The Olnick Organization has received approvals from the City Planning Commission to construct five new towers within the Lenox Terrace housing complex in Central Harlem. The Commission voted 11-1, with one abstention, in support of the project following drastic revisions to the original proposals.
With the approval of the City Planning Commission, the project will now head to the City Council for final approval.
The Olnick Organization’s plan specifies the construction of 1,600 new apartments including up to 500 affordable units. Additional components include restaurants, multiple retailers, six acres of landscaped outdoor area, and an assortment of amenities available at no additional cost to future occupants. The development also will include a new home and urban farm space for Harlem Grown, a community-based nonprofit.
“The best way to keep Harlem affordable is to create more affordable housing, and at Lenox Terrace that is only feasible through the proposed rezoning,” said Seth Schochet, president of The Olnick Organization. “Today’s approval by the City Planning Commission puts the largest private affordable housing initiative in Harlem on a pathway to a fully approved project and we look forward to continuing our dialogue LT-ACT about how to maximize benefits for current residents.”
The project is expected to create over 2,700 on-site construction jobs and 300 permanent jobs and result in the spending of several hundred million dollars at area businesses. Construction was originally expected to break ground this fall and open to the public by 2023.
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Article needs to define exact location. Street boundaries for this project?
Good.
The tenants at Lenox cannot tell the landlord who owns that land what he can and cannot develop
In a rezoning situation they can. Furthermore, even as of right they have say so if the developer will be receiving public funds, which in most cases they do.