Frederick Douglass Boulevard - Newly Revived

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Frederick Douglass Boulevard: Newly Revived

By JOHN FREEMAN GILL DEC. 31, 2013
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New
York has had its share of neighborhood turnarounds in the last 20 years, but few have been as rapid and transformative as that of
Frederick Douglass Boulevard, a formerly blighted corridor of often-abandoned tenements interspersed with rubble-filled lots and tirerepair shops. Sometimes called Eighth Avenue, Frederick Douglass originates at 110th Street, the longtime psychic barrier between the Upper West Side and Central Harlem,
and runs to the Harlem River Drive above 155th Street, near a public housing development on the site that New York Giants baseball once called home. The
boulevard forms the spine of a 44-block area from 110th to 124th Streets that the city rezoned Morningside
Park, with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in the background, is one in 2003, allowing some residential buildings of of the parks near this revitalized corridor of Harlem. Uli Seit for The New York Times greater density. In the decade since, spurred by city subsidies and rising values, that southern stretch has experienced a surge of construction, producing crisp-looking condominiums, rental buildings, restaurants and cafes. The boulevard has also been spiffed up
in spots north of 125th Street. In 1988 it looked like Detroit
does now, said Willie Kathryn Suggs, a longtime Harlem resident and broker. Now, if youre living in the neighborhood, there are people out there all the time, and you dont feel
youve got to get out of the subway and jump in a cab to go two blocks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/realestate/frederick-douglass-boulevard-newly-revived.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&rref=realestate&hpw&adxnnlx=1388525732-hFNIhGhf5Hn9tT54Bjs1wg[1/15/2014 12:00:22 PM]
Frederick Douglass Boulevard: Newly Revived - NYTimes.com
301 West 118th Street, #PH3D A four-bedroom four-bath duplex condo with two terraces, listed at $4.3 million. (212) 906-9391 Uli Seit for The New York Times
For
C. Virginia Fields, who lives near Eighth on 138th, the changes represent something of a vision realized. When she took office as Manhattan borough president in 1998, the city owned most of the buildings on Frederick Douglass below 125th; she pushed mixed-income development.
233 West 138th Street A two-family townhouse on Strivers Row, in a historic district, listed at $2.2 million. (212) 280-8866 Uli Seit for The New York Times
We
did drawings and we scheduled tours, in big Greyhound-type buses, where
we brought developers up from downtown as if they were immigrants coming from a foreign land, she said. Because the properties were city-owned, the buildings along Frederick Douglass were purchased for little or no money, and the developers got tax breaks.
2110 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, #8E A one-bedroom one-bath condo with a 25-year tax abatement, listed at $799,000. (646) 588-4045 Uli Seit for The New York Times
Among
the many new residents were the restaurateurs Stephen and Sheri Wilson Daly, who in 2007 fled a tiny one-bedroom rental on East 91st Street, paying $940,000 for a three-bedroom in a mixed-income condo near Eighth.
Although delighted with a 25-year tax abatement, the couple were less impressed with the scant restaurant and shopping choices. On
Friday and Saturday nights from 7 to 9, between 2007 and 2011, Ms. Daly said, you could watch droves of people heading to Frederick Douglass and hailing cabs to leave the neighborhood because there were so few places to go in the area. In
response, the couple opened Harlem Tavern, a family-friendly bistro, on 116th and Eighth, replacing a shuttered auto-repair shop. The menu was
priced reasonably, Ms. Daly said, so we wouldnt alienate the neighborhood; we wanted new residents, but we wanted the old residents, too. Others
have set up shop on the boulevards new restaurant row. In April, Yvette Leeper-Bueno, who lives nearby in a redone single-room occupancy rowhouse, opened Vinatera, a trattoria that would not be out of
place in SoHo. This neighborhoods been able to retain its
character and still open itself to new and wonderful things, she
said. Its still evolving.
What Youll Find The renaissance of the boulevard got a jolt of energy with the citys recent $25 million sale of a site at 110th and Eighth to an
affiliate of Artimus Construction
for a 127,000square-foot mixed-use project. Replacing a BP station at the boulevards gateway, the project will have some 56 units, at least 20 percent below market rate, as well as space for the Millennium Dance Company, said a spokesman for the citys Economic Development Corporation. Artimus is the developer behind the new One Morningside Park luxury tower, also on 110th. Side streets are pulsing with life as well. In some cases, homeowners
