Harlem Renaissance

[ischeong]

Cover Story - March 2004



Harlem Renaissance


Once Blighted Neighborhood Now Home to Building Boom

by Natalie Keith

With retail development paving the way, the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem is home to numerous construction projects, including apartments and condominiums, a health care facility, auto mall and the first hotel the neighborhood has seen in a generation. And with available land becoming increasingly scarce for developers, the building boom has shown few signs of abating.
What a difference a decade makes.

If you walked through Harlem 10 years ago, you were more apt to find abandoned buildings than construction sites in this historic Manhattan neighborhood. But today, as New York City continues to become a safer and more economically vibrant city, Harlem is experiencing a building boom.

"Harlem is currently experiencing an economic reawakening that rivals its well-documented cultural, arts and entertainment renaissance of the 1920s, 30s and 40s," said Lloyd Williams, president and CEO of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce.

When the neighborhood first began attracting the attention of developers during former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's administration, much of the new development was retail on the city's main thoroughfare, 125th Street. The Harlem Center Mall, Harlem USA, East River Plaza and 125th Street Pathmark projects - all of which are located on 125th Street - were initiated during the late 1990s.

But, in 2000, when former president Bill Clinton decided to locate his private offices on 125th Street instead of 57th Street, many saw the move as a psychological boost to the neighborhood. Many developers have followed Clinton's lead and decided to make Harlem the home for their next project.


Retail, along with other types of development, continues to thrive. Late last year, East Harlem Business Capital Corp. was designated to redevelop La Marqueta, a 50,000-sq.-ft. retail market and open-air plaza in the heart of El Barrio in East Harlem. Plans call for constructing three to four one-story buildings ranging in size from 10,000 to 15,000 sq. ft.

Potential tenants include businesses that sell fish, meat, poultry, fruit and other goods.

"The 'Marqueta International' will be a great asset to our city and a significant anchor in East Harlem's future development," said Elizabeth Colon, executive director of the East Harlem Business Capital Corp.

Other private development has followed the upsurge in retail. New housing, much of which is aimed at low- to middle-income homebuyers - is sprouting up with regularity.

Bradhurst Court, a 126-unit condominium project at West 145th Street and Bradhurst Avenue, is nearing completion. Construction recently started on Strivers Garden, a $67 million, 170-unit condominium project on Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 134th and 135th streets. Prices start at $140,000 at Strivers Garden and $170,000 at Bradhurst Court.

The Washington Cooperatives project consists of the rehabilitation of 89 units in an existing building and construction of a new 15-unit building on West 148th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues.

Perhaps the most striking example of Harlem's recent attraction to developers is plans to build a 585,000-sq.-ft. mixed-use development called Harlem Park that will include Class A office and retail space and Harlem's first major hotel, a Marriott Courtyard. It is the first time Marriott has built a Courtyard hotel in the inner city and it is the first hotel the neighborhood has seen since 1966.

"The building of the first Marriott hotel in Upper Manhattan represents a decisive milestone in the evolution of Harlem," said Raymond P. Caldiero, a member of 1800 Park Ave LLC, developers of Harlem Park. "We believe that tourists from around the country and the world will want to sample the unparalleled energy of this historic neighborhood

The $190 million development at 125th Street and Park Avenue will include 250,000 sq. ft. of Class A office space, a 125,000-sq.-ft. hotel, 38,000 sq. ft. of catering space and 15,000 sq. ft. of space set aside for a jazz club.

The Marriott is not the only major company to "break new ground" in Harlem. General Motors Corp. and Potamkin Automotive recently started construction on the Harlem Auto Mall on the block bounded by East 127th and 128th streets and Second and Third avenues. It is the first new auto dealership built north of 60th Street in 40 years.

"When organizations of the caliber of General Motors and Potamkin choose East Harlem for a major investment, it's a sure sign that the neighborhood is maintaining its momentum toward becoming a major shopping destination as well as a place where people want to work and live," Bloomberg said, in a release announcing the project.

The private development is complemented by public improvements such as the streetscape plan for the stretch of Malcolm X Boulevard from 110th to 147th streets and plans to create a park along the Hudson River between 129th and 133rd streets. The landscape improvements will include lighting, benches and signs, and the park will include a recreational/fishing pier and a ferry/water taxi pier.

The neighborhood has also seen institutional development, such as the new 102,000-sq.-ft. Harlem Health Center at 125th Street and Morningside Drive. The landmark Apollo Theater is undergoing a $6 million refurbishment of its exterior, and the Museum for African Art is developing a plan to build a new 60,000-sq.-ft. museum at 110th Street and Fifth Avenue.

[Schadenfrau]

ILUVNYC, I urge you to look up some actual crime statistics instead of relying upon these tired old stereotypes of what New York is like.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/pct/cspdf.html

Last edited by Stern on Wed Oct 13; seriously.

[Kris]

May 10, 2004

Once There Was a Market in East Harlem, and Maybe Again

By JOSEPH P. FRIED

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/05/10/nyregion/marqueta.span.jpg
The way it is: One of eight remaining vendors at the old market, Bernard Lifschultz has time to read. "It's very quiet," he said. "But I still get by."

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/05/10/nyregion/marqueta2.184.jpg
The way it was: In January 1981, commerce was brisk in the food booths under the Park Avenue rail viaduct.

Elizabeth Colón and Bernard Lifschultz recall the glory days. She is determined to revive them. He doubts they can be revived.

They are talking about La Marqueta, once a widely known five-block market in the heart of East Harlem that was both a bustling commercial bazaar and a community meeting place for the overwhelmingly Puerto Rican population that came to dominate the area after World War II.

Today that vibrant market is a memory. Instead of five buildings crowded with shoppers and 200 or more vendors carrying a cornucopia of tropical foodstuffs and mainland merchandise, there are just Mr. Lifschultz and seven other merchants clustered in one area of the shabby, mostly vacant single building still in use. And they are largely trying just to survive as they cater to what is often a slow trickle of customers.

The five buildings used to stretch under the Park Avenue railroad viaduct from 111th to 116th Streets, but three of them are gone now and the fourth is shut tight. The one barely in use runs from 114th to 115th Streets.

Ms. Colón, who came to the city-owned market as a child with her mother in the 1950's, is executive director of the East Harlem Business Capital Corporation, a nonprofit group that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's administration has put in charge of redeveloping the market to its old five-block size.

The city gave her group until the end of the year to come up with the combination of government and bank financing needed to cover the expected $21 million cost, and to gather enough letters of intent from interested businesses to make the project viable.

Proposals to stem the market's decline have risen and fallen in recent years and renovations of the two remaining buildings were carried out in the 1990's with, obviously, no lasting effect, but Ms. Colón said recently that she was optimistic about her group's chances for success.

"We have had great encouragement from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone," she said of a federal program that uses public funds and tax incentives as catalysts for private investment in revitalization projects, "and from the Empire State Development Corporation," a state agency. She called the encouragement heartening at a time of tight constraints on government budgets.

Many people in the area also support the project, she said. "It's a source of pain in the community that it's gotten to where it has," she said of the market's long slide into near nonexistence.

Mr. Lifschultz, who has sold food in the market for 55 of his 84 years - bacalao, or dried cod, is his main offering - said recently from behind his counter that he hoped to hang on in the market for "as long as I can at my age." As for the revival project coming to completion, "I have my doubts," he said.

"It's very quiet," he said of his business. "But I still get by. I have people who have been coming for years." They come, he said, because they prefer his bacalao to the packaged and more expensive product sold in supermarkets.

"You can grind it and make fish cakes out of it," he said. "You can use it in salads."

Mr. Lifschultz and Ms. Colón may differ in their view of the prospects for restoring the market, but they agree on what was lost.

"It was very busy," Mr. Lifschultz said of the years after he arrived a half-century ago, setting up shop in one of the other buildings. He recalled up to 200 food and clothing vendors in the five buildings during the market's heyday, which he said lasted into the 1960's. (The market opened in 1936.)

"There was a waiting list to get in," he said of merchants. As for customers, on the weekend it was so crowded that "you had to fight your way in."

"Now a lot of people have forgotten we're here," he said as another Metro-North train rumbled by on the tracks above the roof.

Ms. Colón, recalling her childhood visits to La Marqueta, spoke of "hearing the trains above" and of "the numbers of people, the smells." Though her family lived on the Lower East Side, her mother traveled to the market in Spanish Harlem, Ms. Colón said, "because it was where Puerto Rican families went to get their soul food."

Mr. Lifschultz said the market's decline began in the 1960's with incomplete renovations after fires and neglectful upkeep by the city. Ms. Colón said it started in the 70's, when a city fiscal crisis reduced municipal money for such upkeep.

There was also a "depopulation of East Harlem and other communities" in the city in that decade, she said, as housing abandonment spread. And she spoke of "an attitudinal change - people were looking more to supermarkets."

Supermarkets are even more numerous now, and there is a large Pathmark that opened five years ago at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue and draws many East Harlem shoppers. So why is she optimistic about reviving the market?

"The pendulum has swung," she said. "Now consumers are looking to farmers' markets, public markets, places that aren't sterile, cookie-cutter."

The two existing buildings will be demolished, Ms. Colón said, and the new market will take into account the food interests of new groups that have been arriving in the area in sizable numbers from Mexico, West Africa and the Caribbean. Future rents have not been determined, she said, but the goal is "to keep them as affordable as possible" while doing "the kinds of things that attract customers."

One vendor pays a rent of $600 a month, but the seven others' rents average $188 a month, said Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corporation.

Jose Cintron, 55, who has run a butcher stall there since 1980 and started working in the market for other vendors in the 60's, pays the $600 rent. "I survive," he said, expressing hope for a revival.

At the stall called X-Square International Foods, whose offerings include dried cod, cassava meal and throat and nasal drops, the owner, who gave her name only as Grace, expressed optimism that the market would be born again.

Recalling that Mayor Bloomberg himself announced the redevelopment vision in October, she said: "I know this mayor. When he says he'll do it, he will do it."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[krulltime]

Giving Harlem businesses a hand
Initiative offers expert advice, helps firms modernize

By Jon Kalish
Published on June 07, 2004

Things are looking up for the Harlem's Heaven boutique. In the past year, the hat shop on the corner of Seventh Avenue and West 147th Street was profiled by Channel 7 News, installed a new computer, unveiled a new logo and created its first-ever customer database.

"We never strategized like we do now on how to get customers into the store," says Evetta Petty, who has co-owned the shop with her aunt Eva for 15 years.

While Ms. Petty says that the hat business is still a struggle, she is sure that it would be much harder without all the changes at the shop, and for those she thanks a 2-year-old program called the Harlem Small Business Initiative. An HSBI team of management consultants, M.B.A.'s and business students provided many hours of technical assistance to the store, including the design of the new logo.


Support from Clinton


Harlem's Heaven is one of 10 local businesses-four startups and six longtime enterprises--that were aided by HSBI. The program, which was launched in spring 2002 by the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Foundation, used the skills of 110 people. They included consultants from Booz Allen Hamilton, students from New York University's Stern School of Business and members of the National Black MBA Association and the National Association of Minorities in Communication.

