[5][6] The plan was presented to the public in September 2013 by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as a compromise solution after decades of political disagreements over the site.

SPURA covers five vacant plots of land acquired as part of a 1965 urban renewal plan, near Delancey and Grand Streets.

These sites were originally part of the broader Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, a federal program designed to tear down several tenements to develop low-income housing, called the Cooperative Village.

During the Koch administration that ended in 1989, the city contracted with Sam LeFrak to build,[15] but massive divided opposition caused it to be withdrawn.

[17] On August 2, 2014, it was revealed that a municipal parking lot at Broome and Essex Streets would be closed for soil testing and planning of the future Warhol museum.

Originally slated to be converted into housing under an idea by Councilwoman Margaret Chin, it was dropped from the project and later put back on.

[29][30][31] The large trolley terminal under Delancey and Essex Streets sat unused for 60 years and became the location for a proposed park.

[32][33][34] The project was first proposed in 2011 and in 2012, successfully raised over $150,000 from 3,300 backers on Kickstarter to create a full-scale exhibition of the solar lighting technology.

[36] If completed, it would have been within the Essex Crossing development, though the project was indefinitely postponed in February 2020 due to a lack of funding and is considered in the planning stages as of 2021.

[40] The space on the building's second floor, immediately above Trader Joe's, is occupied by a 22,500 sq ft (2,090 m2) Target store,[41] which opened in August 2018.

Designed by architecture firm Gensler, the 40,000 sq ft (3,700 m2) building has galleries, media labs, classrooms, darkrooms, shooting studios, a shop, café, research library and public event spaces.

It was reported that Taconic offered 75 Essex Street's owners a huge sum to redevelop the building as part of the museum.

[52] The SPURA area, now the Essex Crossing's site, was kept empty, except for parking lots, since 1967 due to suspected political alliances.

[8] In 1977, then-to-be-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council) head William "Bill" Rapfogel accompanied then-mayor Edward Koch through the area, promising to turn some 20 acres (8.1 ha) of barren land on Delancey Street's south side into a never-delivered development that had displaced more than 1,800 residents a decade before.

[8] Rapfogel and Silver were accused of promoting specific plans for favored developers, which would maintain the area's Jewish identity, at the expense of other communities.