Harlem’s 125th St. to see $1B investment in real estate projects

Harlem’s 125th Street is poised to receive $1 billion in real estate development that will add 1 million square feet of space in the next few years, Blondel Pinnock, chair of the 125th Business Improvement District, told DNAinfo.

The street is home to major projects such as a four-story, 100,000-square-foot new retail complex at 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, the headquarters of the Urban League, a Whole Foods and a two-story Red Lobster.

“A lot of Things Are Happening On 125th Street and it couldn’t come at a better time, especially since we have a few more years of the worst recession this country has seen remaining,” City Comptroller John Liu, a mayoral candidate, told DNAinfo. “That didn’t happen arbitrarily or on its own. It was a concerted effort.”

The district encompasses Morningside Avenue to Fifth Avenue, but efforts are being made to have the BID span the length of 125th Street, Barbara Askins, the BID’s CEO, told DNAinfo. [DNAinfo]  – Hiten Samtani