A reader sent us a link to an article in the Epoch Times on the groundbreaking of the East Harlem Media Entertainment and Cultural Center this past Monday and we have been waiting to hear further news about it. GlobeSt.com and Curbed are now reporting on the official groundbreaking but the other big local papers are not really saying much. This is the first part of five phases for $700 million project that will include 30,000 square feet of public space, housing for 600 people and will have a completion date sometimes in 2016. This first phase will cost a total of $23 million, consist of 49 units of affordable housing, 5,600 square foot of retail and is expected to be finished in 2011. We are thinking that this might just be the southeast corner of East 125th Street and 3rd Avenue (top photo) that the city has been working on for the past few months but never had an official ground breaking. There have been some premature groundbreakings in the past on 125th Street so let's hope this one sticks. Read more about it in the Epoch Times: LINK or GlobeSt: LINK. Read more about the East Harlem MEC in our past post: LINK.
Ulysses,
ReplyDeleteI am the same guy that's been commenting on this center each time you mention it. Yes, Phase 1 is what's taking place at the SE corner of 125th St & 3rd. And I told you that this project is going to move forward. The property owners holding out on the NE corner need to drop their objection and accept a fair settlement. This project is undeniabily in the best interest of East Harlem and will be the most transformational development in the area in several years. East Harlem is the next frontier of accelerated development in greater Harlem.
Fine. Give us the Hyatt and Wholefoods and you can have your Cultural Center ;)
ReplyDeleteAll good for Harlem.
Simply put, this is the "domino effect" I referred to last time. Next up: Harlem Park on Park Avenue & 125th, the most under-estimated part of Harlem.
ReplyDeleteA lot of blood, sweat, and money has been poured into transforming Harlem into what it is today to allow it to drift backwards. No turning back now.
guest
ReplyDeleteClearly this was "ground-breaking day" at Parcel C for the affordable housing project. I am struck by the absence of any local Elected official.
All the usual suspects who work for the City were showing off their shovel grips, the only principal was the lender, Richard Richman.
Most of this project is funded with public subsidies...so this was clearly a "photo op" for the lowest hanging fruit as well as a chance for EDC to get their story into the newspapers and you fell for it.
Will Archstone be funded again by take-over wizard Lehman Brothers?
Whatever happened to General Growth Properties?
Which media company or retailer has been lined up to become a tenant? Which law firm is locating into the office building?
What happens when NYS ESDC loses the Columbia U lawsuit and the City loses its power to bully the local property owners?
#4, you ask questions that are either meant to provoke a negative populist reaction (using buzzwords like Lehman Brothers and General Growth Properties), or that are wildly premature (tenants for a property that is 5-6 years away from being ready for occupancy). You are clearly one of the disgruntled property owners that is trying to block progress. Get over yourself. This is moving forward, and Harlem will be better for it.
ReplyDeleteSee, to me this sounds like Taino Towers all over again. I don’t have the reflexive horror of affordable housing that others do (poor folks have to live somewhere) but this project as advertised sounds kind of ill-conceived to me. The luxury units on Third Ave. in that nabe aren’t exactly going like hotcakes as far as I know, and 5,600 square foot of retail, sounds wildly optimistic to me also.
ReplyDeleteI’d be glad to be wrong but unless Columbia is just going to outright build dorms in Spanish Harlem I don’t see it working as advertised.
Vic,
ReplyDeleteThey won't have any trouble filling up the affordable units, so that's not the issue. The question is will the market-rate units sell/rent, and that will ultimately be dependent on the usual variables--quality of the housing stock, health of the market, quality of the retail options, etc.
The luxury units on 3rd Avenue are moving slowly today, but this development isn't coming to market today. The market-rate units will come to market 4-6 years from now. By that time the market will be healthier and this inventory glut will have worked down to normal levels.
Final point - I must disagree with your comparison of this development to Taino Towers. Taino is every bit a true housing project, and the fact that there is some light retail on the street level does not change that fact. The MEC is a mixed-use concept in every sense of the word--both market-rate and "affordable" housing stock (tenants are higher-paid, better employed, more thoroughly screened, and possess a higher level of sophistication than your typical project tenants), both residentail and commercial, both local and tourist-based (hotel). And the presence of this open-wallet customer base (office tenants, market-rate residents, tourists) will attract the kind of higher-end retail that East Harlem currently lacks.
In a nutshell, I think the concept is well-conceived and should be successful. Frankly, you can already see signs of development along the 125th Street corridor move further east. Take a walk between 5th and Park avenues and observe the change.
Yes, there is a huge difference between affordable housing stock and low-income housing. Affordable housing is often people who would be considered middle-class anywhere but NYC: teachers, policemen, nurses, etc. Those are folks I'd be thrilled to have in my neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, "affordable" is 60% of local median income which is basically low-income, not middle income. Harlem has more than its share of subsidized low-income housing already.
ReplyDelete60% of Area Median Income is my salary. I guess you don't like people like me and would like me to leave Harlem.
ReplyDelete