklyn Heights).
The fieldhouse needs approval from the parks board and the plan could be tweaked in response to local concerns. It would open in 2016.
The facility would host professional and elite competitive cycling events as well as community cycling classes and amateur races. Rechnitzs organization wants to make the city a new world hub for the sport and has spent several years scouting the city for a location for a fieldhouse.
Its courts could also host high school or club, or college-level sports, or after school programs.
The Furman St. spot where the fieldhouse would go is currently occupied by a cinderblock storage building.
edurkin@nydailynews.com
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