By Matt Chaban 10/08/12 10:55am

Harlem Shuffle

7 Photos

Hail, Victoria!

Harlem Heights: Two 26-Story Towers Shuffling Onto 125th Street Above Victoria Theater

It’s the biggest show on the block since James Brown played The Apollo.

At the end of August, Danforth Development announced that it had found a partner to move forward with its plans to develop two 26-story towers above the century-old Victoria Theater. The project has been in the works for years now, a pet project of local politician Keith Wright. A new hotel and apartment building are meant to sustain a clutch of cultural institutions on the first few buildings of the complex, and things were well underway until the recession hit.

Now, Exact Capital is pitching in $100 million to get the project off the ground. Way off the ground. Read More

By Jess Schiewe 6/04/12 1:16pm

Under Development

The city hopes to build a 42,000-square-foot complex down the block from Harlem's Apollo Theater, but given their track record, this might be wishful thinking.

Harlem Is Skeptical Yet Another 125th Street Development Won’t Fail

Promises: they’re easy to make, but hard to keep. Just ask the residents and landowners of West Harlem.

For the last five years, a number of developments have been proposed along 125th Street, but most have fallen through. Take, for instance, Vornado Realty Trust’s ambitious plans for a 600,000-square-foot office building on the corner of Park Avenue that would have housed Major League Baseball’s new television network. That building never materialized, nor did a later development, planned on the same site, for a high-rise that included a Marriott hotel.

So what’s the beef? Why are so many projects along 125th Street (as well as nearby Lexington and Morningside avenues) habitually planned and then abandoned? Read More

By Matt Chaban 11/08/10 5:13pm

Harlem Shuffle

Bill Clinton Has Lavish Taste, Even in Office Space

While Bill Clinton’s decision to rent office space in Harlem may seem like a modest one–imagine if the former president using taxpayer money to pay Park Avenue prices–he still pays more, on a per-square-foot basis, than any of his presidential colleagues, even after renegogiating his lease for the top floor of 55 West 125th Street.

The Journal Read More

By Lysandra Ohrstrom 2:04pm

The Local: A Record of Harlem’s Change

Harlem’s most ubiquitous activist and resident Cassandra, Sikhulu Shange, has been warning against the perils of gentrification and the displacement of small businesses in the community for decades. He became living proof of his most dire prophesies this summer when he was forced to close his iconic music store on 125th Street, the Record Shack, Read More

By Lysandra Ohrstrom 4/01/08 7:26pm

Today in 125th Street Rezoning News: ‘Jim Crowism,’ ‘Harlem’s Death Certificate,’ ‘White Supremacy,’ Subsection 3 of Section 200

Charles Barron, a City Council representative from what he called “the People’s Republic of Brooklyn,” stood on the steps of City Hall this morning before a scheduled hearing on 125th Street rezoning and denounced it as an “abusive use of eminent domain.”

“Harlem is not for sale,” he said, prompting cheers from the Read More