They were formed into teams that spent nearly two years working closely with the 10 firms in the trial phase of the program. That stage ended in February; the program is now being expanded to other areas.

For consultants used to working with large, modern companies, the work brought some real surprises. "Believe it or not, none of the long-term businesses had income statements or balance sheets," says Reginald Van Lee, managing partner in the New York office of Booz Allen Hamilton and program leader of the initiative. "Most of them did not have computers."

By providing basic business tools, the HSBI teams in many cases were able to produce startling gains for their clients.

Katrina Parris Flowers, a 2-year-old firm originally housed in the owner's apartment, saw its revenues grow three times faster last year than Ms. Parris had anticipated. Profits, meanwhile, beat forecasts by an even wider margin. On the strength of those gains, Ms. Parris moved her business into a studio on West 112th Street in the fall.

By studying the market and how best to serve it, the HSBI team helped Ms. Parris and her husband figure out whether they should be a retail florist operation or do more corporate business. They opted for the latter.

"There's only so much you can do when you're trying to run a business, so that additional manpower was instrumental in figuring out there was opportunity in the corporate sector," says Ms. Parris.


Soaring rents


The HSBI teams have even tried to tackle one of the thorniest problems faced by Harlem business owners--soaring rents in their neighborhood. Ms. Petty of Harlem's Heaven is in the process of negotiating a lease renewal with the help of a lawyer provided by the initiative."It's a huge help to have counsel," she says.

For some, however, a little advice is simply not enough. The owners of another HSBI client, Dee's Cards & Wedding Services, on Lenox Avenue and West 134th Street, assume their store will have to leave its longtime home when its lease is up in three years.

"We're hoping to relocate in Harlem, but everything is so high," says Karen Turner, one of the owners and the daughter-in-law of its founder.

For two other clients, the end has already come. Both were startups. In April, 5 Star Video, which occupied a large storefront on the corner of West 111th Street and Eighth Avenue, went out of business. On West 128th Street, the Ta-Life yoga studio is also gone.

Still, encouraged by the successes that they have had with the eight survivors, HSBI backers launched a second round in the winter involving three businesses. Soon, the initiative will be expanded to the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Copyright 2004, Crain Communications, Inc

[krulltime]

Harlem becomes hotelier haven
W likely to follow Marriott; building on area's goal, tourism's promise


By Lisa Fickenscher
June 18, 2004

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. is working hard to get approval to build a swanky W hotel at 233 W. 125th St., say sources close to the project. The W would rise just four blocks from a Marriott Courtyard Hotel that is expected to break ground this autumn at 1800 Park Ave.

The intended site for the W property is the former Loews Victoria Theater, which has been vacant for about a decade and is now owned by the state. The site is located next to the legendary Apollo Theater.

A number of community groups, including the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, support a proposal to develop the W hotel as part of a complex including two neighborhood cultural organizations that have been without a home since their inception several years ago. The National Black Sports & Entertainment Hall of Fame and the National Jazz Museum in Harlem would be housed in the base of the complex, and the hotel would be built above them.

"We want it to be the W because it complements the upscale, hip nature that is Harlem," says Lloyd Williams, president of the chamber.

Community leaders have long wanted such a hotel in the area.

"It is closer now than it has ever been," says Voza Rivers, executive vice chairman of the hall of fame.

Starwood executives declined to comment, but sources say the firm's plans have been in the works for more than a year.

One potential stumbling block is the possibility that the state will issue a request for proposals in the next couple of months to develop 233 W. 125th St. But Starwood "does have an advantage right now," says Mr. Williams. "They have demonstrated their support for the destination concept, and they are very active in this community, which means an awful lot."

It's possible that given such strong local support for Starwood, the state will decide not to issue an RFP.

Others circling

Regardless of what company takes over the site, there is a promising level of interest. Furthermore, Starwood isn't the only hotelier scoping out the Harlem market. Kevin Corbett, chief operating officer of the Empire State Development Corp., says other companies have inquired about sites throughout the neighborhood.

The attention bodes well for the Upper Manhattan area, which has been vying for tourists' dollars.

"It's a very positive reflection on Harlem when you have Marriott and Starwood knocking at your door," says Mr. Corbett.

The state and city have high expectations for the community's revitalization.

The Marriott property is half a year behind schedule because the city asked the developer to redesign the project, known as Harlem Park, to create an iconic structure. The developer, which is building retail and Class A office space as part of the project, completed the new plan in March. The revised design, by architect Enrique Norten, calls for 40 floors instead of 29, and it includes 80 to 100 residential units. When light hits the tower, unique curves in the design will make it appear that the building is moving.

"We lost some momentum, but we have a classier project," explains Michael Caridi, managing partner of Harlem Park.

Harlem is ripe for this development. Over the past couple of years, tourism has increased significantly.

Tourist numbers rising

The most popular attraction, the Apollo, drew some 400,000 visitors last year, compared with 100,000 just three years ago. The landmark theater's operating budget has increased to $9 million from $2.5 million over the same period.

"That means we have sold a lot more tickets," says David Rodriguez, executive director.

Gray Line's red double-decker buses, which allow people to hop on and off as they travel through Manhattan, will soon head uptown. The route, which will kick off in early July, will include the Apollo and the Harlem Market.

"Our buses will be coming up to Harlem every 20 minutes," says Michael Alvich, vice president of sales and marketing.

Last summer, Harlem was selected by NYC & Company, the city's tourism bureau, as a site for a visitor kiosk providing maps and advice on where to shop, eat and find entertainment. In August, 7,500 people visited the Harlem kiosk, compared with 30,000 each at the older kiosks in Times Square and outside of City Hall.

Harlem is well on its way to attracting more visitors, however. A few years ago, only a handful of its businesses were members of NYC & Company. Today, about 50 of the community's businesses belong to the bureau.

Among the newer members of the tourism group is a 2-year-old upscale bed-and-breakfast, Harlem Landmark Guest House. The owners of the family-run business sank $1 million into renovating and decorating the 112-year-old house.

"We've been part of the development of Harlem; now we want to be part of the transformation," says Khadia Duncan, a co-owner.

Ms. Duncan and her partners also own residential properties in Harlem, and they plan to acquire other buildings.

"We are interested in improving the quality of life in Harlem, to show that you can live in an urban area and live well," she says.

Copyright 2004, Crain Communications, Inc

[Gulcrapek]

Kalahari

http://www.lmequity.com/portfolio/new.php?pid=38

http://www.lmequity.com/images/dynamic/Kalahari_lg.jpg

"Design development is underway for this exciting condominium project located between 115th Street and 116th Street and 5th Avenue and Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The project will include 250 condominium units and 60,000 square feet of retail. The units will range in prices to serve a mix of incomes. The project is being designed by a team of architects including GF55, Fred Schwartz Architects, and Studio JTA and developed through a joint venture with Full Spectrum on NY. Construction is expected to commence in March 2005 with a completion date at the end of 2006."

[billyblancoNYC]

Same site:

http://www.lmequity.com/portfolio/new.php?pid=40

201 West 148th Street

Construction will begin in July 2004 on this 24 unit middle income apartment building, located on the corner of 148th Street and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd. The project is being financed through HDC's NHOP program and will include a mix of incomes. This building will complete the revitalization of 148th Street by developing the last vacant parcel on the block.


Also, any news on the W in Harlem? Would be a huge boost, plus the 2 cultural sites. Would love to see a W in Brooklyn, too. If friggin' Hoboken can have one...

[Gulcrapek]

http://www.schwartzarch.com/116.htm

http://www.schwartzarch.com/kalh_03.jpg

http://www.schwartzarch.com/kalh_05.jpg

[Stern]

Could be nice, ala 2 Park Avenue. It could also not...

[tmg]

I can't decide if Frederic Schwartz Architects' version of the Kalahari looks innovative or just campy.

[Kris]

January 16, 2005

STREETSCAPES

A Once-Dangerous Block Gets a Face-Lift and an Uplift

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY

A HOTEL, a supermarket, a big retail building - recent and new projects on East 125th Street would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Change is coursing through one block, between Park and Lexington Avenues, once a dangerous and unpleasant corridor between the 125th Street railroad station and the Lexington Avenue subway.

The area around 125th and Park was settled no later than the 1840's, when the new railroad running up Park Avenue provided service across the Harlem River, with a station at 125th. With ferry connections at the Hudson and Harlem Rivers and, later, horse car service running east and west, 125th Street grew rapidly. The old structure at the southeast corner of 125th and Park, a hotel since early in the 20th century, is from the 1850's, and the sagging brownstone-front apartment house at 109 East 125th is from the 1860's.

In the 1880's, more prepossessing buildings arrived on the block, including the unusual four-story building at 111-113 East 125th, with two upper floors of brick and strangely flat terra cotta ornament, and the firehouse at 120 East 125th, designed in 1888 by Napoleon LeBrun.

LeBrun was the Fire Department's architect in the 1880's, and this firehouse epitomizes the model he developed. At the ground floor, the iron vehicle-door framing is layered with fish-scale ornament, with patches of flamelike cast-iron details above. The bulk of the firehouse is a pleasing mix of red brick and brownstone, with a plaque at the third floor that lists the architect and Fire Department officials, and the original iron dragon-head hoist at the top floor, which was used as a hayloft.

In the 1890's, the railroad raised its tracks to the present viaduct, which still dominates the landscape. The railroad even contemplated ending service at 125th Street, but a protest meeting called by local businessmen and residents, including the impresario Oscar Hammerstein and the importer Cyrus L. Sulzberger (the father of Arthur Hays Sulzberger, a former publisher of The New York Times), was successful, and the present brick station house was built in 1897. That the new station contained a gentlemen's smoking room, a telegraph office and a bicycle room is a document of the character of 125th Street at the time.

The little brick station was dwarfed in 1900, when the 12-story Hamilton Storage Warehouse went up at the northeast corner of 125th and Park. The warehouse originally had a voluptuously carved stone entranceway, but otherwise this humdrum structure gave no hint of its designer, Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert, whose more typical commissions were Gothic-style limestone mansions, like that now occupied by the Ukrainian Institute of America at 79th and Fifth.

The Hamilton building was still fresh in 1901 when President William McKinley died of an assassin's bullet in Buffalo. The Times reported that 125th Street was awash in black crepe and bunting, including black banners on the Hamilton building, stretching from sidewalk to roof.

The Harlem Savings Bank built its clunky neo-Classical bank at 124 East 125th in 1907. The architects Bannister & Schell were overreaching toward the City Beautiful style, and wound up with the City Chunky. (Around the corner, at 124th and Lexington, the little Provident Loan Society building from 1911 offers a more peaceful repose.)

In 1908, the members of Hook and Ladder 14 raced out of their firehouse, along with their six-year-old mascot, Spot - they had raised him from a puppy. An account in The Times said that Spot was excited, "whirling and circling like a sunset-mad swallow," as the company's three big horses crossed the sidewalk - and then the rig ran over and killed him.

