A joint-venture between the state-backed New Jersey Community Development Corporation and the City of Paterson wants to build a new $14 million recreational facility at the site of the former Great Falls Youth Center on Front Street. At a recent city council meeting, city officials agreed to a memorandum of understanding to back the construction of a 40,000 square-foot facility, to be located at 54 Front Street.
While the agreement is non-binding, it outlines the terms of the partnership: NJCDC will provide $10 million toward the project, while the City of Paterson will allocate $2 million of its own funding from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, as reported in TAPinto Paterson.
Robert Guarasci, the CEO of NJCDC, told Jersey Digs that the nonprofit intends to commence construction in early-2026 and open the facility in September 2027. Guarasci confirmed the project’s total cost has recently been revised upward from $12 million to $14 million. The development group intends to complete its design work by the end of this month before issuing bids in November.
The project secured site plan approvals from the planning board in July and, given the financial structure of the nonprofit, will be tax-exempt.
Gurasci said that at 40,000 square feet, this facility will be one of the NJCDC’s largest projects to date. The property was the site of Paterson’s former American Legion Hall, which the NJCDC purchased in 2016 and opened in 2018 as the existing Great Falls Youth Center. The CEO added that part of the site was renovated in 2023, one year before it was reported that the underutilized facilities were torn down.
The new youth center will create approximately 8 full and part-time jobs and cost approximately $500,000 a year to operate, which will be financed by donations and the nonprofit’s partnership with the city.
“We are constructing a new facility that will more than triple available space and dramatically expand services,” Guarasci said. “It will include a gymnasium, performance stage, makerspace for STEM exploration, e-gaming room, and an animation studio. A new entrepreneurial suite will help teens create and manage micro-enterprises, while ‘College Central’ will provide students and parents with dedicated resources on admissions, financial aid, and support through college graduation.”
The Great Falls Youth Center expansion is one of four active redevelopment projects for NJCDC. These include the development of new affordable housing units at the intersection of Spruce and Grand Streets; the creation of a specialized STEM learning center planned for 59 Spruce Street; and the adaptive reuse of a historic church building at 320 Main Street into a modern performing arts center.
The site of the community center is less than half a mile from the Great Falls National Park, which has a legacy tracing back to Alexander Hamilton’s vision of making Paterson the nation’s first industrial city, making the area one of the oldest planned urban communities in the country.
