NY Curbed reports that Manhattan’s gas stations are disappearing at a rapid clip, giving way to what developers consider a higher and better use of the valuable properties. According to the FDNY, there’s now fewer than 50 public gas stations in Manhattan. Not immune to the trend is Harlem, along 145th Street, where three gas stations have been shuttered with at least two sites definitively giving way to new residential projects.
The New York Times charts the change in a new article decrying the creep of gentrification that it’s opined on before, noting now:
The gas stations along 145th Street have been a mainstay in Harlem for more than 40 years. Now, as decades of investment produce signs of gentrification in Bradhurst, a 40-block neighborhood in the northern part of Harlem, residents are worried about what type of development will come to the sprawling gas station sites and what impact it will have on the community.
A former Getty gas station at 119 West 145th Street sold to developer Platinum Realty Associates for $4.62 million in July 2015. The firm’s website illustrate a glassy building for the site, with ground and second floor retail space, but plans have yet to be filed with the city. The developer told the Times that the rendering represents an idea for the site rather than a concrete plan.
A boarded up Speedway across the street sold for $6.75 million in December 2016 and a Mobil next door at 150 West 145th Street sold for a whopping $10.1 million in February 2017. Both the Speedway and the Mobil, the Times notes, sold to residential developer Cowlton Properties.
According to the FDNY, public gas stations numbered 117 in 2013. To name a few that have fallen since then: a former BP gas station on the northwest corner of Central Park has given rise to Circa Central Park, where condos fetch from just over $1 million; and a former BP station along Houston Street will give rise to a glass and steel office building designed by COOKFOX.
Good thing we know of at least one gas station that isn’t going anywhere.
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