After a pause, the firemen sped away, but afterward The Times interviewed the driver, John McManus, who said, "And this a damn cellar fire, damage 15 cents, and - and -." The reporter added, "Then he had to walk around some."

Next door, in a little commercial building at 122 East 125th in 1910, the police arrested John Qualey and Harvey Wiley Corbett. The two men had organized the Magnesia Asbestos Company, but the police said it was a shell corporation designed to fleece investors. Qualey and Corbett were taken to the jail on Centre Street - the Tombs - and later Corbett turned state's evidence against Qualey, who went to Sing Sing.

Corbett was soon to become famous as the visionary skyscraper architect who designed streamlined high-rises like the apartment building at One Fifth Avenue and as one of the architects who planned Rockefeller Center. Beginning in 1937, he must have had time to reconsider the events of 1910 - that was when he designed the present ziggurat-like Tombs on Centre Street.

By the 1960's, there was little left of the block's quondam prominence. In 1972, a psychiatrist, Selwyn Brody, was robbed and stabbed outside the Carousel Bar at 109 East 125th Street. The Times called the block "one of the city's more violent, drug-ridden streets."

But there is little left on the block from that troubled period, and it now bristles with building activity. The Hamilton Storage building, converted to offices long ago, is covered with black construction netting, an unintentional re-creation of the mourning dress for President McKinley of 1901.

The scene of Harvey Corbett's asbestos scam has been demolished, and a trim new two-story commercial building is almost finished there, a neat little burst of purple brick and red window frames, for which the architect is Jae Y. Ko.

The firehouse is vacant, but the bank building next door is little changed and still in use. On the other side of the firehouse, an old theater was replaced in the 1990's by the Northern Manhattan Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. Designed by Allen H. Feinberg Architects, this at first looks like a standard, boring box of beige brick. But several touches indicate that someone was awake during the design process. The bulk of the building's facade is interestingly varied, and the parapet at the roofline has a broken pediment - the line of brick is broken by a small circle - making it quite similar to that on a little two-story building to the west (at No. 108-110) from about 1920.

At Lexington Avenue, a gleaming new metal retail building has gone up at the northwest corner, diagonally opposite the giant new Pathmark retail complex. The 1860's brownstone at 109 East 125th has long been boarded up, but now renovation workers go in and out. Building records say it is being converted into a community center. Eugene Giscombe, a veteran 125th Street real estate investor, bought the old Hamilton Storage building in 1979, when, he says, "there weren't even any stores open" on the block and his building was 80 percent vacant. Now he is at work on a $3 million renovation, with new storefronts, a new lobby, an exterior restoration and floodlighting of the upper floors. His tenants include the Opus 118 Harlem School of Music, for young people. He is charging annual rents of $25 a square foot and has 80 percent occupancy, he says.

He expects to be charging $35 a square foot in a year or so, he says. And that is hardly unlikely, considering the billboards on the long-vacant lot on the southwest corner of 125th and Park, diagonally opposite his building. They announce the imminent start of construction for the new Harlem Park office/hotel/retail/residential complex, 35 stories high.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

February 23, 2005

Real Estate Is Still Surging in Harlem, a Study Finds

By DENNIS HEVESI

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/t.gifhe Harlem real estate renaissance rolls on - and the numbers show it.

Sales of condominiums and co-ops above West 116th Street and East 96th Street reached 5.5 percent of all sales in Manhattan last year, according to the Prudential Douglas Elliman Manhattan Market Report, compared with the 3.6 percent share it held in 2003.

By comparison, the downtown loft market was 9.4 percent of all sales in Manhattan, up from 8.1 percent the year before.

"They've both gone up," said Jonathan Miller, president of the Miller Samuel appraisal company, which prepared the Elliman report, "but the market that's gotten most of the attention, and was discovered first, was the loft market, which really came into being in the 90's. Now Harlem has become a significant segment that can't be overlooked."

It is impossible for Willie Katherine Suggs, president of the Harlem brokerage firm that bears her name, to overlook the change. "There are blocks in Harlem that bear no resemblance to what they looked like 10 years ago," Ms. Suggs said. "Right outside my door, it was like somebody bombed it out - vacant lots, vacant buildings. Now there are two nine-story luxury buildings, and they are doing a third one on the north side of 145th Street."

Seen over a 10-year period, Harlem's renewal is even more evident. The Elliman report tracked 8,653 co-op and condo sales for all of Manhattan last year, up 77.9 percent from 4,865 sales in 1995. In Harlem last year, there were 473 co-op and condo sales, a 164 percent jump from 179 sales in 1995. The report is based on closed transactions for all brokerage firms in Manhattan.

There has been, not surprisingly, a corresponding surge in prices. The average sales price for all of Manhattan in 2004 was $1,004,232, up 18.1 percent from $850,340 in 2003, and up 140.5 percent since 1995, the report said. In Harlem, the average price in 2004 was $358,657, up 36.9 percent from $261,951 in 2003, and up 333.7 percent from $82,693 in 1995.

The median price in Manhattan last year was $605,859, up 22.4 percent from $495,000 in 2003, and up 192 percent from $207,500 in 1995. In Harlem, the median price in 2004 was $305,490, rising by 32.8 percent over the median of $230,000 in 2003, and bounding up by 350 percent from $68,000 in 1995.

Ms. Suggs credits city housing policy for the boom. "You have city money involved," she said. "If you agreed to keep prices affordable, you got tax breaks and all kinds of incentives. And investors took advantage of them. Where else could you get a two-bedroom apartment for $190,000?"

Now, most of those subsidized, renovated apartments are gone, "and nonsubsidized apartments start at $450,000 and go up to over a million," Ms. Suggs continued. "It became the self-fulfilling prophecy."

Spurring the demand is the fact that Manhattan "has just gotten so expensive," said Dr. Chris Mayer, director of the Milstein Center for Real Estate at Columbia University. "And, certainly, the renaissance in Harlem, in Brooklyn and, frankly, across the bridges and tunnels to New Jersey, shows that close access to Midtown is worth the price."

At the same time, Harlem's character has changed in just a decade. "Large chain grocery stores are there; hotels opening up, the Body Shop, Starbucks," Dr. Mayer said. "And it has become harder for people on a limited income to live there."

"It's always an interesting question whether so-called gentrification is good or bad," he added.

Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[Gulcrapek]

203 West 122nd Street
6 floors, 59 feet
5 units

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/PropertyProfileOverviewServlet?boro=1&houseno=203&street=west+122+st&requestid=0&s=2764E472656094405BCE4CFD7393E84A

http://www.corcoran.com/property/nd/photo/203west.jpg

[Derek2k3]

138 West 124th Street
138-140 West 124th Street
12 stories (4 story addition) 152 feet
Scarano & Associates Architects
Dev-Blesso Properties LLC
Residential Condominiums
21 units 46,991 Sq. Ft.
Under Construction 2005-2006


www.blessoproperties.com
Photos of the warehouse and a project description.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&formtype=address&searchtype=address&cat=&address=138%20W%20124th%20St&city=New%20York&state=NY&zipcode=10027%2d4919
Map

http://newyork.construction.com/news/building/default.asp
New York Construction News
Building News - April 2005
Vintage Townhouse Revived

"Several miles to the north, in Harlem, Blesso plans a different kind of residential makeover, converting a long-vacant eight-story building into a 21-unit condominium complex. Scarano is also architect for that $8 million project, which will add four stories to the building for a total of 52,000 sq. ft. Eight to 12 months of construction will begin shortly, said Blesso, who added that he had not yet selected a contractor. "

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_39_49/ai_101679170
RiverOak Investment Corp. invests in Harlem building - Brief Article
Real Estate Weekly, April 30, 2003

[TonyO]

NYSun
5/26/05

Harlem's Renewal Spreads to the Boulevard

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in May, Harlem's Frederick Douglass Boulevard is happening. Hipsters and elegant West African couples sip ginger juice and eat couscous at Les Ambassades' outdoor cafe on 118th Street. Young businessmen with cell phones attached to their ears rush in and out of the UPS store up the block. Locals stand in line for the famous fried fish at Lovie's Fish & Chips. The Moca Lounge won't open until 5,but its elegant wooden facade looks beckoning - no ugly roll-down gates. And across the street at Harlem Vintage, wine lovers stream in for a tasting of roses. The slim, young Asian server pours wines made from esoteric grapes like Malbec, Lagrein, and Cinsault, and customers order cases to be shipped all over the city. The scene seems an unthinkably long way from the bad old days of the early 1980s, when the city government owned 70% of Harlem real estate and crime and drugs were rampant.

Welcome to the new Harlem, unquestionably one of the hottest neighborhoods in New York. The value of the average Harlem brownstone has increased 335% since 1995, in no small part due to cooperation between private developers and the city government, which worked together to make something of the whole blocks of derelict property the city foreclosed on in the 1970s. Today, the city has very little property left, "no more than 2,000 units," Housing Development Corporation President Emily Youssouf said. "Most of the city-owned sites have been sold to developers to build housing. At the same time, private developers have bought property, with no help from us, to put up market-rate condos."

Harlem brownstones now routinely sell for $1.5 million, and empty shells for $1 million. "1.5 is the new 1.2," said a prominent residential broker, Willie Kathryn Suggs. "Last year houses went for $1.2 million, and shells sold for $800,000."

However, the boom Ms. Suggs is talking about has largely taken place on Harlem's glorious, brownstone-lined side streets and the historic sections of Morris Park and Strivers Row. Many of the avenues, including Frederick Douglass Boulevard, which is often called the gateway to Harlem, languished. "Nobody in their right mind went there in the early '90s, much less bought a house there," said Ms. Suggs.

Crime was a huge deterrent to investment, but under the Giuliani administration, the tide began to turn. "A drug gang that controlled 116th Street and Manhattan Avenue roamed the area," said Ms. Suggs. "They had three or four murders a year attributed to them. The cops cleaned out the corner, threw them in prison."

So far this year, the 25th Precinct has had three murders, more than neighborhood residents would like and an indication that the neighborhood is not yet 100% safe, but still a far cry from the 37 murders recorded in 1993.

In 1995, the Giuliani administration started a program called HomeWorks, under which small, vacant, city-owned buildings were rehabilitated into one to four-family homes by experienced builders. The buildings were then sold in a lottery to individual home buyers at market prices. The city subsidized purchases by providing no-interest, no amortizing loans that were forgiven if the buyer kept the property for six years. Still, in those years buyers who put down their life savings for a home in Harlem or the Bronx were making a leap of faith, said Tracy Paurowski, director of Marketing for HDC, which financed the loans.

The crux of the Giuliani strategy, which has been continued under Mayor Bloomberg, is to encourage homeownership.

"Homeowners anchor neighborhoods in good economic times and in bad," said Carol Abrams, a spokes woman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. "Homeowners who've invested a significant portion of their savings in their homes care about their property values, and care about good schools, safe streets, sanitation, and other neighborhood indicators. Home ownership has been the country's primary vehicle for wealth creation - the national rate is 71% - and we want it here, helping to make neighborhoods vibrant and stable."

