City Seeks Developer for 140-Unit East Harlem Project

East Harlem is beginning to feel like a flashpoint for the real estate priorities of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration.

The city is planning a request for proposals for a city-owned parking lot at 2453 Second Avenue in the neighborhood, Bisnow reported. The city’s Economic Development Corporation could release its RFP as soon as next month.

The agency is seeking a developer to build a 140-unit mixed-use project on the site, one of three city-owned parcels between East 125th and 127th streets the city is opening up to development. The project would need to include at least 35 affordable housing units, according to a presentation made before Manhattan Community Board 11.

The site would not come with a direct subsidy from the city. The chosen developer would need to utilize the state’s 485x tax abatement program and would be expected to use savings on land acquisition costs to subsidize affordable units themselves.

Developers can then pull from traditional financing sources to break ground on the site with an accelerated timeline.

The other sites the EDC is planning to unveil for eventual RFPs are a vacant space at 2321 Third Avenue and a parking lot stretching half a block at 2461 Second Avenue.

The sites played host to plans for a $700 million complex announced by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg all the way back in 2008. Much of that complex has never been developed, however, and the future of the planned hotel, cultural center and office space for the area is uncertain.

The EDC, being run by interim president and chief executive officer Jeanny Pack, recently tapped Douglaston Development and Kinwood Partners to build a 590-unit residential building at the Gansevoort Meat Market site. Up to 55 percent of the apartments will be set aside as affordable, though the income levels have not yet been finalized.

Similar to the East Harlem site, the developers intend to apply for the property tax break 485x, but will not seek other city subsidies.

Elsewhere in East Harlem, the city is gearing up to influence the foreclosure sale of 38 troubled rent-stabilized buildings in East Harlem, containing nearly 850 units, to steer the properties away from speculative investors. The portfolio, formerly owned by Emerald Equity Group, is in disrepair, carrying more than 2,300 housing code violations.

— Holden Walter-Warner