The local community has been advocating for many years for an elevator at the Delancey Street/Essex Street subway station. They’re finally getting their wish. At a press conference Friday (4/4/2025), MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber gathered with officials from the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and local elected officials to announce the long-awaited upgrades.
Three elevators will be installed in conjunction with another long-stalled project: a 99-unit mixed-use housing development on the northeast corner of Essex and Delancey streets as part of the sprawling Essex Crossing complex. The private developer, Delancey Street Associates, will provide an easement to the MTA. As explained in the transit authority’s press release, “The MTA announced that it is commencing design… (of) a comprehensive set of accessibility upgrades needed to make the station complex fully ADA-accessible. This will include three elevators to ensure that all connections and transfers within the station can be made step-free. These accessibility improvements will be supported by proceeds from the Congestion Relief Zone.”
The NYCEDC, MTA and Delancey Street Associates “will enter into a binding agreement and advance the new station entrance design.” Construction on the housing project is expected to begin next year.
The site, formerly home to the historic Essex Street Market, was shuttered in May of 2019 when the vendors moved across the street to a new market facility. At the time, developers said the rental building would be 50% market rate / 50% affordable to low- and middle-income individuals and families. The press release put out by the MTA this past week did not specify the income breakdown of the new building. It did, however, indicate that, overall, the Essex Cross project across all of the sites would deliver 1,100 residential units, including 550 below-market rate apartments.
The city and Delancey Street Associates have not yet announced their plans to re-start other parts of the Essex Crossing project. These include a proposal for the last development site (a former Essex Street market building at Essex and Stanton streets), a new vision for the basement space once occupied by the failed Market Line shopping mall below the Essex Market and plans to activate hundreds-of-thousands of square feet of vacant retail and office space.