The strategy worked, yet even as the brownstone-lined side streets came back, the avenues struggled. "From a planning perspective, Harlem's avenues are not where they need to be," says Ibo Balton, a neighborhood resident and director of Manhattan planning for the HPD. While the city government has been able to return 95% of its property in the neighborhood (almost 1,800 buildings and 26,000 units) to the private sector, it is only now reaping the fruits of its efforts on the avenues.

The Bloomberg administration's major initiative for bringing back the avenues is Cornerstone, a multifamily, middle-income and market-rate new construction program that has produced 3,000 units in Harlem, 750 of which are in the Frederick Douglass Boulevard corridor.

One lucky new co-op owner is Jeanne Oliver-Taylor, vice president for Brokerage Services and Education at the Real Estate Board of New York. She paid $132,000 in 2003 for a two-bedroom apartment in Harriet Tubman Gardens, an eight-story, 73-unit co-op Cornerstone development between 120th and 121st streets on Frederick Douglass Boulevard. "I was so fortunate to get this apartment," she said. "I am so thankful, so blessed, with neighbors that are caring and interested in one another."

She barely squeaked by Cornerstone's city-mandated income limits. Of the 73 units, 62 had to be sold to moderate-income households - those earning up to 165% of area median income or no more than $103,620 for a family of four. Another seven had to be sold to middle-income households earning up to 250% of area median income, or no more than $157,000 for a family of four. The developer was able to sell four penthouses at market rates, upward of $330,000. (There's also a minimum income requirement of around $45,000.)

Ms. Oliver-Taylor's apartment is pleasant and bright, overlooking a garden and a group of townhouses that were sold for $500,000. Her monthly maintenance is $636. "The townhouses were out of my price range," she said. "But they're awfully nice, and the top two floors are rental." Harriet Tubman's developer, Bluestone, retained the townhouses, and the ground-floor retail space rented by Harlem Vintage, a drycleaner, and a realty office. In other words, the development is helping put life back on the street through retail - and by providing customers.

"People always come first, then the restaurants and services and other good things," Ms. Suggs said. "The city is doing what it's supposed to be doing: setting an example. It's turning this property over to good developers who are going to build, then keep the buildings in fine repair, sweep the sidewalks, be a good neighbor. For the longest time the city didn't know how to be a good neighbor. It sold Harlem buildings for a dollar to people who didn't take care of them, just sat on them. What good did that do us?"

Every single site on Frederick Douglass Boulevard is "programmed," Mr. Barton said, that is, ready to be developed into moderate-, middle-, or market-rate housing.

Ms. Suggs does not doubt that the area is back. "Warburg on one corner, Corcoran on the other, Pru down the street, selling condos, going after the resales," she said, referring to offices opened up by other real estate firms.

For Mr. Balton the true measure of the success of the city's programs in the neighborhood is that development is now occurring outside them. "Go to 115th Street, where Harlem Horizon is going up - full market-rate. We had nothing to do with it. Not a penny is government."

[TonyO]

6/7/05
New York Sun


New Housing and Harlem Renaissance

John P. Avlon
The New York Sun
June 7, 2005

Fifteen years ago, during the bad old days of New York, the neighborhood of central Harlem surrounding St. Nicholas Avenue was a war zone of drugs, gangs, and violence. Forty-one murders were committed there in 1990, the first year of David Dinkins's watch from City Hall. The last thing any reasonable person would have expected to see would be "Luxury Condos Available" signs dotting the neighborhood.

But take a walk down lower St. Nicholas Avenue today and see striking evidence of a new Harlem Renaissance taking shape. Buoyed by dramatically lower crime rates (there were a comparatively few eight murders in central Harlem last year) and an intelligently aggressive public-private housing development policy, perennially empty lots and burned-out abandoned buildings are being replaced at a rapid rate by architecturally attractive mixed-use buildings, combining commercial tenants with both market-rate and subsidized housing. Upscale clubs and coffeehouses are now neighborhood fixtures, and "luxury condos available" signs are unremarkable parts of the landscape.

Much of the credit belongs to an obscure public benefit corporation that funds affordable housing at no expense to taxpayers. If this sounds like an all-around good deal, it is.

The Housing Development Corporation was inaugurated under Mayor Lindsay and Governor Rockefeller. Alternately successful and controversial under subsequent administrations, investments in Harlem and other areas begun under Mayor Giuliani are now reaching fruition under the high-priority drive of Mayor Bloomberg. He tapped Wall Street veteran Emily Youssouf to head the agency. With HDC's help and the efforts of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, long-blighted neighborhoods are turning around block by block.

No longer is city government the infamous "landlord of last resort." The number of private buildings abandoned to government custody or seized for nonpayment of taxes has declined to less than 3,400 today from more than 100,000 in 1979.The days of New York's inner city looking like stretches of postwar Dresden are just a rumor to a younger generation of New Yorkers.

For fiscal conservatives and budget watchdogs, the best thing about HDC is that its AA bonds are not a debt of the state or city of New York. The necessary good government aim of increasing affordable housing is being financed through the markets. Its tax-exempt bonds are used to finance first mortgage loans to qualifying private developers. Moreover, HDC has no taxing power and does not receive any taxpayer funds. This has not affected HDC's effectiveness.

With only 125 employees, the HDC functions like a lean mortgage bank with a philanthropic mission, creating or preserving 8,000 units of lower- and middle-income housing over the last two years alone.

"We're trying to provide quality housing," Mrs. Youssouf explained in an interview. "You don't want to create all low income all the time. Dealing in some mix is a great thing to do, because it's an integrated city. Neighborhoods should be integrated. Buildings should be integrated ... The concept is to give people good, decent, and affordable housing to live in, and then they're able to save money and eventually go out and buy something. That's how it should work."

In an election year, Democratic candidates are prone to trotting out applause lines calling for more public housing. But their rhetoric often ignores reality. For example, the president of Manhattan, C. Virginia Fields, recently released one of the first detailed policy proposals of her campaign, pledging to create 10,000 new units of housing over 10 years. That sounds great, but it lags significantly behind the Bloomberg administration's current pace of housing development.

The 80/20 formula - which combines 80% of new units at market rate with 20% set aside for lower-income housing - has been used to anchor HDC-backed developments in neighborhoods ranging from Morrisania and Highbridge in the South Bronx to Court Street in downtown Brooklyn. And despite the fact there was no mandate for affordable housing in the post-September 11 Liberty Bond program, almost 2,000 new units have been allocated under that program. New housing for military families has come in the form of 228 new and rehabilitated townhouses on the Fort Hamilton base.

But perhaps the success that is underway is most striking in central Harlem. At corners on St. Nicholas Avenue where drug dealers once ruled, there is now a Rite Aid and a UPS store. The Moca Bar boasts Sohostyle decoration, and an organic food mart named the Karrot is getting ready to open, while a combined coffee and fresh pastry shop offers outdoor seating where patrons play chess. The new housing provides the anchor to this neighborhood renaissance. Let the civic textbooks of the future show that it was not local politicians' promises but crime reduction and market-driven public private partnerships that made such a turnaround possible.

[tmg]

The Langston Condominiums
10 stories
68 Bradhurst Ave. @ 145th Street

http://www.thelangston.com

[Suejay]

Styvers Row was a huge residential restoration by Inez Dicken's Father, Llyod E Dickens in the 80's. The "Black Man" was ahead of his time, because to see a question about construction in Harlem in 2005, means there were "sleepers" not to know about that restoration project. It began the Renaissance in Harlem at 201 West 139th Street, 1983.

[Kris]

April 9, 2006
Streetscapes | West 128th Street
A Century Later, the Stoop Persists in a New Form
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/04/09/realestate/09scap2.xl.jpg
Both the 1890's brownstones and the modern row houses on 128th Street incorporate stoops, though their form and function have changed. Of the brownstone row pictured here, only No. 31, at the far left, survives. The modern stoops lead to two floor-through apartments.

THE decay and housing abandonment of Harlem beginning in the 1960's left broken-tooth gaps all over, like a London neighborhood hit by scattered bombs in a Luftwaffe raid. But most of the area has rebounded with new construction, including 128th Street between Fifth and Lenox Avenues.

Here, a handful of empty lots have been filled with what look like new high-stoop row houses. But they're different from the brownstones of the 19th century — and it's not just the stone.

Construction on West 128th Street took off in the 1880's and 1890's, including the row of brick and brownstone houses built around 1891 at Nos. 25 through 35. Of these, Nos. 31, 33 and 35 remain.

The high-stoop solution for the row house achieved dominance in the 1850's, to accommodate an entrance to the kitchen and service areas a little below grade and another entrance to the entertaining rooms, well above street level. Deliveries and servants had the most direct path inside, whereas owners and guests had to climb a flight of stairs outside, but this counterintuitive architectural solution was not seriously questioned.

The persistence of the stoop in the 19th century is something of a mystery to historians. By the turn of the century, row-house builders had shifted to grade-level entrances, so why didn't householders demand that solution decades earlier?

The early residents of this block of West 128th were people like Joseph A. Britton, who lived at No. 6, an investigator who infiltrated gambling dens for Anthony Comstock's Society for the Suppression of Vice. At one point, he supervised a force of 14 undercover agents.

The houses on West 128th were not crowded: Mr. Britton lived there with only his wife.

The black migration that swept through Harlem after the turn of the century repopulated the houses with working-class families, and the 1930 census yields a revealing economic picture of the changes overtaking the street. One white family remained on the block, at No. 8, in a house valued at $10,000. The house at No. 35 was occupied by Alphonse Black, 35, an African-American auto mechanic, and his family of five — they rented it for $80 a month.

Next door, No. 33 was divided among four black families — 15 people in all, paying a total of $127 a month. More tenants meant more rent for the landlord.

As Harlem went into a downward slide, many buildings were demolished, wore out into empty shells or, worse, became havens for drug dealers and other criminals.

Although spring grass now sprouts where houses once stood at Nos. 25 through 29, there are few vacant lots left on West 128th Street. Eight have been filled with handsome new row houses, with high stoops, trim cornices, attractive variegated orange brick and projecting oriel windows on the main floor.

But actually there is no main floor — each building is three apartments; those on the upper two floors are reached by an old-style exterior stoop. In fact, it's not even a row, at least in the old sense. Although the eight new buildings are essentially identical, they are sprinkled along both sides of the street, at Nos. 28, 28A, 30, 34, 58, 79, 81 and 83 West 128th. Call it a row for a deconstructed age.

David Danois, an architect, filed plans for the buildings in 1999 as part of a program sponsored by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the New York City Partnership, a civic group. Vacant lots were turned over to a single developer for construction of owner-occupied buildings that would help stabilize what were then iffy neighborhoods.

Mr. Danois says that each of the new row houses has an owner's duplex on the first two floors, plus two rental apartments on the upper floors, reached by the stoop.

Mr. Danois said he included stoops on all the buildings so that they would blend in with the rest of the neighborhood. But there are important differences between the 1890's and the 1990's: on the traditional row house, the ground-floor entrance was concealed right under the stoop.

