Developers and retailers are zeroing in on Harlem’s 125th Street.
Greystone & Co. picked up an $11.5 million property through a bankruptcy auction. The firm plans to build an apartment building on the site. Ian Bruce Eichner’s Continuum is working on a 700-apartment development across the street that will include 80,000 square feet of retail space. Jeff Sutton is also involved in a project in the area, which will include a Whole Foods Market. Earlier this year, Extell Development bought a site in the neighborhood that’s currently occupied by a Pathmark supermarket. These projects, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, underscore the rising popularity of the thoroughfare.
The trend was set in motion after Harlem USA, a retail complex at 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, opened in 2000, according to the newspaper. And ever since the recession ended, developers are once more looking at 125th Street.
With the addition of all the retail stores — including the anticipated Whole Foods set to open in 2016 — the perception of Retail On 125th Street has changed, according to the newspaper. [WSJ] — Claire Moses