Child Welfare Organization Takes Two Full Office Floors in South Bronx

Child welfare organization JCCA has signed a 10-year lease for 18,442 square feet over two full floors at 521 Bergen Avenue in the South Bronx, Commercial Observer has learned.

JCCA, which provides mental health treatment and other services to children and families in New York, will divide that space between 7,328 square feet on the building’s ground floor, which it will use for counseling and medical services, and the rest on the sixth floor, which will house the organization’s offices and support staff.

The asking rent was $40 per square foot. A JLL team that includes William Korchak, Al Gutierrez, Ellen Herman, Edward DiTolla and Henry Warner serve as the exclusive leasing agents for the building, representing the owner, Bridgerock Capital, operating as 521 Bergen REIT. The CBRE team of Brad Gerla, Jonathan Cope and William Jordan represented the tenant.

“We’re excited to welcome an organization as reputable and deep-rooted in New York City as JCCA to 521 Bergen Avenue,” Korchak said in a statement. “The property is a premier space catering to both for-profit and nonprofit groups. It presents a tremendous environment for similar community, governmental, health care or educational tenants seeking brand-new office space in an accessible location for both clients and employees.”

The new lease finds JCCA relocating from 425 Westchester Avenue, where it occupied 23,000 square feet. The organization will use its new space to provide foster care, mental health services, education programs and special services to children.  

521 Bergen Avenue was redeveloped as a six-story, 55,000-square-foot mixed-use facility in 2023, with new building systems and an updated lobby and passenger elevator as well as open, neutral floors that allow for custom office installations.     

The building’s first tenant after the renovation was nonprofit supportive housing and programming provider The Bridge, which signed a 10-year lease for 8,648 square feet across the building’s fifth floor in September 2024, as CO previously reported. JLL represented 521 Bergen Avenue on that transaction as well, and the tenant was represented by Samuel Hartstein of Gemstone Realty Group.

BridgeRock Capital paid $11.8 million to acquire 521 Bergen Avenue from Abingdon Square Partners in 2019, according to CO. 

Larry Getlen can be reached at lgetlen@commercialobserver.com.