But on the contemporary model, the ground-floor doorway is in the open, to one side of the stoop. This permits access by people with disabilities.

The stoop itself makes a 90-degree turn and fits completely within the building line — the stoops on older row houses were permitted to project beyond the lot, a privilege since withdrawn.

The old row houses were 60 feet from front to back (or even deeper), leading to dark interiors, a particular hardship when gas was used for illumination. But in Mr. Danois's design the apartments are no more than 50 feet deep, with correspondingly more light.

Michael Cummings, a police officer, has owned 28A West 128th Street for four years. "I originally wanted a big yard and looked at the standard places where police officers go — upstate, Long Island — but I'd be traveling an hour or more to commute," he said. Living on West 128th, he said, "I can grab a cab after work, take my kids down to the natural history museum and be home by dinner."

Across the street, the owner of the 1890's house at 33 West 128th, who declined to be identified, said she thinks the new buildings enhance the block, although she misses the berry bushes that grew on the vacant land they now occupy. She said she doesn't really notice going up and down her stoop, although "it does give you exercise."

Across the street, a woman coming down the stoop at the new building at No. 28 West 128th said she also usually didn't notice the climb: "If I had to take my laundry out, it would be a real problem, and with groceries it is a bother," she said, asking to be identified only as Pam.

She said that she and her sisters have the apartments on the upper floors of the new building. She wound up on the top floor and has to climb three flights, one flight up the stoop and two inside. "After all," she said, "I'm the youngest."

E-mail: streetscapes@nytimes.com

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[Stern]

The Lenox:

http://www.thelenoxnyc.com/


This is one of the best if not the best new residential construction I've seen for Harlem...

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zmAptLenox.jpg

Simple classic and understated design. Attention to detail, good proportions, and quality materials.

Groundlevel commercial space presented in a Madison Avenue fashion.

Rooftop plantings are a very nice touch.

I like everything about this building's presentation. I like that upper middle class black people are shown in renderings, instead of other “luxury” Harlem developments which turn there back on Harlem in an attempt to draw a white UES crowd.

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zmAptLenox2.jpg

Maybe it's because this isn't a luxury development, its just built like one.

Im not quite ready to move to Harlem but if they keep building developments like this I would move to Harlem in a heartbeat. That said if they keep building developments like this, not for very long will I be able to afford to choose to live there.

[Stern]

After doing a little bit of research it turns out that David E. Gross has designed a number of building in Harlem. Some excellent and along the lines of The Lenox. Some mediocre.

Gross' best development is Brownstone Lane. This is a new development!

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zmCntrAptMainBrwnTwnHses.jpg

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zmCntrAptMainBrwnTwnHses2.jpg

These townhouses aren't as nice:

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zm_madisonApt.jpg

The condo development in front:

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zmCntrAptMainMadison.jpg

444 Manhattan Avenue Co-op Development (Bars in place of retail):

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zmApt444Man.jpg

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zmApt444Man4.jpg

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zmApt444Man2.jpg

Triangle Court Complex. The problems I have with this one is once again bars in place of retail, and a PJ sounding name. Above the second floor this is a fine development, but its hard to overlook its shortcomings.

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zmCntrTallAptMainTriCrt.jpg

The Kalahari:

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zmCntrAptMainKalahari_1.jpg

Obviously in the context of the West African community that has assembled in this area of Harlem. While I applaud the context I find the architecture somewhat overbearing. I’m not saying the approach is right or wrong, clearly though Gross’s best developments are Brownstone Lane and The Lenox.

[czsz]

"Kalahari" (which is in Kenya) is an interesting choice for a building "in the context of the West African community"...

[ablarc]

This guy Gross does good stuff. Kalahari's especially interesting. Boldness returns to New York. Hope the NIMBYs don't kill it in the name of good taste.

[krulltime]

http://www.gf55.com/projects/zoom/images/zmCntrAptMainKalahari_1.jpg

Hmmm... I wonder where on 110 (or is it 119?) street will the The Kalahari go.

[czsz]

116th I think.

[Stern]

This guy Gross does good stuff. Kalahari's especially interesting. Boldness returns to New York. Hope the NIMBYs don't kill it in the name of good taste.

It looks very much like West African Batik, its a very interesting and I would assume not very costly concept.

[benzapp]

Anyone know what is going on at the southwest corner of Lenox Avenue and West 125th Street? Those buildings were recently razed and now there is an enormous vacant lot. DOB just has a permit for the demolition, nothing else yet... The lot is large enough a lot could be done with it.

I'd love to get some info, if anyone has it! Thanks!

[antinimby]

Long-Vacant Harlem School Site Moves Toward Development


By ERIN DURKIN
Special to the Sun
July 12, 2007 (http://www.nysun.com/article/58332)

Development plans are emerging for the site of a long-vacant Harlem school building, but the proposal is generating strong opposition among neighborhood groups who question whether more than 100 co-op apartments would be affordable to local residents.

The building that formerly housed P.S. 186 at 145th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, is owned by the M.L Wilson Boys and Girls Club, which bought it from the city in 1986 for $215,000. Though their agreement with the city called for development to be mostly completed within three years, the site has remained vacant more than twenty.

ARCTAC Development Partners, selected by the club to develop the site, presented a plan to the Community Board 9 in June that consists of two towers that would include a facility for the Boys and Girls Club, space for stores or nonprofit organizations, perhaps a post office, and 101 co-op units.

Twenty-five percent of the units would be market rate, and 75% would be affordable for families earning up to 175% of area median income. The Boys and Girls Club would serve as the landlord for the new development, and would likely generate millions.

"It stood up above all the rest," the chairwoman of the board of the Boys and Girls Club, Shirley Lewis, said of ARCTAC's plan, which was chosen from six that were submitted last year.

For the plan to go forward, the city would have to lift a restrictive deed that requires 85% of the site be dedicated to non-profit uses, and that requires approval by Mayor Bloomberg and the president of Manhattan, Scott Stringer.

The director of land use for Mr. Stringer, Anthony Borelli, said that if the plan could be refined to meet the needs of the community, the office would consider modifying the deed. A representative of the mayor's office dealing with the development did not return phone messages.

Some community groups say that though the apartments are touted as "affordable" housing, they would be out of reach for most Harlem residents.
The area median income — which is calculated based on all of New York City and some of its suburbs — is $70,900 for a family of four. That would mean that the "affordable" co-ops would be targeted at families making up to $124,075. The median income in Community District 9, where the site is located, is about $30,000.

"That's not affordable," said the executive director of Broadway Housing Communities, Ellen Baxter, "That's just rhetoric."

In an effort to prevent the proposal, another neighborhood group, Brotherhood/Sister Sol, has gathered 5,000 signatures on a petition demanding that the deed restriction be kept in place.

A member of the development team at ARCTAC, Tom Ciano, said the developer would try to bring the cost of the apartments down as much as is economically feasible.

"We're trying to reach as low as possible," he said, adding that he would like to see some of the units be affordable to families making about $56,000 to $70,000.

© 2007 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC

[antinimby]

Here's a pic from the Real Deal (http://www.therealdeal.net/breaking_news/2007/07/12/1184268307.php) of that ^ school:

http://www.therealdeal.net//breaking_news/2007/07/12/images/10813.jpg
The former school building
on 145th Street

[ablarc]

A member of the development team at ARCTAC, Tom Ciano, said the developer would try to bring the cost of the apartments down as much as is economically feasible.
...meaning they'll cheapen the buildings.

[Gulcrapek]

It's a really cool thing to look at - looks like the setting for a haunted hotel kinda movie (Shining I guess). The lack of windows and the growth of vines has led to a real creepy-awesome vibe. That being said, I think it would make a great hotel or community center...

[antinimby]

Harlem to Get First Luxury Hotel



by Mark Wellborn Published: July 31, 2007 (http://www.observer.com/2007/harlem-get-first-luxury-hotel)

Luxury lodging is coming to Harlem.

Paul Reisman of New Jersey-based Reisman Properties recently told The Observer that his company is breaking ground in August on a hotel on 125th Street.

“The hotel will run along Fifth Avenue from 125th to 126th Street,” Mr. Reisman said.

Although a flag has yet to be picked for the property, Mr. Reisman said that a number of very high-end chains are in the running. “Right now, who we go with is an open question,” he said. “But we are narrowing it down.”

The property will be designed by Handel Architects, an architecture firm whose clients include 40 Bond Street, the Trump Soho Hotel and the Ritz-Carlton, Downtown. Once completed, the hotel will be 19 stories tall and cover over 130,000 square-feet.

"There will be somewhere between 240 and 260 rooms in the hotel, and it will have 25,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space,” Mr. Reisman said.
He would not disclose the total cost for the development, but did say that it would “be north of $80 million.”

Mr. Reisman started Reisman Properties in 1979 with his brother, Steven. This will be the company’s first hotel project in New York City.

Copyright ©, The New York Observer, L.P.

[DominicanoNYC]

NY POST: Movinn' On Up

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08012007/photos/news003a.jpg

By BRADEN KEIL

August 1, 2007 -- Harlem already has multimillion-dollar condos and an office building that houses ex-President Bill Clinton.

Next on the list for the area's evolving gentrification are plans for luxury hotels expected to soon break ground.

A 19-story hotel with as many as 260 rooms is planned for Fifth Avenue and 125th Street. It will include banquet and meeting space.

A few blocks away, at 124th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, where an Associated supermarket once stood, space has been cleared, possibly for a fancy W Hotel.

Either project would become Manhattan's first major hotel built north of 110th Street in 40 years.

"I believe it'll be a good idea, more business and more jobs for the community," said 135th Street resident Sherlie Davis, a retired food service worker and 17-year Harlem resident.

"When you have people visiting from all over, it's better for them to stay in the area than to go downtown."

Not everyone was thrilled with the planned hotels.

"That's not Harlem. Harlem was a soulful place. It's taking away from the poor," said 125th Street resident Saba Unogen, 50, a vendor who sells religious garb.

"This is terrible if they open these two hotels. No one will be able to afford them but the rich. Most of the people here are on public assistance and Section 8."

The owner of the Fifth Avenue project, New Jersey developer Paul Reisman, told the New York Observer that he doesn't have a chain to run the property yet.

A broker, who asked that his name not be printed, said, "We're getting close [on a W hotel] - but we've been disappointed in the past."

A Marriott hotel had been planned for 125th Street and Park Avenue, but the project was killed in February 2006, after it was announced in 2003 with great fanfare.

"Harlem is completely underserved for all kinds of retail development," said Jeffrey Roseman, a Manhattan broker with Newmark.

"I'm sure a luxury hotel up there would stay fully occupied."

Additional reporting by Brigitte Williams-James

braden.keil@nypost.com

[londonlawyer]

I saw that in the Post. What an awesome building!

[DominicanoNYC]

Yeah it looks nice.

[Derek2k3]

Nice. Reminds me of 122 Greenwich.

[londonlawyer]

Nice. Reminds me of 122 Greenwich.

I thought the same thing!

