New Harlem Apartment Building To Rise Near Apollo Theater

HARLEM, NY — A longtime church parking lot in the heart of Harlem will soon be replaced by a 12-story apartment building — but prior plans to build an even taller building on the site have apparently been dropped.

Developer Joel Weiss filed plans with the city on Wednesday to construct the 95-foot-tall building at 260-270 West 126th St., between Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X boulevards.

The site, which abuts the back side of the Apollo Theater, has long served as a parking lot for Thomas Memorial Wesleyan Methodist Church, which also occupies part of the property. It was unclear how the church will be affected by the new building, but no demolition plans have been filed for its small house of worship.

The building will include 82 apartments with an average size of about 762 square feet, according to planning documents. The project will also include roughly 4,800 square feet of commercial space and a 2,000-square-foot community facility.

In 2019, renderings emerged showing a far taller, 42-story apartment tower to be built on the same site, which was also slated to include church space and a theater on the lower floors. In the ensuing years, however, that building has not materialized.

The listed architect for the new 12-story building is Joseph Frankl, of Brooklyn-based JFrankl Architects — the same firm that was associated with the previous, taller building. Its other projects include a 17-story building at 54 West 125th St.

If built, the 126th Street building will continue a development boom along Harlem's main corridor. Ongoing projects on 125th Street include the Victoria Theater Redevelopment Project, the future 18-story National Urban League headquarters, and another 12-story building recently proposed at 219 West 125th St.