600 Affordable Homes, Music & Arts Center Coming To East Harlem

EAST HARLEM, NY — Hundreds of units of affordable housing and a new music and arts center are coming to East Harlem through two new developments made possible by the neighborhood's recent rezoning.

The two buildings will be built on Park Avenue near East 118th Street and on East 120th Street near First Avenue, the city announced Friday. Combined, they will create nearly 600 affordable apartments — most of them serving low-income families.

Also included in one of the buildings will be a 16,000-square-foot Afro-Latin Music and Arts Center. The East Harlem Multi-Service Center, a social services provider, will also be renovated.

"These incredible projects are delivering on the City’s commitment to invest in job training, youth, education, and more affordable housing for East Harlem," said Louise Carroll, commissioner of the city's housing agency, in a statement.

The projects capitalize on the 2017 East Harlem rezoning, which included the construction of 2,600 affordable homes as one of its main goals.

The larger of the two buildings will be built on the current NYPD 25th Precinct parking lot, on the east side of Park Avenue between East 118th and 119th streets.

Known as "Timbale Terrace," the development will contain 330 affordable homes, including 99 set aside for formerly homeless households.

It will also contain the performing arts center, operated by the Harlem-based Afro Latin Jazz Alliance and built in partnership with the Lantern Organization and Mega Development. Other features will include practice rooms, art galleries, community performance spaces, recording studios and street-facing retail spaces.

The second building will be constructed at 413 East 120th St., abutting the former La Clinica Del Barrio building that now houses the Multi-Service Center. Known as "The Beacon," the 250-unit building will include 75 homes reserved for formerly homeless households.

Constructed by Ascendant Neighborhood Development and the Community Builders, it will run up against the Multi-Service Center, which will be rehabilitated and expanded with a new atrium, green space, and a "Wagner Walk" path connecting the residential building to the facility.

Between the two projects, most new apartments will serve low-income families earning less than $86,000, the city said. The city did not say when construction would begin on either building.

The city selected both projects after soliciting proposals from developers in 2019, following the rezoning. Since the rezoning, the city has financed more than 7,500 affordable homes in East Harlem — including the enormous Sendero Verde complex, which will contain 700 affordable units.