[sfenn1117]

Wow, Handel architects goes out of the box. Looks great!

[sfenn1117]

Don't know much about this one:

http://www.archpaper.com/images/features/feature2007_13/grid2.jpg

125TH AND 5TH
Location: 2022 5th Avenue
Developer: 125th @ 5th Development
Architect: Frederic Schwartz Architects
Size: 70,000 sq. ft.
Type: Mixed-use
Completion (est.): 2009

http://www.archpaper.com/features/2007_13_grid.htm

[antinimby]

HARLEM SHUFFLE
BUILDING BOOM IS OUSTING OL' FAVES


By KATHIANNE BONIELLO and CATHERINE NANCE

August 12, 2007 (http://www.nypost.com/seven/08122007/news/regionalnews/harlem_shuffle_regionalnews_kathianne_boniello__an d_catherine_nance.htm) -- The heart of Harlem is being reshaped - some say gutted - in a blitz of big-money real-estate deals, starting with nearly a dozen small shops getting squeezed out to make way for retail and office development.

"Harlem will be gone," lamented Lanise Benjamin, whose 90-year-old grandfather's legendary music shop, Bobby's Happy House, is being evicted from Frederick Douglass Boulevard. "To tear this building down would essentially be to tear Harlem apart."

Bobby's has been in the neighborhood 61 years. But along with nearly a dozen other stores, it got an eviction notice last month after the building between West 125th and 126th streets was sold in a $50 million real-estate deal involving three West 125th Street parcels.

While developers tout plans for hotels, condominiums, office space and national retailers, local businesses are getting left behind, store owners complained. The pressure of rising rents is being felt particularly along the entire length of the main commercial artery of 125th Street, where nearly a dozen projects, both proposed and under way, have sprung up.

"It's a shame, and it's so unfair to the people who have kept the community the way it is," said Sikhulu Shange, owner of the Record Shack on 125th Street. "This is the economical lynching of the community, and it's not right."

Philip Bulgar, manager of Manna's Soul Food and Salad Bar, next door to Bobby's, said the current owners weathered the area's drug- and crime-plagued eras and should be allowed to remain now that times are good.

"It's sad that it has come to this," Bulgar said. "This is going to be a vastly different community, and I'm not sure it's going to be for the better. The people here deserve better."

Not everyone decries the changes. National retail chains and more money flowing into the community raises everyone up, Harlem resident Gerard Matthews noted.

"It's nice to see the businesses and the homeowners who have worked hard to make the area a healthy, happy community get some long-overdue help with city investment in Harlem," he said. "But at the same time, nobody wants to see longtime residents get priced out."

Instead of Bobby's, Manna's and others, Kimco Realty and the Sigfeld Group plan a 100,000-square-foot redevelopment and claim they are helping the existing tenants relocate.

"The new retail development will serve to improve an already-thriving retail community," said Eric Hochman, who added that Kimco simply took advantage of the termination clauses in shop owners' existing leases.

Longtime Harlem real-estate player Eugene Giscombe, who is also chairman of the 125th Street Business Improvement District's board of directors, brokered the deal that sold the Frederick Douglass Boulevard space to Kimco and Sigfeld. Neither Sigfeld nor Giscombe's brokerage firm, Giscombe Henderson, returned calls for comment.


http://www.nypost.com/seven/08122007/photos/news021a.jpg

Copyright 2007 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[Derek2k3]

Don't know much about this one:

http://www.archpaper.com/images/features/feature2007_13/grid2.jpg
http://www.archpaper.com/features/2007_13_grid.htm

I think that's the Victoria theater site. I'm sorry to see they went with something so squat and drab. Here's the thread.

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5716

[sfenn1117]

Here's the plans for the rumored W Hotel in Harlem

http://i17.tinypic.com/4yq42ad.jpg

2300 Frederick Douglas Blvd. Hotel and Residences by W-"A Loft"
Harlem, NY

A ground up mixed use project of 137,000 SF. 50,000 SF would be used as high-end residential condo project (51 units), and 50,000 SF would be used as a “W”-“A Loft” (Starwood) Hotel rooms (120 Keys). Approx 10,000 SF would be used as retail space, and 10,000 would be used as community facilities such as rooftop, parking spaces, etc.

In this project Shuster is acting as a construction management company.

http://www.shustermanagement.com/commericalgallery/harlem-hotel.htm

I checked the building permit....if you thought the rendering just screamed Gene Kaufman....you're right!

[Derek2k3]

what a joke...I'm just going to pretend like I never opened this thread.

[antinimby]

Wow, that is retarded.

Why would anyone in their right mind, leave a gap right next to the red brick building, exposing its blank wall?

[realnyer]

Does anybody know what's happening with the Reisman 5th Ave and 125th Street hotel? I noticed that contruction hasn't begun...

[DominicanoNYC]

Here's the plans for the rumored W Hotel in Harlem

http://i17.tinypic.com/4yq42ad.jpg

That's scary ugly...

[krulltime]

^ I think the materials might look good, but the design of that building looks bad.

[newyorkskater]

Does anyone know when the market will close on 116th street? It was supposed to close this month, but it is still open. I am hoping for some fabulous coops/ condos in it's place!!

[investordude]

I have two suggestions for Harlem - what do people think?

The first deviates from my usual capitalism rants - I think the city should help relatives of emergency room cases at Columbia Presbyterian stay at these hotels by giving the hotels a height bonus if they agree to reserve a few rooms each night for last minute emergency room bookings. Not only would we get nicer buildings that were taller this way, it just seems wrong to make it so hard for sick relatives to visit their loved ones by making them trek to Westchester or midtown for a room.

I actually think the city should help these hotels build parking lots here. 125th street is the closest major commercial artery to the Triborough Bridge, making these hotels the closest descent lodging to visit about 3 million people and a large number of businesses. In otherwords, I don't think the hotel owners should assume their guests are visiting Manhattan and looking for a cheap room, when they might be visiting someone in the Bronx or western Queens or upper Manhattan.

[Dynamicdezzy]

Rezoning Plan May Transform Area of Harlem
By ELIOT BROWN
Special to the Sun
October 15, 2007

A D V E R T I S E M E N T


A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The Bloomberg administration is seeking zoning changes that would allow for substantial new development along much of 125th Street, a move that could transform a major Harlem thoroughfare into a dense hub of activity.

After avoiding the area for decades, developers are warming to the corridor as its retail market flourishes and nearby housing prices reach levels that 15 years ago would have seemed almost unfathomable. Aiming to leverage the soaring real estate market, the city wants to convert the historic corridor into a regional destination for business, retail, and the arts, allowing for an estimated 2,300 new apartments and more than 600,000 square feet of office and retail space in coming years. The plan, which goes before the local community boards in coming weeks, has drawn criticism from neighborhood residents, who say the dense development will not fit in with the character of the area. The real estate industry, while it supports the plan, is calling for more density around the Metro-North station on Park Avenue, consistent with the city's goals of transit-oriented development.

The concept of new development is a relatively recent one for the expansive African American and Hispanic area that occupies much of northern Manhattan. Between the 1960s and 1980s, the region was hemorrhaging population as the city's economy faltered, so much so that the city claims in planning documents that due to widespread foreclosures, it owned about 40% of the housing stock at one point.

The seemingly unstoppable real estate market of the past decade has shone a new light on the area, especially 125th Street, allowing for the arrival of national retailers such as Old Navy, and developments such as the planned Harlem Park, a glass 20-story office building just west of Park Avenue being developed by Vornado Realty Trust.

For the past four years, the city has been talking with the community and devising its rezoning plan for the corridor, which stretches between Frederick Douglass Boulevard and Second Avenue and 124th and 126th streets. Now, with the rezoning proposal at the start of the seven-month approval process, the Bloomberg administration is poised to open the area's doors to considerable new development, particularly for office space and arts and entertainment uses.



http://www.nysun.com/article/64548

[NewYorkDoc]

Heres the second page to the article posted above...

Rezoning Plan May Transform Area of Harlem

By ELIOT BROWN (http://www.nysun.com/authors/Eliot+Brown)
Special to the Sun
October 15, 2007

[Continued from page 1 of 2]

"Folks want to build higher right now," Assemblyman Keith Wright said. "You have some rather large vacant lots that are being held onto by private developers, and they're just waiting for the proposed rezoning."

The city's plan would allow for more than double the existing density along the central section of 125th Street, with new buildings allowed to rise to 29 stories. With the aim of further enlivening the street life of the corridor, the proposal would restrict the type of retail on the ground level to "active" uses, relegating much of the space for banks and offices to the second floors.

New buildings bigger than 60,000 square feet would have to reserve a portion of their space for entertainment or arts uses along much of the street, and the city is considering a density bonus for buildings that incorporate arts uses.

With rising land values of recent years causing a stir within the broader Harlem community — opposition has been stiff to Columbia University's planned 17-acre expansion and housing advocates claim evictions from landlords shedding rent-regulated tenants are at an all time high — the city has had to walk a fine line while crafting the proposal. The area in which the
proposed density is greatest tends to be mostly filled with low-rise retail stores, and the city added development restrictions to the sections of the corridor with considerable residential population. Still, the community has expressed concerns, proposing its own alternative that would decrease allowable building heights and expand provisions for arts and entertainment.
"I don't want a 42nd Street — I don't want a lot of tall high rises," Council Member Inez Dickens said, calling for a height limit of about 19 stories.

The real estate industry, mostly content with the city's proposal, is pushing for a greater density along the eastern end of the corridor, as the presence of the Metro-North stop, the nos. 4, 5, and 6 trains, and the proposed Second Avenue subway make the area very attractive for development.
"We thought that they could have given greater density as you got closer to the Metro-North station and the subways," the president of the Real Estate Board of New York, Steven Spinola, said.
Both the City Planning Commission and the City Council must approve the plan.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

I really like the idea of banks being on the second floor. That is what should have been done from the beginning of the invasion of banks in Manhattan.

[Dynamicdezzy]

^Thanks!

[investordude]

Aside from someone whining about cutting the theater size, this project looks good. The victoria theater would have been a great place to finally build a permanent location for Cirque du Soleil if Pier 40 falls through, but sounds like it won't happen now.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071101/FREE/71101007/1102/newsletter01

[MidtownGuy]

Does anyone know when the market will close on 116th street? It was supposed to close this month, but it is still open. I am hoping for some fabulous coops/ condos in it's place!!

You wish to hasten the destruction of a culturally interesting and unique market so that some coops/condos can take its place? (which I guarantee you, in this development climate, won't be "fabulous":rolleyes:) What's your problem, you have something against the city remaining vibrant and exceptional? Manhattan has lost enough of its soul without you wishing more of it down the drain.

[newyorkskater]

with 3 blocks of housing projects that sit between 112th and 115th and run across 6 avenues, we need all the co-ops and condos that we can get on 116th street around 5th / Lenox... this will at least bring in more tax paying people into the neighborhood to balance it out!

[ASchwarz]

...this will at least bring in more tax paying people into the neighborhood to balance it out!

Exactly, the new housing will provide for more income diversity.

