Nearly three years after opening a newer, larger headquarters in Crown Heights, the Brooklyn Community Pride Center has closed its Bed-Stuy location for good.
The Brooklyn Community Pride Center’s last day at 1360 Fulton St. in Bed Stuy’s Restoration Plaza was on Aug. 2, the non-profit LGBTQ organization first announced in an email to the community. The organization initially moved into the Bed-Stuy space in 2017.
“We’ve known for a few years — and especially when we moved into Crown Heights — that we would eventually need to leave Restoration Plaza either temporarily or permanently due to the renovations [at Restoration Plaza]” Omari Scott, the Brooklyn Pride Center’s director of operations and strategic initiatives, told Gay City News in a phone interview on Aug. 8.
The announcement comes less than a year after the organization hired a new executive director, Kenrick Ross, who previously led the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance and came equipped with more than 15 years of experience in non-profit and social impact work.
The organization now plans to consolidate all of its in-person offerings into its lone Crown Heights location, which is at the Major R. Owens Health & Wellness Center — formerly known as the Bedford Union Armory — at 1561 Bedford Ave., Suite Ground A, about a mile south of the former Bed-Stuy space.
All in all, the non-profit serves as a significant hub for the LGBTQ community in the city’s most populous borough. The organization’s website lists more than a dozen events planned in a span of one week, including RUSA LGBTQ+ community meetings, a ballroom drop-in practice, a game night, a basketball open gym, a legal clinic for LGBTQ immigrants, an adult trans and gender non-conforming support group, and Narcotics Anonymous. The organization offers services that include mental health support, youth services, and gender-affirming care.
“We still anticipate having programming across the borough,” Scott explained. “One of our goals is to meet folks where they are in their neighborhoods and in their social life.”
The shift to one location, Scott said, came with minimal disruptions. The organization anticipates an increase in foot traffic at the Crown Heights location with the other space closed down, but it will also mean less confusion: During the time since the new location opened, some people have occasionally showed up at the wrong location for events, Scott said.
Beyond the anticipated renovations at Restoration Plaza, Scott said there were no other motivating factors behind the decision to close the Bed-Stuy location. It is clear that the organization viewed the Crown Heights location as the core of its future operations given that the LGBTQ non-profit signed a 30-year lease to lock in the new space just one month before the COVID pandemic slammed New York City. The jubilant lease-signing event drew leaders ranging from then-Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams to former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
The Crown Heights headquarters opened in 2021, albeit with some pandemic-fueled delays, offering a newly renovated space featuring a public workspace, pantry, laundry room, and an LGBTQ mental health clinic overseen by Callen-Lorde Community Health Center.
The expansive nature of the Major Owens Health and Wellness Community Center gives the Brooklyn Community Pride Center an opportunity to improve programming and build relationships with other organizations operating in the facility, which boasts basketball courts and other recreational spaces.
Although the Brooklyn Community Pride Center has settled into the new space for the last couple of years, many visitors still do not know about the Crown Heights location, Scott said, and the organization is still working to spread the word to the community.
“Our focus right now is having a seamless transition,” Scott explained. “We’re encouraging folks to check out our space.”
Learn more about the Brooklyn Community Pride Center at lgbtbrooklyn.org.
