For decades, white collar criminals and drug offenders have stood atop the Lincoln Correctional Facility and enjoyed sweeping vistas of Central Park.
Now, the 72,000 square-foot Harlem prison at 31-33 West 110th Street is set to close — giving developers a rare opportunity to seize a property with Central Park frontage, according to the New York Daily News.
An aerial of the Lincoln Correctional Facility at 31-33 West 110th Street (Credit: Google Maps)
“It’s prime, trophy real estate, and it’s exactly what everyone wants,” Mae Bagai, a broker at Sotheby’s International Realty, told the outlet.
The eight-story building is being closed by the state’s Empire State Development, which is also closing another prison upstate due to a reported drop in incarceration rates.
Brokers told the Daily News that the building could be converted into a luxury condominium or rental project.
There’s no guarantee it will become a playground for the rich. In 2016, the son of Warren Buffett and his wife won a bid to convert the former Bayview Correctional Facility for women in Chelsea into a mixed-use space for the advancement of women.
Harlem real estate prices have skyrocketed in recent years. In January, a pair of townhouses at 32 and 33 Mount Morris Park West were listed for $27 million. At Circa Central Park, a new development at the corner of West 110th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, a penthouse sold for $2,531 a square foot in October.
And last year, developer Chaim Nortman filed plans to convert a church at 11 Hancock Place into 69 luxury residential condos. [NYDN] — David Jeans