The Yankee Stadium Redevelopment Project

The New York Yankees are an important asset to The Bronx, New York City, and New York State. The plan for building a new stadium, long in the making, reflects the need to maintain and enhance facilities for the team in its traditional Bronx location, to ensure its continuing contribution.

State-of-the-art seating and amenities for fans and the media will be combined with modern facilities for the players, to make game going a comfortable and exciting experience for all.

The proposed stadium's design will evoke both the 1923 and the existing stadiums, incorporating design elements of both. The proposed new home for the New York Yankees combines tradition and technology, in a structure of steel, concrete, glass, and stone. It is intended to be a facility for the future, with the soul of the past. The ballpark’s façade would be highlighted by arched porticos, inspired by the façade of the 1923 stadium.

Although the new playing field will have the same geometry and orientation as the existing field, the facility itself features a progressive vision wherein the limestone and granite walls adhere to the most modern standards of design. The interior structure will be compised of steel and concrete. The seating will provide both comfort and unobstructed views of the field.

The stadium will also include an approximately 60,000-square-foot plaza along East 161st Street that will facilitate pedestrian movement into the stadium on game days and would be a public amenity at other times.

This area would be open for public use on a year-round basis.

A total of 27.05 acres of permanent recreational facilities, including new parkland, will be provided as part of the proposed project. As described below, these facilities will all be located within existing and new parkland and public open space. The permanent acreage includes: 15.82 acres of new mapped parkland, 7.33 acres on existing parkland, and 1.01 acres of new open space (not mapped as parkland). The project will create a unified 17.36-acre park south of East 161st Street, which will be larger than the total park area (15.09 acres) that will be displaced north of East 161st Street. For purposes of the Federal LWCF conversion, the proposed Section 6(f) permanent parks will be developed on the existing stadium site, Ruppert Plaza, and along the Harlem River waterfront. In short, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation will replace most of the existing facilities displaced by this project. NYCDPR, in consultation with the local community may choose to vary the new facilities to provide replacements that are not exactly the same as those displaced, but are equal or greater in use and value. To this end, NYCDPR will continue its broad community outreach program before deciding on a final plan for the new parkland and recreational facilities. The new facilities, which may be modified, are presently anticipated to include the following elements:

Rendering of Heritage Field, view looking northwest

• Three natural turf ball fields (baseball, softball, and little league fields) will be located in the proposed parkland at the site of the existing stadium. It will be known as Heritage Field.
• East 161st Street between Jerome Avenue and the existing stadium: The new Macombs Dam Park will include passive and active recreation. In terms of the latter, this park (Garage A) will include, basketball and handball courts, a 400-meter athletic track with field events, adult fitness equipment, and an artificial turf soccer / football field.
• Between Heritage Field and the Rooftop will be a passive park / pedestrian plaza. Renamed “Ruppert Plaza,” it will comprise 1.13 acres of new parkland.
• Passive park/civic space is proposed east of River Avenue on both sides of East 157th Street. These parks will contain benches and unique paving landscapes. The northern park parcel will house a children’s play area and the southern site an unsupervised Skateboard Park and fitness equipment.
• Consistent with the number of courts displaced as a result of Yankee Stadium construction, 16 tennis courts will be built at the new waterfront park. 12 will be covered by a bubble during the winter months. Other amenities include passive park space, viewing platforms, and picnic area. This park will also create a new 0.71-acre esplanade that would extend from the northern end of the waterfront park, wrap around the waterfront to the existing ferry landing, and extend east to the pedestrian connection at Exterior Street beneath the Major Deegan Expressway. Although a portion of this esplanade will not be mapped as parkland, the esplanade will provide an important corridor between the recreational facilities of the Harlem River waterfront and the new recreational facilities in the eastern portion of the project area.

