New Harlem Apartment Tower Coming To Historic Housing Complex

HARLEM, NY — A group of Harlem developers are planning to build a 13-story apartment tower on the campus of a longtime affordable housing complex.

The tower, with 130 apartments, will be built at 2437 Frederick Douglass Blvd., at the corner of West 131st Street. The site is now occupied by a two-story commercial building, home to nail salons, a dry cleaners, and a Malian community organization.

Plans to demolish that existing building were filed Thursday by the company Haussmann Development. It sits on the same block as the Lionel Hampton Houses, a 355-unit complex that opened to great fanfare in 1973 — named for the jazz musician who invested in the development.

Josef Goodman, a principal at Haussmann, confirmed that the current building would be torn down by early spring, with work on the new tower starting this summer and wrapping up in around 18 months.

The project is a joint venture with Coltown Properties, whose other projects with Haussmann include a cantilevered building on the site of an old funeral home on 136th Street, and apartments that replaced a beloved community garden on West 134th Street.

Commercial tenants in the current two-story building were on month-to-month leases, and have been asked to leave ahead of the teardown, Goodman told Patch.

The companies registered plans for the new building through the state's 421a program before the controversial tax break expired last year, Goodman said. That means at least one-fourth of the apartments will likely be below-market-rate — though the affordability of the 421a-generated homes has been fiercely contested.

The Lionel Hampton Houses were part of the state's Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program when they were first built, but the complex exited the program in 2007, according to a report by The Real Deal.

Coltown Properties bought the Lionel Hampton complex for $32.5 million in 2011.

New development is often met with uneasiness — if not outright opposition — in Harlem, giving rise to fears of gentrification and displacement. But Goodman said his company is committed to the neighborhood.

"We adore Harlem and care deeply about the community," he said.