Developers close on Taystee Bakery site

Groundbreaking planned for summer 2013

The private developers who closed yesterday on the former Taystee Bakery Complex in west Harlem plan to break ground by next summer on a large commercial and industrial space that will house businesses from creative industries, a New York State Economic Development Corporation spokesperson told The Real Deal. Taystee Create LLC, a newly formed partnership affiliated with developer Janus Partners LLC and Monadnock Construction, are calling the redevelopment project CREATE @ Harlem Green.

The site, which the EDC sold to Taystee Create, is located 125th and 126th streets, between Morningside and Amsterdam avenues.

Taystee Create paid $3.43 million for the site and is planning to invest an additional $100 million in its redevelopment. The complex will include 90,000 square feet of office space, 40,000 square feet of retail and a 10,000-square-foot community facility.

The Taystee Cake Bakery closed in the late 1970s. In the decades since its closing, the building has been vacant and suffered decay. In an effort to revitalize the neighborhood and preserve the building, the EDC issued a request for ideas for the redevelopment of the bakery in November of 2010. Janus and Monadnock were selected as the developers of the project last year. A press release from the mayor’s office said the project will create 510 construction jobs and 440 permanent jobs.

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Some tenants for the property have already expressed interest. Sugar Hill Golden Ale, a prohibition-era ale-maker has stated its intention to return to its birthplace: Harlem. The microbrewer plans to relocate to the facility from Saratoga Springs, N.Y. But while the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center was slated to lease 53,000 square feet of manufacturing space at the facility, a Greenpoint spokesperson told The Real Deal today that the center’s involvement in the project remains undecided.

The traction the project is gaining mirrors the progress of another EDC project in Harlem: the redevelopment of the Corn Exchange Building, located on the northwest corner of 125th Street and Park Avenue. Originally built in 1883, the Corn Exchange Building was designed by the architecture firm Lamb & Rich, and was given landmark status by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1993. The building is currently vacant and has been in severe disrepair since the late 1970s.

New York City-based developer Artimus closed on its purchase of the property from EDC in September, an EDC spokesperson said, and the project is expected to break ground by the end of 2012. That development is slated to include 31,000 square feet, with 22,000 square feet planned for office space and 9,000 square feet for retail. The $16 million development is expected to create about 90 permanent jobs and 60 construction jobs.