A large open lot at the corner of 3rd Avenue and East 125th Street is making quick progress at finishing up for the first affordable housing component of the East Harlem Media Entertainment Cultural Center (they need to come up with a shorter name) that will span two city blocks. This south corner of East Harlem and 125th Street is only a fraction of the $700 million, 30,000 square foot development project that broke ground this year. At the lower graphic, the new building is represented as the solid white structure on the far left corner. The vast majority of the office buildings, media centers and retail buildings will be built on the opposite side of 125th Street while the affordable housing component is the first part of five phases of the transformative plaza set to finish in 2016. Check out the project website for more details:
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Hmm, so is the affordable housing segregated from the rest of the development, across 125th Street from where the market rate units will be integrated into the development as mixed use structures? It seems a shame that they couldn't mix the affordable units into the development, and I thought that was a requirement in some cases to get certain types of tax breaks (which these large projects always receive)?
ReplyDeleteThe idea is to have the affordable units be as indistinguishable from the market units as possible from the outside, not have "the affordable building" be stigmatized.
I support this development in general though as this is such a large underutilized area and most anything is better than the vacant lots and parking there now.
This is just 1 building; there will be additional housing units (affordable and market-rate) across the street. However, it was a good idea to build an affordable housing component here because previously it was an unsightly dirt parking lot for the firefighters, and it is right next door to a hostel (which frankly attracts an undesirable clientele).
ReplyDeleteI too am excited to see construction eventually start across the street.