'Uptown' Plan Down and Out

By Bob Kappstatter

NY Daily News, May 3, 2006

Foes sink huge E. Harlem project

In a rare nod to community opposition, the Bloomberg administration has scrapped plans for a massive commercial and residential development project in rapidly gentrifying East Harlem.

Bowing to pressure from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, City Councilwoman Melissa Mark Viverito (D-East Harlem) and Community Board 11, the mayor's office quietly informed them last week that the city's Economic Development Corp. will not move forward with the "Uptown New York" project.

Set to rise on mostly city-owned land running from 125th to 127th Sts. and Second to Third Aves., it would have included a 700,000-square-foot commercial development, 1,500 housing units, 1,000 parking spaces and expansion of an MTA bus storage facility in a heavily trafficked neighborhood with the highest nationwide rate of childhood asthma.

Instead, the EDC will issue a new request for proposals that "more closely meets neighborhood needs and concerns," Stringer said in a joint press release with project opponents.

The community supports significant new development on the site, they said, but wants to see more affordable housing, commercial space for local businesses, and ways to avoid traffic congestion and air pollution.

With a booming real estate market, the upper East Side has been pushing farther into East Harlem, with condos rising cheek-by-jowl with tenements and housing projects.

The EDC's first request for proposals for the project in 1999 called only for commercial development of the site. That year, it designated Urban Strategic Partners - a joint venture of Grid Properties and the Gotham Organization - to come up with a plan.

Six years later, the project was close to a $1 billion development, overwhelming the community with four 25- to 30-story residential towers sitting on top of a large commercial retail complex.

It also included a 1,000space parking garage, with the MTA bus depot on 126th St. and Second Ave. moved underground, below the complex.

Working with the EDC, Stringer and Mark Viverito, Board 11 formed a task force in October 2005 that came up with its priorities for the site.

"We are grateful to the task force, borough president, Community Board 11 and Council member Mark Viverito for their efforts in helping us to reach consensus on this project," said EDC spokeswoman Janel Patterson.