Interim Recreation Areas

To provide the community with replacement facilities during the construction of the Yankee Stadium Redevelopment Project, the following interim areas will be created:

• A fitness path surrounding Mullaly Park, just to the north of the stadium project, as well as in neighboring Franz Sigel Park and Joyce Kilmer Park. This path offers a measured distance for community residents who wish to continue jogging or walking in the park vicinity.
• During the Spring of 2007, the Parks Department completed construction of a temporary park on the site of what is now Lot 1 (corner of Jerome Ave and East 161st Street). This park features a synthetic turf soccer / softballl field, a 350 yard rubberized track, fitness equipment, and a long jump.

In addition, two synthetic ball fields jave been constructed at PS29 and the West Bronx Recreation Center. They will be permanent amenities for the community.

Rendering of Heritage Park, view looking southeast

Parking

Parking for the existing stadium is insufficient, widely scattered, and has spilled over into the surrounding neighborhood. Prior to construction of the new stadium, there were 6,995 dedicated parking spaces available for Yankee Stadium patrons. This number includes all the surface lots and garages within an approximate ½-mile radius of the existing stadium. In response to the proposed stadium’s parking needs, three new public parking garages shall be constructed on existing surface parking lots and/or parkland. Except for lots 5 & 6 (which will be transformed into parks) and lots 7, 10, 15, all existing lots will be resurfaced and restriped. In addition, the two existing parking garages will be rehabilitated. In total, approximately 10,310 parking spaces (see Figure S-8) will be leased to private operators and made available to stadium patrons.

The City and Yankees are committed to making parking available to the public on a year-round basis to the extent possible. Stadium garages will be available to the public during the off-season and on non-game days during the baseball season.

Unrelated to this project, the Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market is anticipated to be open in the Spring of 2009. In addition to providing 1 million square feet of retail space, this shopping facility will include parking garages that will accommodate a total of approximately 2,500 vehicles.

Pedestrian circulation to the proposed stadium would originate from garage access points, the existing ferry landing, the existing subway station (Lines B, D, and 4 - East 161st Street & River Ave.), and the new Metro North Train Station. It is estimated that between 6,000 and 12,000 people will use the station for Yankee home games which will also provide service to the area on non-game days.

Pedestrian and Streetscape Improvements

The proposed project will also improve pedestrian access. The existing pedestrian bridge would be replaced with a larger, ADA compliant one that is more aesthetically appealing. Unlike the existing overpass, the proposed one will span over 157th and be open to the public 24/7. It will provide a vital connection to the waterfront parking lots, new parkland, and the ferry landing, as well as to the aforementioned new Metro North station. New urban design elements, such as unique paving, signage, and pedestrian lighting will be implemented at the western end of the pedestrian bridge. These new elements will direct pedestrians between the parking areas west of the Major Deegan Expressway and the existing bridge.

Ruppert Place will be closed and mapped as passive parkland for use as a pedestrian plaza leading to the new stadium. Streetscape improvements include: replacing sidewalks in poor condition, planting new trees where appropriate, and improving pedestrian lighting.

Retail Development

The site that was originally proposed as Parking Garage D will instead feature a combination of retail space (minimum 12,000sf) and surface parking. The specific design for this site will be determined by the Fall of 2008.

Recent Documents

Comments & Responses on Proposed Conversion of Parkland (350kb PDF)

Memorandum of Agreement for Historic Resources (613kb PDF)

Finding of No Significant Impact (271 kb PDF)

Final Environmental Impact Statement

The Final Environmental Impact Statement is available for download as individual PDF documents or a ZIP archive.

Warning: the following files are very large.
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PDF

Final Environmental Impact Statement Notice of Completion (3.3 mb, PDF)

Final Environmental Impact Statement (7.11 mb, PDF)

Figures for the Final Environmental Impact Statement (57.2 mb, PDF)

Statement of Findings - March 6, 2006 (419 kb, PDF)

ZIP

Download ZIP package (67.5 mb)

Environmental Review

The Environmental Assessment Statement is available for download as a PDF. It is recommended you save the file to your computer by right clicking on the link and selecting "save".

1. Environmental Assessment Statement (2.7 mb, PDF)

2. Positive Declaration (528 kb, PDF)

3. Draft Environmental Impact Statement Notice of Completion (1.41 mb, PDF)

4. Final Scope of Work (2.8 mb, PDF)

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