This is just the right thing for this part of Central Harlem.

[pricedout]

But getting rid of a vibrant, unique market when we are so not needing additional units developed at this time?

And, I am at a fairly high income level and I find your comments not too nice. We need alot of rich people to overcome the blight of the poor's presence? Projects are not all the same. Neighborhoods with projects are not all the same. I am much more comfortable up here than I am in certain areas of Chelsea where the gentrification/project issue seems to be about to explode (who thought that putting the Middle/Upper Lab School within a poorly performing public school was a good idea? And amidst the projects, no less).

This is a GREAT community with low crime rates. The people I have contact with are lovely. I actually have conversations with the people at Duane Reade up here, rather than the grunts I get downtown. I am NOT anti-development in the slightest, but please spare me the "need" to minimize the awful presence of the poor.

[investordude]

pricedout, there is a need for some public housing, but New York harms itself by having too much of it. Here's what the problems with it are, and why the working poor are hurt by it:
1) drain on tax revenues that could be spent better on schools and middle class tax relief - things the working poor really need like reduced sales taxes and improved education, crime prevention, public health programs, etc
2) public housing is of poor quality, hence the asthma issues in the other thread

A paradox I see among New Yorkers who advocate affordable housing is that they seem to be desiging a city that in fact is designed to push out the poor. Its cities in the red states that provide adequate deregulation of housing markets that manage to solve the problem - they provide market rate housing at affordable prices that makes sure the working poor can live a good life in conditions with dignity.

If we build market rate housing in Harlem, the supply will rise and prices will stabilize. And all of that now taxable property revenue would go to improving city services and reducing taxes.

You need some public housing, but 14000 units in such a small area like East Harlem is counterproductive to anyone but the politicians who want a reliable voting base dependent on government patronage.

[pricedout]

I definitely agree with you that our earlier decision to create projects was an awful one. Affordable and low-income housing needs to be integrated. BUT I can't imagine what it would feel like to be a resident of such a complex and read some of the comments from people who are thinking about "raising up the neighborhood."

I was really (over)reacting the the notion that we would need to close this market just to try to up the "good" numbers to compensate for the "bad."

[pricedout]

Investordude, at this point decent market rate housing in Manhattan isn't within reach of the middle class, much less the lower-middle class or the poor. You can argue that in a market-based economy such people don't necessarily deserve to live in New York (I'm not necessarily saying that YOU would), but just last night I was riding a subway and musing with my daughter about my stop when a charming man (with very few teeth, not definitely an economic indicator, but probably so) spoke up to give me some (correct) advice and we spoke for the next ten or so minutes before our stop..

I like this (not the fact that he can't afford proper dental care) but that I live in a wonderful community with so many different people, with so much to offer. It obviously strikes me as ironic that the neighborhoods that I so enjoy (LES, Harlem, Alphabet City) are the ones that I will be gentrifying by three (the size of our family) at a time if we move there. I wouldn't have given it another thought fifteen to twenty years ago, there were plenty of fun and funky neighborhoods (and I lived in Hell's Kitchen, a sketchy area of the UWS and a great block in Hispanic Chelsea). Not so anymore.

[ASchwarz]

Manhattan is a small part of NYC. 1.7 million out of 8.2 million.

Even if every block in Manhattan were gentrified, NYC will remain an incredible diverse place.

Also, the poor neigborhoods of old weren't diverse. The people who lived there wanted to leave but couldn't because it was so bad. When gentrification occurs, the poor want to stay, because the neighborhood is a much nicer and more desirable place.

[investordude]

I agree that so-called market rate housing is not affordable. Let's consider why -
1) typically these market rate housing in new developments require the market rate owner to subsidize someone else's rent under 80/20 rules. So of course, if you pay your rent and someone elses, that starts getting expensive
2) many places (East Harlem is a great example), constrain the available supply of land for development by refusing to tear down projects and build high density. The truth is most projects are low density antiquated buildings compared to the housing the market place would build if we zoned those neighborhoods R10.
3) rent control is a major disincentive to new development and artificially constrains supply. People claimed in Cambridge, MA (a built up, expensive town) that eliminating rent control would push out the poor - but that didn't really happen. Instead, investment and supply rose and while the average income rose, rents have stayed pretty stable.
4) Chicago/Toronto disproves the theory that density requires high prices. If you allow supply to grow to reach demand, prices stay within reason.

Will Manhattan always be more expensive than the outer boroughs - yeah probably somewhat. But the differential is exascerbated by bad public policy that discourages investment on the theory that affordable housing increases affordability - its not efficient, creates scarcity, and those undermine any theoretical advantages from high subsidies.

[investordude]

Another example - Chicago tore down pretty much all of its 2 mile long Dan Ryan houses and Cabrini houses. This proved to be to the delight of the people living there - its politicians who were upset because they wanted government dependent voting blocks. Now, rents in the south loop and west Chicago are still cheap, but much denser and superior private housing is being bult to replace the projects.

End result - most people stayed because they could afford the low rents created by adequate supply, and the neighborhoods became more vibrant and diverse.

[pricedout]

Hi Investordude,
well, yes, you're correct in so many ways. You said something rather trenchant in an earlier post, that is that there seems to be an effort to push the poor out of the city. Of course there is. Just think how the lower, middle, and even to some extent upper-middle class people require more attention (and funds) than the rich (they just need the tax breaks).
From 2000 to 2005 there was a 200000 child increase in the under-5's. Can our city deal with it? No. Does our city want to deal with it? No. Why? Because it's expensive. They'd love to have two bedroom apts. filled with single men.
The same with the poor. Do we want to truly deal with it? No. Why? Because it might cost money to do something truly effective.

[investordude]

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/?q=node/28326

I think CB9 might be right that if they want to do the rezoning, they should extend it to to the Hudson River and include commercial upzoning to diversify the economy to not only need Columbia. But I'd like to also see upzoning to C9 for the area right near the metro -north train station. It strikes me that area could probably support 1 or 2 tall office or mixed use buildings (like 80 stories instead of 30 stories) and that could help diversify the economy.

[investordude]

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/historic-harlem-theater-gets-a-developer-at-last/

Looks like the W Theater deal is official

[antinimby]

I don't think that's the W hotel project. The Victoria theater's got its own thread (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5716) so I posted that Times blog there.

[Front_Porch]

From 2000 to 2005 there was a 200000 child increase in the under-5's. Can our city deal with it? No. Does our city want to deal with it? No. Why? Because it's expensive. They'd love to have two bedroom apts. filled with single men.


From this week's New York mag:

Catchment-22

All those new-condo buyers are drawn to neighborhoods with the best public schools—which are then nearly destroyed by new kids.

Add a Comment (http://nymag.com/news/features/41277/comments.html#comment-form)
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By S.Jhoanna Robledo (http://nymag.com/nymag/author_robledo)
Published Nov 25, 2007
http://nymag.com/news/features/realestate071203_198.jpg
Illustration by Christopher Sleboda

The Jesse Isador Straus School on West 70th Street, a.k.a. P.S. 199, is one of those places that give parents hope for the New York City school system. Its teachers and after-school programs take home awards every year. Most of the diverse student population meets or exceeds state requirements on standardized tests—and that’s in a “catchment” school, meaning it can’t be selective because anyone who lives on its turf can attend. The parents are active and present. West Siders who are straining to make their mortgages consider it a godsend, a way to avoid adding $20,000 in private-school tuition (per kid!) to the annual household budget. Needless to say, parents like Julie Mallin take serious pains to live within P.S. 199’s catchment (roughly speaking, the West Side from 64th to 72nd). When private-school applications failed to turn up a spot for her son, “I specifically moved into the neighborhood for P.S. 199,” she says.



But P.S. 199 is under siege. Its student population has doubled in seven years, to 587. Since the real-estate market began its relentless ascent in the mid-nineties, neighborhoods with decent schools like P.S. 199 have grown coveted—and crowded. There are rumors of lotteries and rezoning in many of these areas, and parents like Mallin are very, very unhappy to find, all of a sudden, that a seat in the nearest public school may not be a given.



New development is largely to blame. At P.S. 199, more than 10 percent of the students come from Riverside Boulevard high-rises that didn’t exist a decade ago. Seven more residential buildings are under construction nearby and will bring at least 1,000 more units. Those buildings are put together explicitly for families with children: At one of them—the Avery, at Riverside Boulevard and West 65th—166 of the 274 units have two or three bedrooms. A decent guess is that this building alone will plop 50 more children into elementary school over the next few years.



What happens then? In 2004, P.S. 199 gave up one of its two art studios to add a kindergarten class. A year later, it gave up its lauded universal pre-K programs. In 2006, it lost its science lab. One of the two occupational-and-physical-therapy classrooms was sacrificed, too—never mind that there were more kids who needed it. Even the faculty lounge is gone. “We can give permits for all these residential towers,” says Mallin, who co-chairs P.S. 199’s political-action committee, “but we don’t pay attention to the schools. Here we are at the forefront of the financial and cultural capital of the world, and I’m supposed to be okay that my kid can’t do science in a lab or art in a room? The school is a victim of its success.”



This is not just one district’s problem. In every neighborhood with a beloved school, classrooms are stuffed—the burden and blessing of a city whose residents no longer bolt for the suburbs when the kids are born. The Manhattan New School (P.S. 290) has reached 155 percent of its capacity as one condo after another rises in Yorkville. Park Slope’s William Penn School (P.S. 321) has seen its kindergarten classes grow by 20 percent. East 33rd Street’s Mary Lindley Murray School (P.S. 116) gained 77 students this year, many from the 32 apartment buildings put up in its catchment these past two years. “When I toured the school [last year], the class size was maybe 20 to 23 kids, totally within the city and union limits,” says one new Murray Hill mom. By the time her child started in September, there were 28 per class, eight more than the state recommends. “This is not what I thought I was getting into.” When the Con Ed site, on the East River from 35th Street to 41st, gets seven new high-rises in a few years, the school will be swamped. “If you don’t build schools, you’re pushing families out,” rails Mary Silver, a mother of two at P.S. 116. “These families have helped stabilize the city … the system is imploding.” . . ..



full article at http://nymag.com/news/features/41277/


ali r.
{downtown broker}

[ASchwarz]

This NY Mag article is so uninformed. All their articles are crap.

It is true that the number of children is up somewhat and will continue to go up slightly, but this is not reflected in the public schools. The growth is all in private schools, especially in prime neighborhoods and in the rapidly expanding schuls Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish neighborhoods. You are also seeing more home schooling and more "other" types of schools(Islamic schools, charter schools, etc.)

The public school population is actually decreasing and will continue to decrease! In Manhattan, the trends are magnified even further! There are so many schools sitting half-empty.

The reason that you get these crazy "overcrowding" articles is because yuppie parents only trust a few hyped well-known schools and all push to send Junior to this short list. The same thing is happening in the more heavily immigrant neighborhoods, where upwardly mobile newcomers only trust a short list of schools.

