Despite rezoning, development slow on 125th in Harlem
More than two years after the city passed plans to rezone Harlem’s historic thoroughfare, few development projects are actually pushing forward on 125th Street.
In 2008 a rezoning plan for 125th Street—known for bustling nightlife and jazz at the Apollo Theater—went through the City Council, calling for more retail activity, taller buildings, and an increase in affordable housing.
“Our rezoning plan for 125th Street will spur new investment as well as a range of cultural and retail opportunities,” said chair of the City Planning Commission Amanda M. Burden in an October 2007 press release. “This comprehensive initiative will fulfill the promise of Harlem’s Main Street as a vibrant corridor and a premier arts, entertainment and commercial destination in the City.”
Local politicians such as Councilwoman Inez Dickens who championed the rezoning envisioned a revitalized Harlem with new restaurants, shops, arts venues and housing, a chunk of which would be income-targeted affordable housing.
But now, some Harlem residents say they have not seen progress, and that the economic recession halted many developers in their tracks, leaving behind streets of vacant buildings.
“Everything’s moving at a snail’s pace, as opposed to the way things were going five, six years ago, when you saw construction seemingly overnight,” said lifelong resident Zenola Smalls, who sells CDs on 125th. “Because the economy collapsed, you see very little if any new construction.”
Two neighborhood projects, though, have made progress. Across from the famous Apollo Theater, for example, is the hulking shell of a storefront called Mart 125. This 17,400 square foot city-owned building housed a thriving flea market for street vendors from 1986 until 2001, when the city shut it down due to the building’s deterioration and mismanagement.
After years of discussion, the New York City Economic Development Corporation decided in late 2009 to lease the space to two cultural groups: the National Jazz Museum, currently located in East Harlem, and ImageNation, which will provide movie screenings, spoken word events and live music.
“Once it [NYC EDC] selects the developer from all the proposals, then the process will move into the next step,” said National Jazz Museum Executive Director Loren Schoenberg. “We’ve already raised $10 million of the $20 million that we need to move into Mart 125.”
Schoenberg estimates that the process will still take a couple of years before the museum can move in.
Still, just down the street from Smalls’ booth, an empty property stands at the corner of 125th Street and 8th Avenue. Once the location of over a dozen different locally-owned businesses, including the local soul food haunt Manna’s, it now stands boarded up and covered in graffiti.
The Victoria Theater, a historic Harlem landmark that closed in 1990, has similarly been neglected in the rezoning initiatives, despite hopes that the rezoning would encourage arts and entertainment venues along 125th Street.
Ryan Fitzgibbon, spokesperson for the Department of Buildings, said the DOB has not seen applications for developing the Victoria Theater in the last 10 years.
Despite uncertainty over local development, some residents say they’ve noticed positive change.
“Look at the stores, the shops, look at the people walking on the street,” said Harlem resident and street vendor Laheen Allah. “There’s more diversity in Harlem now than ever before.”