A YMPJ project

Westchester Avenue Station

A 2,500 square foot station designed by Cass Gilbert, vacant since 1937. YMPJ is reimagining its potential as a new community asset.

Support the station RFP and documents

1908

Built for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad

1937

The year passenger service ended

2,500

Square feet of historic station building

Reimagining potential

YMPJ is retaining architects and engineers to study the abandoned station, which has been vacant since 1937. We are in the process of considering the potential for the reimagined station – located at the corner of Westchester Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard – to be the focal point of a mixed-use destination for the neighborhood. Restoring the station would build on significant investments along the Bronx River Waterfront, including the Bronx River Greenway, its connected parks, and new and proposed housing developments.

YMPJ’S work on activating the abandoned train station on Westchester Avenue next to Concrete Plant Park was recognized in the New York Times.

A Cass Gilbert landmark

The Westchester Avenue station was built in 1908 for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad’s Harlem River Branch and designed by Cass Gilbert, the architect of the Woolworth Building. Service ended in 1937, and the building has stood empty above the tracks ever since.

The station sits above Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor at the corner of Westchester Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard, steps from Concrete Plant Park and the Bronx River Greenway. The New York Landmarks Conservancy has listed it as an endangered building.

Project update

YMPJ’s work to restore the Westchester Avenue station is decades-long and ongoing. We are working to update this project webpage to share more information and resources about the project and YMPJ’s recent work (website update expected March 2026).

In the meantime, we want to share an opportunity that may interest cost estimators, architects, and other redevelopment professionals. YMPJ recently released a Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop cost estimates and renderings for a handful of potential redevelopment scenarios for the Westchester Avenue Station. These cost estimates will help us better understand the financial scope of the restoration project. Please find additional information about this RFP below:

Relevant materials

Frequently asked questions

About the cost estimate and rendering RFP.

No, YMPJ has not had any formal coordination discussions with the MTA focused on the redevelopment scenarios outlined in the RFP. YMPJ has had some informal discussions with the MTA’s Bronx Metro-North (Penn Access) team regarding the project. That said, the key stakeholder is Amtrak, the current property owner, who has full control over the site. YMPJ has been in conversation with Amtrak concerning the project since 2022. Most recently, Amtrak helped facilitate the 2024 site visits, which led to the 2025 Pre-Schematic Conditions Assessment (linked above). Amtrak has not explicitly reviewed the redevelopment scenarios outlined in the RFP, but is broadly aware of YMPJ’s intentions for the redevelopment of the Westchester Ave Station, including our aim to connect the station building to Concrete Plant Park.

1. YMPJ intends to use the deliverables outlined in the RFP in various ways. Internally, these deliverables will support YMPJ’s understanding of the project’s financial scale and inform project strategy and decision-making. Externally, these deliverables will be shared with Amtrak, local elected officials, city and state agencies, and community residents in a variety of ways to support project fundraising efforts, community and stakeholder engagement, and other related project predevelopment activities.


2. YMPJ continues to explore a number of potential funding sources for project pre-development activities and capital funding, and expects a strong mix of public and private resources will need to be pooled together to carry out the redevelopment.

YMPJ has explored opportunities to pursue historic preservation-related resources. The site itself received an undetermined status from the New York State Historic Preservation Office, leaving it somewhat in limbo regarding its ability to use historic preservation resources, including tax credits. There are open questions about whether/how pursuing one redevelopment scenario over another might affect the applicability of pursuing landmark status and other historic preservation resources. Investigating these opportunities is part of YMPJ’s ongoing work on the site.

A key challenge for the project is the station’s physical location. The station building sits suspended above Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC) right-of-way. As a result, track protection during both Phase 1 Selective Demolition and Preservation and Phase 2 Reconstruction will be a crucial component of the station building’s redevelopment. Expertise in the redevelopment of historic buildings and expertise in redevelopment projects impacted by railway infrastructure would be helpful to include in a consultant team.

YMPJ has had the pleasure of working with a variety of architectural designers and other related consultants for its community development projects during the past three years, whether services were procured through competitive RFP processes, individually contracted for discrete scopes of work, connected via technical assistance providers, volunteered, or in mutual partnership and collaboration. Firms YMPJ has engaged with over the past three years are listed below according to project/area.

  • Westchester Avenue Station
    SLO Architecture
  • Soundview Economic Hub
    Ennead Architecture
    Ennead Lab
    We-Design
  • Southern Blvd BOA
    Ennead Lab
  • Morrison Plaza/Harrod Pl Open Street/ Harrod Pl Community Garden
    Kiss-Architects
  • Climate Resiliency in Soundview
    Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners

YMPJ has already completed an existing visioning/design intent that we will share with the selected consultant before the scope begins. Some of this existing visioning and design intent is outlined in the RFP’s sections on consistencies between redevelopment scenarios. That said, YMPJ would like to have design decision-making conversations at a minimum to align on and confirm design scenarios with the selected consultant. We’d welcome a proposal that outlines a design decision-making phase as part of this scope.

YMPJ has provided a recording of the 2/19/26 information session. We did not request permission to share an attendee list among the information session participants, so we will not share one.

We could use your help

This ambitious project requires significant resources to bring it to life. Your donation helps restore the station for the community.

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