Target to open at major mixed-use development in Harlem
BRP Companies
A deal to bring the National Urban League back to Harlem was reached last month as part of a mixed-use development project planned for 125th Street. In addition to affordable housing, office space for nonprofits, and the city’s first museum dedicated to civil rights, the $242 million project, known as the Urban League Empowerment Center, includes a new 44,000-square-foot Target, as the New York Post first reported.
While some national chains have left Manhattan because of the economic downfall caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Target has plans to open more stores. In June, the company announced two new stores in the borough, at 150 East 86th Street on the Upper East Side and at 795 Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side, totaling nearly 80,000 square feet of retail space.
Like the new UES and UWS Target locations, the new Harlem store will also be small-format, which is set up with more grab-and-go products and pick-up service. A spokesperson for Target told the Post the new store “will be tailored to serve local guests.”
Throughout the health crisis, Target has continued to pay full rent to send an “open for business message” to consumers, according to The Real Deal. Over the past few years, Target has expanded its New York City footprint dramatically.
A number of new locations are in the process of opening across the city; in February, the company signed a lease for space at the base of 10 Union Square East, with new stores planned for Times Square and Washington Heights. Current Target stores in Manhattan are located in Tribeca, at Essex Crossing on the Lower East Side, the East Village, Kips Bay, 34th Street-Herald Square, the Upper East Side, and East Harlem.
The new mixed-use development in Harlem is being developed by BRP Companies, L+M Development Partners, Taconic Partners, the Prusik Group, and Dabar Development. Designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, the 17-story project includes 170 affordable and mixed-income apartments and office space for One Hundred Black Men of New York, the United Negro College Fund New York, and Jazzmobile.
The project will also serve as the new headquarters for the National Urban League, a historic civil rights group founded in Harlem in 1910 with offices currently in the Financial District. The Urban Civil Rights Museum Experience will be New York’s first museum dedicated to civil rights.
“This project represents a major investment in the neighborhood where the National Urban League was founded,” National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial said in a press release.
“For more than a century, across the country, the National Urban League has worked to strengthen and vitalize urban neighborhoods through community investment. We’re pleased to be able to put those same guiding principles to work with our own future home.”
The mixed-use project was first announced in 2013, with an initial groundbreaking expected in 2015. But after the Empire State Development approved a modified General Project Plan for the project last year, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo signing off on the transfer of state-owned land, the project was able to move forward. The project is now expected to be completed by late 2023.
“This has been an incredibly collaborative effort among state and city agencies, elected officials and community stakeholders, the National Urban League, and the private sector to produce one of the most important buildings Harlem has seen in a long time,” Eric Gertler, acting commissioner of ESD, said. “ESD is proud of the work we are doing in partnership with the Harlem community to help restore 125th Street’s rightful place as a centerpiece of business, culture and life in New York City.”
[Via NY Post]
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