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A Harlem prison with Central Park views is closing down — and developers are ready
Lincoln Correctional Facility provides a rare park front development site for Harlem
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.
“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