are renovating townhouses for themselves, with rentals to offset mortgage costs. In others, developers are reimagining houses as boutique
condos. On 112th west of Eighth, Ms. Leeper-Bueno added projecting angled windows to her south-facing rowhouse, gaining a western view of Morningside Park and the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. At 233-235 West 113th, Epic Management is developing two townhouses into a 10-unit condo. Harlem
is still a village, said Jeffrey Berger of Isen & Company, the firm handling the sales, so quaint buildings are
desirable. Housing officials say that unsubsidized private development in the area would never have happened without city investment in low- and mixed-income housing. Some 2,725 units of income-restricted housing have
been created in Central Harlem since 2002; more than 1,650 were built or preserved along Eighth. Now its possible for a private developer to go out and get private financing, without city subsidies, for a building of market-rate rentals or sales, said Marc Jahr, the president of the citys Housing Development Corporation. But the only way we reached this point was through an enormous infusion of city subsidies. Frederick Douglass is generally more ragged north of 125th, where it is often flanked by tenements and public housing, with some newer development. From 136th to 138th are the mixed-income St. Charles Condominiums, townhouses built with city and state subsidies in 1995 on lots that for decades had harbored rats and trash. East of Eighth on 138th and 139th is Strivers Row, an island of 1890s grandeur on four block fronts, the northernmost designed by Stanford White. Commerce reflects the range of incomes here. Three doors up from a 99-cent shop, diners at Londels Supper Club can feast on $24.95 catfish. At 145th, in facing residential developments, one has a Pathmark on its ground floor, the other a New York Sports Clubs gym and a
Starbucks. A 2007-2011 census survey estimated that 61 percent of the 57,897 people living
along and around Eighth were black, down from 74 percent in 2000. The share of whites jumped to 12.4 percent from 2.3 percent. Median household income rose 28 percent, to $34,694. Gentrification has had its costs. Some of the pricing, mostly by private developers, has gone beyond the means of many blacks who maybe havent lived in the area but would like to, said Ms.
Fields, who is African-American. I hear that a lot, and I regret it. What Youll Pay Near Eighth Avenue below 125th, townhouses generally start at $1.1 million and can top $2 million, said Ms. Suggs, the broker, adding that on 136th and 137th, the range is $1.5 million to $1.7 million. In the last three months, sales of condos along Frederick Douglass from 110th to 125th, including adjacent side streets, averaged $740 per square foot, said Sarah Saltzberg, a broker at the Bohemia Realty Group.
Above 125th, the average was $520. Prices have risen, and everything gets sold very, very quickly, she said. At the Parc Standard, near 113th, a two-bedroom condo that sold for $708,000 in 2011 recently went for $990,000. A search on Streeteasy found 43 apartments for sale. What to Do Central, Morningside and St. Nicholas Parks are nearby. MODSquad Cycles, a spiffy shop near 115th Street, equips riders. Cuisine on Eighth includes Ethiopian, at Zoma; Japanese, at Jado Sushi; Italian, at
Lido; and German, at Bier International. The Schools Public School 180, on 120th Street, has prekindergarten through Grade 8; it got a B on its most recent city progress report. The Frederick Douglass Academy II Secondary School
on 114th serves Grades 6 through 12. Its middle school earned a C. SAT
averages last year were 369 in reading, 382 in math and 368 in writing, versus 437, 463 and 433 citywide. The Commute The B train makes frequent stops at or near the boulevard; the C runs
through the area part time. The A and D express trains stop at 125th and 145th. The History Incredible New York, by Lloyd Morris, includes an illustration of Cornelius Vanderbilt racing horses along Harlem Lane, now Frederick Douglass Boulevard, near 137th Street.
A version of this article appears in print on January 5, 2014, on page RE6 of the New York edition with the headline: A Nerve Center, Newly Electric. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe
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Frederick Douglass Boulevard: Newly Revived - NYTimes.

SEARCH SUBSCRIBE NOW

LIVING IN ROWAYTON, CONN.

Where Norwalk and Darien Collide

A Major Renovation on the Doorstep of Queens

The Hangover: Cantilevered Buildings of New York

A Scarcity of New OneBedrooms

REAL ESTATE | LIVING ALONG