At the same time, the poor people in the crappier schools are mostly leaving NYC, and are being replaced by yuppies or immigrants who will not put their children in the "bad" schools. This creates a situation where the yuppies (more in gentrified neighborhoods) and immigrants (more in outer neighborhoods) are competing for a short list of "good" schools, while ignoring the more (usually) black/Puerto Rican "bad" schools that are emptying out.

Now we have this crazy situation where that school on West 70th is bursting at capacity while a school a few blocks to the south is 60% empty (and getting emptier by the day)because it has kids from public housing. Even the projects are emptying out (public housing complexes are rapidly becoming NORCSs, or Naturally Occuring Retirement Communities).

I think what will happen is that some of these empty schools will be sold and redeveloped into new mixed-use residential/school complexes. The new schools will have something of a "fresh start", and will lose their current stigma. The expanding yuppie and immigrant populations will start considering these schools, and the current overcrowding at the hyped schools will decrease.

BTW, none of this is really speculation. I have indirectly worked with the Department of Education's in-house strategic planning group, which makes future enrollment projections. They know what is happening, and they are starting to consider redevelopment on many of these half-empty schools. They are starting to work with other city agencies (especially HPD and EDC) to reconsider these sites.

[pricedout]

The private school system, at least the assoc. of independent schools, has 2400 (yes, ONLY 2400) kindergarten spots per year. Public school attendance is going down in THE POORER neighborhoods. The city is building a few schools, but NOWHERE close to what is needed. It will be a bloodbath soon when the kids at these better elementary schools start needing middle school spots.

[spaceboy]

BTW, none of this is really speculation. I have indirectly worked with the Department of Education's in-house strategic planning group, which makes future enrollment projections. They know what is happening, and they are starting to consider redevelopment on many of these half-empty schools. They are starting to work with other city agencies (especially HPD and EDC) to reconsider these sites.

Any idea how long it will take to actually put these things in motion? Is this another 2nd avenue subway? :P

[investordude]

If there is really an empty school, that's something to consider, but I'm uneasy about closing public schools rather than reducing class size. If the city has space, we should try to scrap up the funds to do that.

I'm also skeptical that rising school enrollment is limited to hasidic children - New York has done very well at attracting immigrants from many places and immigrants tend to have larger families and send their children to public schools. We should make sure they get an education.

One change I would like to see - I think any parent whose children don't perform in public schools who receives any public assistance whatsoever including rent control should be cut off and encouraged to leave the city. We need to make sure all groups continue the tradition that their children get an education and a better life than they had, and it seems some communities need a kick in the ass more than others to make that happen. Anyone who disagrees with that or won't take the time to make that happen - I don't owe them one drop of assistance.

[pricedout]

Investordude, some kids just aren't that smart. Doesn't mean they don't have the right to a public education that enables them to get basic skills, like reading and the ability to balance a checkbook. ALL kids have the right to a decent public education. If you boot them out, where do you expect them to go? And don't you sound a bit elitist if you say Manhattan shouldn't have any of the underperformers?

[pricedout]

Spaceboy,
I think your answer lies in the long-term population report (2000-2030) which calls for a minimal increase in school-aged children in the city (especially Manhattan, 2010-2020). As a percentage of population they are expected to decline. I think the city is intending to develop some schools (some now empty, some in conjunction with real estate deals) but it has done so knowing that it is really too late, like a bandage on a festering wound.

The time to begin relatively large-scale development of new schools, assuming a true commitment, was 2004 when the massive numbers of development permits started coming through.

Public education is very expensive for the city. Qualified teachers are in short supply (and PARTICULARLY for the needs that are anticipated over the next few years). I'm not saying that Bloomberg or the city is necessarily evil, I just don't think that they feel that this investment is in their best interests right now.

[investordude]

http://www.therealdeal.net/issues/December_2007/1196821773.php

I'll believe it when I see it given the false promises of the past, but here's the claim of a coming hotel boom in Harlem. (FWIW, all of these hotels mysteriously fail to be near harlem's premier employer, Columbia University). Kinda dumb.

[czsz]

Most people coming to Columbia for any purpose would not want to stay in Harlem, despite its proximity, and the university is just fine with that. Among other things, it's more arduous to climb through Morningside Park (and somewhat didgy to do so at night) than to take the 1 up from any hotel on the Upper West Side.

In any case, a hotel/conference center may be slated for the new Manhattanville campus.

[BigMac]

Associated Press
December 26, 2007

Finding the real Harlem amid a changing landscape

http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2007/TRAVEL/getaways/12/26/changing.harlem.ap/art.shange.harlem.ap.jpg
Sikhulu Shange, who has owned The Record Shack for 35 years, is fighting to stay in business.

http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2007/TRAVEL/getaways/12/26/changing.harlem.ap/art.sylvias.ap.jpg
Soul food restaurant Sylvia's is Harlem's best-known eatery.

Harlem is the historic capital of black American culture, but like many New York neighborhoods, it is rapidly changing.

Condos can go for $1 million. Big retailers like Old Navy, Starbucks, Payless, Staples and Blockbuster are ubiquitous. On 125th Street near Fifth Avenue, bulldozers clear a vacant lot for an upscale hotel.

Old-timers worry that redevelopment will wipe out mom-and-pop stores and affordable housing, along with the area's distinct character. But boosters say commerce and construction bring jobs, safe streets and new cultural and retail venues that complement famous landmarks.

Certainly Harlem's appeal to tourists has never been stronger. Double-decker sightseeing buses cross 125th Street every few minutes. Japanese visitors queue up at Sylvia's, the famous soul food restaurant.

"There is an image of Harlem that is indelible around the world," said George Fertitta, CEO of NYC & Company, the city's marketing and tourism organization. "But that image is maybe more stuck in the past -- the music scene, the Cotton Club, the Apollo Theater. You think about these things because they're iconic. But Harlem is a wonderful, thriving community. It's bigger than any building, bigger than any iconic representation. And there are so many things to do."

But how does a visitor find the real Harlem amid all the changes? And what is the real Harlem anyway?

Here are some answers, along with ideas for where to go when you exit the subway at 125th Street.

Restaurants

"Harlem is not hard to find. Anywhere you walk in the community is history," said Clarence Cooper, manager of Sylvia's.

Sylvia's is Harlem's best-known eatery (328 Lenox Ave. near 126th Street) and can get very busy at peak times like Sunday brunch. The $4.50 express breakfast on a weekday at the counter (8-10 a.m.) is a nice alternative. Just don't be surprised if the waitress chides you -- with a smile -- for not finishing your eggs, grits and biscuit.

Other Southern food eateries include Londel's (2620 Frederick Douglass Blvd. near 140th), and Miss Maude's Spoonbread Too (547 Lenox Ave., near 138th). Ginger (1400 Fifth Ave. near 116th) opened in 2005 with good reviews for its healthy Chinese food.

Accommodations

For now, lodgings in Harlem are limited to bed-and-breakfasts (listings at http://www.harlemonestop.com).

But large upscale hotels are on the way. "There's more than enough demand here for eight hotels," said Steve Williams, managing partner of Danforth Development, which is turning the shuttered Victoria Theater on 125th Street into a hotel to open in 2011. It will also house condos and cultural arts space, including a venue for the National Jazz Museum.

Farther east on 125th Street near Fifth Avenue, the Uptown Grand Hotel will open in 2010 with 252 rooms, 19 stories, bars, lounges, eateries, a pool, and event space. "We expect to be successful," said developer Paul Reisman of Reisman Property Interests. "This is the first hotel here in 40 years."

Shopping

"You can still find a semblance of Harlem, but it is vanishing quickly," said Sikhulu Shange, owner of the Record Shack (274 W. 125th St.). "What we have built, they want it now. They want the culture."

Shange's store -- which sells African, Caribbean, gospel and other CDs along with DVDs like Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" -- is under court order to vacate by March 30, but he's hoping to find a way to stay open. "We haven't given up," he said.

African Paradise, which sells jewelry, wallets, sculptures and other African imports, is expected to move from 27 W. 125th St. in mid-January. "A lot of corporate businesses are taking over the old places," said the shopkeeper, who goes by the name Debe. "Change is good, but when they start improving, they push people out of stores and apartments."

Still, African Paradise could benefit from its move. Debe said the store plans to relocate across from Sylvia's, where souvenir shoppers abound.

Don't miss the vendors along 125th Street, who sell Afrocentric photos, books, and CDs along with unique items like the "thread art" designs made by William Lebron. Other interesting shops include Hue-Man Bookstore and Cafe (2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd. near 124th, http://huemanbookstore.com/) and the Nubian Heritage marketplace (2037 Fifth Ave. at 126th), which is also the location for the Harlem Visitor Information Center.

Nike and Foot Locker chose Harlem as the location for their first-ever House of Hoops (268 W. 125th St.), selling upscale basketball clothing, sneakers and gear. The store opened in November, launching a chain.

Other large retailers include Old Navy and Nine West at the Harlem USA center (300 W. 125th St.); Starbucks, which opened at 125th and Lenox in 1999; and H&M, the fashionable Swedish clothing store (125 W. 125th St.). Recent visits found all the mannequins in H&M's Harlem windows were brunette, while its 34th Street windows showed blondes.

Harlem spirituals

"Twenty-five years ago, people were wondering, 'Why a tour of Harlem?"' said Muriel Samama, who founded the tour company Harlem Spirituals (http://harlemspirituals.com/, 800-660-2166) in the early 1980s.

Nobody asks "Why Harlem?" any more. Harlem Spirituals offers tours in five languages and takes visitors to hear gospel choirs on Sundays and Wednesdays, with tickets starting at $49 and departures from midtown ($89 if you add a meal at Sylvia's or the Cotton Club). The company recently started organizing music workshops for visitors, one with gospel singers and another with Marjorie Eliot, who hosts a weekly jazz concert in her Harlem home.

Bus tours

Each year, about 40 percent of the 3 million people using Gray Line's hop-on, hop-off buses around New York take the "Uptown Loop," which includes Harlem and stops on 125th Street across from the Apollo Theater. Tickets are $39 (http://www.graylinenewyork.com, or 212-445-0848).

Points of interest

Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne and Fidel Castro all stayed at the Hotel Theresa. It closed in 1967 and is now an office building, but as you walk east from the Apollo along 125th, you can still see the hotel name atop the tall building on the south side of the street.

A statue of the late Harlem congressman, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., graces the plaza of the state office building that bears his name (163 W. 125th St.). Around the corner, you can bowl at Harlem Lanes (2116 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.).

The Studio Museum of Harlem (144 W. 125th St., http://www.studiomuseum.org) is open Wednesday-Friday, noon-6 p.m., Saturdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sundays, noon-6 p.m. Suggested donation, $7.

You can buy a donut from the kiosk in the lobby of the building where Bill Clinton's foundation is located (55 W. 125th St.). But you'll have to sign in with a guard and promise not to take any photos.

The house where poet Langston Hughes lived (20 E. 127th St., http://www.thelangstonhugheshouse.com) is now a performance space. It hosts open mic events on the first and third Thursday of the month and other programs.

One of Harlem's most famous churches is Abyssinian Baptist (132 Od