Ground breaks on $100M East Harlem school

The Harlem Children’s Zone broke ground today on a $100 million, five-story, 135,000-square-foot public school and community center building at the St. Nicholas Houses in East Harlem. Multi-million dollar donations from the Department of Education, Goldman Sachs and Google will help fund the project, which will house 1,300 students from the Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy I. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on hand for the ceremony, along with US Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, New York City Housing Authority Chairman John Rhea and Goldman Sachs Group COO Gary Cohn. Bloomberg said in a statement that the school will enrich the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhood. The Civic Builders-developed building is much needed in the area, as the Promise Academy’s fourth grade students had to be relocated out of the school’s current site due to overcrowded classes. It’s also the second new school building slated for construction in Harlem in the last year, as the Harlem Village Academies picked up a $15 million site at 32 West 125th Street in June. TRD