Extell Development, one of the city’s biggest developers, has its sights set on East Harlem said a Daily News article.Extell President Gary Barnett has put in a $39 million bid for a site at 160 E. 125th St. currently occupied by a 59,904-square-foot Pathmark supermarket owned by the East Harlem Abyssinian Triangle, real estate sources confirmed.
“They made a bid,” of interest in the building. “There’s a contract that hasn’t been executed, but it’s been signed by them.”
If the sale is approved by Abyssinian Triangle board members this month, Extell could build up to 10 stories of condominiums and affordable housing on a site three blocks from the AK public housing complex, according to early negotiations.
The acquisition, which mirrors another last year on the Lower East Side involving a Pathmark, would be Barnett’s first in Harlem, where a $4.3 million condo on W. 118th St. currently hails as the area’s most expensive.
With amenities like a full-size basketball court, bowling alleys and $200,000 basement storage bins, Extell condos below 100th St. — including at the recently completed One57 in Midtown — have commanded upwards of $90 million.
“It’s only going to be for the rich,” said Patricia Hayles, 39, who lives a few blocks away. “They should leave the Pathmark here. I would miss this place if it’s not here.”
Ebony Hollingsworth, 27, was pushing a shopping cart full of groceries when told about the possible development.
“That’s crazy,” said Hollingsworth. “It’s like they don’t value the people that live here. Go somewhere else!”
Members of the eight-seat Abyssinian Triangle board voted on the matter Thursday but the outcome was divided, said board member Derrick Taitt, who is opposed to the sale because he doubts that promises of affordable housing will be honored by Extell.
“We’re not selling,” said Taitt, who said the board will reconvene for a second vote later this month. “We’re not going to sell out our community. They don’t build affordable units. They have never built affordable units.”
He said other board members, including the Rev. Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, want to sell. Butts declined to comment when reached on Wednesday.
The East Harlem Abyssinian Triangle, which owns 51% of the property, is a partnership between Butts’ Abyssinian Development Corp. and the Community Association of the East Harlem Triangle, a nonprofit founded to build low-income housing. The other 49% stake is owned by the city.
Extell did not returns calls for comment, nor did spokespeople from the developers’ public relations firm, Rubenstein Associates.
Can the condo be built with the Pathmart remaining as a ground floor retail space?
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