Day: August 28, 2026
After three decades of month-to-month leases, the Bed-Stuy Volunteer Ambulance Corps has taken permanent ownership of its Greene Avenue headquarters.
New York City officially conveyed three plots of formerly city-owned land to the org this week, the culmination of years of work by local officials and BSVAC leaders. The transfer ensures BSVAC has a permanent home in Bed-Stuy and sets the stage for a long-planned expansion of its services and programs.
“Today marks the completion of the crucial first step in a dream that originated with BSVAC’s founders, the late EMS Captain James ‘Rocky’ Robinson and retired EMS Specialist Joe Perez,” said BSVAC president Antoine Robinson, in a statement. “Their dream of building a permanent headquarters in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood has inspired BSVAC’s volunteers for almost 40 years.”
Robinson, Perez and volunteer lawyer Tasmin Wolf founded BSVAC in 1988 in response to dangerously slow emergency response times. At the time, it could take a city ambulance half an hour or more to arrive in Bed-Stuy, BSVAC lieutenant Amy Dorfman told Brooklyn Paper last year.
In the beginning, the org operated out of an abandoned building with no running water or electricity, and responded to calls largely on foot or by bike. Over the years, they built up their headquarters at 727 Greene Ave. and added a fleet of four ambulances and more than 100 volunteers. Every year, BSVAC responds to more than 2,000 emergencies in central Brooklyn and offers first aid training and other programs to the community.
But, for decades, it leased the property from the city. BSVAC started to explore options to obtain permanent ownership of the land in 2022, according to the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
In 2025, Assembly Member Stefani Zinerman introduced a bill that allowed the city to convey ownership of the land to BSVAC at no cost in order to “help the organization establish a permanent facility to support emergency medical care and services in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community.”
The transfer includes three adjacent lots between Greene Avenue and Van Buren Street, where BSVAC already operates. Zinerman in 2024 secured $6 million in state funding for a new BSVAC facility at the site.
“Seeing an institution that has poured so much into our community finally receive a permanent home fills me with tremendous pride,” Zinerman said in a statement. “This is far more than a property transfer — it is a promise kept and an investment in the health, safety, and future of Central Brooklyn.”
Permanent ownership will allow BSVAC to plan for long-term improvements and keep serving the community, according to DCAS.
“For decades, the Bed-Stuy Volunteer Ambulance Corps has saved our neighbors’ lives, starting out of a personal car and an abandoned lot, because Rocky Robinson and Joe Perez believed in protecting our community when others failed to,” said Council Member Chi Ossé. “It’s long overdue that the city gives these heroes permanent ownership of the land they operate on. I applaud this decision and look forward to the decades of service the Ambulance Corps will fulfill.
Robinson said the land conveyance, along with the grant secured by Zinerman, will allow them to realize BSVAC’s dream of building a permanent home.
“At BSVAC we now look forward to expanding our community-based services and programs, including volunteer ambulance services, youth and training programs, health and safety education initiatives, neighborhood first aid station, health screenings, and community and family activities,” he said.
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