East Harlem

The Land Use Committee of Manhattan Community Board 11 is close to selecting a rezoning plan for a 60-block swath of East Harlem, DNAinfo reported, and the planners involved are looking into a hybrid plan, or a separate proposal for different sections of the neighborhood, DNAinfo reported.

East Harlem not been rezoned since the early 1960s. [more]

From left: Ben Ashkenazy, 4168 Broadway

Investor Ben Ashkenazy of Ashkenazy Associates has paid $19 million for a pair of retail properties in Harlem, Crain’s reported.

The deal includes a vacant theater on West 146st Street—the former RKO Hamilton Theater—and an adjacent three-story retail building occupied by an El Mundo department store. Also included is a vacant land parcel next door to the theater on West 147th, which can accommodate up to 20,000-square-feet of development, Crain’s said. [more]

From left:From left: Rubicon’s Jason Haber, 48-54 West 138th Street G4′s Robyn Sorid, Louis Silverman and Jason Behfarin, and Bohemia’s Sarah Saltzberg.

An 88-unit condominium conversion in Central Harlem is set to hit the market in early December, with a block of small units aimed at first-time homebuyers, The Real Deal has learned.

The project, at 48-54 West 138th Street, is composed of 44 studios and 44 one-bedrooms spanning less than 400 square feet on average and priced at an average of $246,000 per unit. About 30 apartments at the longtime rental building are currently vacant, and about half of those will hit the market through an on-site sales office in the next few weeks; the other half will be readied for sale shortly after. As tenants move out of the building, units that are currently renter-occupied will be renovated and placed on the market. [more]

From left, Cobby Gorjian and Justin Gorjian; 220 St. Nicholas

The young developers Justin and Cobby Gorjian are foreclosing on a boutique Harlem condo. Having acquired the note on the property last year, the brothers — sons of Gorjian Properties founder Gideon Gorjian, a developer of 75 Wall Street — plan on taking title to the property, at 220 St. Nicholas Ave., and turning it into a rental.

The Central Harlem condo is slated to hit the foreclosure auction block November 29 with an outstanding lien of more than $12 million, according to PropertyShark.com, but the brothers, working independently of Gorjian Properties as Gorjian Real Estate Group, don’t think there will be much interest from other investors. “We don’t think the property is worth as much as we’re owed,” Justin Gorjian, 27, told The Real Deal. [more]

Harlem’s 125th Street

Long-time residents of the Lower East Side may feel they are plagued with too many bars, but in Harlem tough liquor laws may be holding the neighborhood back, according to the Wall Street Journal. Zoning in Harlem forbids the issuing full liquor licenses to businesses on the same street and within 200 feet of a house of worship or a school.

But Harlem has an estimated 200 houses of worship, according to a list by the city’s Department of Finance — thought to be the highest concentration in the city. ”It kind of seems like they have something on every corner,” Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s retail group, told the Journal. [more]

From left: Ariel Aufgang and a rendering of the Victoria Theater project

Danforth Development Partners has brought on architect Ariel Aufgang to handle the design of a $143 million commercial development on 125th Street in Harlem with a special emphasis on historic preservation. The 300,000-square-foot project will include two 26-story office towers, a 210-room hotel and a 230-unit apartment building above the historic Victoria Theater. But Aufgang will also be focused on restoring the theater’s original 1917 terra cotta facade and decorative lobby. [more]

A townhouse at 764 Saint Nicholas Avenue, converted to condos by Harlem Lofts.

From the September issue: In a bid to become Harlem’s largest redeveloper of townhouses, real estate services firm Harlem Lofts has acquired a local competitor. Harlem Lofts last month hired Charlie Marcus, the developer of projects such as the 11-unit Ellington condo at 111 West 117th Street. Marcus will be offered an ownership stake in the Harlem Lofts redevelopment arm, which has been renamed Harlem Property Re+Development, explained Harlem Lofts president Robb Pair.

Pair said he and Marcus have long admired each other’s work. “I would go and spy on his projects, and he would spy on mine,” Pair said. [more]

From left: Hal Fetner, 1214 Fifth Avenue and the building’s entertainment space

Durst Fetner Residential‘s new rental building is stretching the traditional Upper East Side boundaries and bringing its price points with it. Crain’s reported that 40 percent of the 185 units in the luxury rental building, at 1214 Fifth Avenue at East 102nd Street, are already accounted for — even though the developer doesn’t plan on opening its leasing office for another two weeks. Though the building is on the park, the leasing pace was no given: rents start at $5,000 for a 700-square-foot one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units measuring 1,000 square feet start at $7,000 per month. Three bedroom’s start at $10,000 a month. [more]

Nicolas Ronderos, the author of the study

East Harlem will lose thousands of affordable housing units by the year 2040, as one-third of the 40,500 subsidized units in the community are scheduled to transition to market-rate rents, a new study shows. The report, published by the Regional Plan Association warns that thousands of East Harlem families could be displaced over the next three decades if nothing is done.

The association is recommending the establishment of community land trusts, under which existing homes would be transferred to non-profit corporations; that would allow residents to control the properties under 99-year lease agreements. [more]

2040 Frederick Douglass Boulevard

Now that Harlem has improved, The Real Deal reported the city is seeking proposals for a gas station on a site it once owned yet was all too quick to give away in the neighborhood’s down years three decades ago. But the entrepreneur who took over the property filed a suit in Manhattan Supreme Court to block the Economic Development Corp’s plans, the New York Post reported.

“They didn’t want it when it was in such terrible disarray over there, and now that things are good, they want to take it and do something different with it,” Carmie Elmore, who owns the BP station at the site told the Post. [more]