Near that building is another with an uncertain future. On the northwest corner of Frederick Douglass and 125th Street, real estate giant Kimco began helping the building’s 16 tenants relocate last year in order to demolish the structure and build a mixed-use development. The tenants, including soul food restaurant Manna’s, legendary music store Bobby’s Happy House, a KFC and other smaller businesses, were all gone by the fall of 2008. The building sat empty all winter long and when spring came there was still no progress. Today, the structure still stands, Manna’s moved back to its original location six months ago, and a leather goods business has moved into KFC’s former storefront. It is unclear what will happen next with the 100-year-old building; there are no signs of impending demolition or construction. Kimco did not return requests for an interview.
Still stalled, too, is the mega project on East 125th Street known as the East Harlem Media, Entertainment and Cultural Center. The developer, General Growth Properties, has filed for bankruptcy and bailed out of the project, leaving the future of the site uncertain. The historic and dilapidated Corn Exchange/Mount Morris Bank Building still sits as an empty ruin (though a new building permit was issued this month), and the site of the failed Major League Baseball tower on 125th Street and Park Avenue remains an empty lot with no advertised plans for redevelopment.
Craig Schley, executive director of the group VOTE People that is leading legal action against the rezoning, says it's ironic that pressures to redevelop Harlem have in some places ended up producing more blight – as with the Kimco building that used to house bustling businesses.
"That rezoning proposal was this community's economic plan," said Schley, who also made a run for the congressional seat of U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel last fall. But community members "were totally and completely against it – it was shoved down their throat. It hasn't worked and it's not working."
He and Bailey of the Harlem Tenants Council both also said that the neighborhood's elected representatives, including Rangel and Councilwoman Dickens, have been getting a lot of flak this election season from residents who consider them too friendly to development interests.
Yet Dickens – whose family has been in the Harlem real estate business for decades – maintains an upbeat outlook. “Harlem has rebounded from a lot worse. Harlem was basically in a depression for 30 years. Nobody wanted to live here or invest here, but Harlem has rebounded every time," she said. "Will it rebound as quickly as 42ndStreet? No, but we can make it through this too."
Reporting contributed by Karen Loew.
