Bruce Teitelbaum Tries Again With One45 in Harlem

With new life from the state’s 421a extension and Harlem’s changed political landscape, Bruce Teitelbaum has filed preliminary plans for his massive One45 complex.

The filings with the Department of City Planning outline the developer’s second attempt to get approval for his project at the intersection of West 145th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard, the New York Daily News reported.

Teitelbaum proposes a three-building, 922-unit complex, with more affordability (and likely more subsidy) than the 917-unit plan he shelved in 2022 because of opposition from the local Council member at the time.

Now that the state budget has changed the 421a tax break’s construction deadline from 2026 to 2031, Teitelbaum has time to complete the development, assuming he comes to terms with the City Council on a rezoning.

The new plan is similar to the one he proposed in early 2023, before the slayer of his initial proposal, Kristin Richardson Jordan, decided not to seek re-election to the Council that year.

Half of the units would be affordable. One building would have mostly market-rate apartments, while another would include 300 affordable units, 125 supportive housing units and a community facility. The project would have to abide by the state’s 2015 ban of “poor doors.”

In this latest iteration of One45, Teitelbaum adds a single-story retail building. It would be constructed after the two apartment towers, which have an estimated completion of 2029.

Teitelbaum has also added stories to the residential towers, which would offer more affordable units than before. He has also removed the initially planned parking.

Teitelbaum withdrew his original plans for the site two years ago because Jordan demanded more affordability than was financially feasible, and the rest of the Council was poised to follow her lead in denying a rezoning for the project. The blowback contributed to her exit from politics and to Council Speaker Adrienne Adams charting a pro-housing course for the chamber.

Jordan’s successor, Yusef Salaam, has been more open to negotiating a project that the developer could get financing to build. Teitelbaum said he has a “good working relationship” with Salaam, which encouraged the developer to restart the rezoning process, which takes about two years.

Since the demise of the 2022 version of the project, the L-shaped site has become the home of a migrant community center and a truck depot Teitelbaum opened after his development was dashed. More recently, Teitelbaum has been helping a mosque relocate from the site.

— Holden Walter-Warner