UPTOWNflavor

Following up on his article published in the New York Sun about the Three Harlems, Micheal Stoler continues his assessment of the real estate situation in Harlem with a piece titled, The Fourth Harlem.

I extracted a few paragraphs from the article which looks at commercial real estate in Harlem. Stoler goes into detail about the empty lot that sits adjacent to the College of Podiatry at 125th and Park Avenue. The site was to be called Harlem Park and was to include a Marriot hotel, restaurants and retail space.

“The building would the tallest building in Harlem, and can offer a tenant a branding opportunity,” Mr. Greenbaum said. “We have been talking to a number of tenants who are interested in branding the location as their corporate headquarters.” Over the years, a number of companies have considered relocation to Harlem, including Black Entertainment Television. A number of government agencies and nonprofits have also expressed interest in relocating its offices to the tower.

Major retailers are interested in the retail component of the building, which may include a Nike store, a Starbucks, and a food component to serve both office tenants and the community.

“We made a great mistake that we did not go to Harlem five years ago for commercial and residential development,” the managing partner of Apollo Real Estate Advisors, Richard Mack, said. “It is a natural extension of the Upper West and Upper East Side.”

“Harlem is an excellent alternative to a company relocating to Jersey City or Long Island City, excellent transportation and infrastructure,” the president and chief executive of Cushman & Wakefield, Bruce Mosler, said.

New York City is under-retailed, especially in Harlem. It took more than 50 years for the first shopping center to open in Harlem. At the intersection of 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in the heart of Central Harlem, the 285,000-squarefoot retail complex, Harlem USA, opened in April 2000. It was developed by Grid Properties and the Gotham Organization in conjunction with Commonwealth Local Development Corp., an affiliate of Harlem Commonwealth Council, a community-based not-for-profit economic development corporation.

Another mixed-use complex is in the planning stages in East Harlem. This development, to include retail, will be built on a six-acre site on 125th Street in East Harlem. The site consists of three parcels between Second and Third avenues and 125th and 127th streets.

The project is expected to include up to 300,000 square feet of national retail space, including 120,000 square feet of specialty retail, restaurants, cinemas, and nightclubs, as well as 50,000 square feet of local retail. Up to 1,000 units of mixed-income housing are recommended, along with about 300,000 square feet of media space and up to 30,000 square feet of space for not-for-profit performing, visual, and media arts. There is also the potential for a hotel.

The redevelopment of La Marqueta will include construction of six structures totaling 86,000 square feet over the eight block area. Tenants will range from smaller wholesale and retail fresh foods and food-related businesses to small cafes, anchor restaurants, and a variety of small kiosks. The project will create more than 500 jobs.

Residents of Harlem will have the opportunity to shop at Home Depot, Target, and Best Buy in 2008, when the joint venture of Blumenfeld Development Group and its joint venture partner, Forest City Ratner, complete East River Plaza, a new shopping center located on the site of the Washburn Wire factory. The site consists of 6 acres adjacent to the FDR Drive and the river between 116th and 119th streets. East River Plaza is a multi-level, 500,000-square-foot retail project with an attached 1,248-space parking facility spanning three city blocks.

Other developments planned for Harlem include a possible Macy’s department store to anchor a retail development at Lennox Avenue and 125th Street. An 80-room hotel may be in the development stage at the site of an Associated supermarket and Lucy’s bar at 124th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

Commercial and retail developments are taking place all over the city, and, finally, they are reaching the Upper East and West Side in Harlem.

So, it appears that the Macy’s rumors may hold some water afterall. I wonder if they have thought about the reprecussions of replacing the Associated Market with a hotel. Are they planning to replace it with another supermarket considering there are no other supermarkets in that immediate area. They are starting to tread into sensitive waters when they plan to replace basic services with accommodations for tourists.

Source: NY Sun

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