Brooklyn Community Pride Center Unveils New HQ
Space includes health center, pantry, laundry area, and private work spaces
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
The Brooklyn Community
Pride Center held
a ribbon-cutting ceremony
unveiling its new
headquarters on October 27 after
the project was delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The public
opening, however, remains months
away as the new space gets fi nalized.
A month before the pandemic
slammed the city, the center signed
a 30-year lease for the newly renovated
space at Bedford-Union Armory
in Brooklyn, which includes
a public workspace, pantry, laundry
room, and an LGBTQ mental
health clinic run by the Callen-
Lorde Community Health Center.
The headquarters, which is
housed in Crown Heights on the
lower level of the historic Bedford-
Union Armory, now known as the
Major R. Owens Health and Wellness
Community Center, resembles
a high-end WeWork-style space, including
signs wrapped in greenery
and private work pods equipped
with electrical outlets and glossy
overhead fi xtures.
Jere Keys, the development and
engagement manager at Brooklyn
Community Pride Center, told Gay
City News the new headquarters
intends to help the organization
expand their reach to LGBTQ individuals
who have been underserved
in the neighborhood. The
center still plans to operate their
other existing space at 1360 Fulton
Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, primarily
serving low-income LGBTQ
populations and acting as a dropin
center for clients. According to
Keys, the old building did not have
enough space to help fulfi ll the
community’s growing demands.
“We were hearing from people
that they needed somewhere to
go, somewhere to hang out,” Keys
said. “We had one table in the public
area, and maybe if you were
there within the fi rst 10 minutes,
you could claim the table.”
The center will also look to fi ll
other gaps in the community by
serving as a space where individuals
The Brooklyn Community Pride Center unveiled its new headquarters on October 27.
can establish connections with
like-minded folks in a safe space.
“Most of the time, we don’t have
parents that will teach us what it
means to be LGBTQ,” Keys told
Gay City News. “Community centers
are one of the places where
people young and old can learn
what it means to be part of the
community, to have discussions
about our history, about our customs;
I’m not comfortable with
all of that being taught through
the Internet or passed down generationally
through Twitter and
Grindr.”
He added, “My dream is that we
serve as a place that isn’t a bar…we
are a place where you learn about
the community.”
The new location was fi rst unveiled
during a lease-signing
event in February of last year at
the Brooklyn Community Pride
Center’s Bed-Stuy location. Those
on hand at that gathering included
Don Capocia of BFC Partners,
which developed the space; Debbie
Brennan, who was then the
president of Brooklyn Community
Pride Center’s board of directors;
Callen-Lorde executive director
Wendy Stark; Rachel Loeb
of the New York City Economic
Development Corporation; former
City Council Speaker Christine
Quinn, who was the fi rst woman
and fi rst out LGBTQ speaker
in New York City; and Brooklyn
Borough President Eric Adams,
who contributed funds to the new
headquarters.
The Bed-Stuy location resumed
its in-person programming following
a COVID-induced hiatus, but
Keys said traffi c there is still below
pre-pandemic levels — and he
hopes the new headquarters can
“bring life back” to the center.
“It was hard to see our Bed-Stuy
space go from having 20 to 30 people
at any given time to no one,”
Keys said.
The Bed-Stuy space will remain
as the center’s main location until
the headquarters can fi nally open
COMMUNITY
TAT BELLAMY - WALKER
to the public at the end of the year
or in 2022 — a date that remains
undetermined for now. Keys attributed
part of the slow opening
to national furniture delays due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are over a year behind
schedule, and that has been very
frustrating for us, and what that
has meant for fi nances, programming,
staff capacity, and space,”
Keys said. “As we get close to actually
opening the space with all of
the COVID protocols…the last year
is sort of melting away.”
Building on more than a decade
of history in Brooklyn’s LGBTQ
community, Keys said he wants
the center to be a hub for new
ideas, including nurturing future
leaders who can develop the next
LGBTQ non-profi t.
“It is important that we as a
community support community
centers, or they are going to disappear,”
he added. “Young people
who are just coming out really
need them.”
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