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Harlem USA project sparks retail renaissance

By Al Warson

The 1920s brought to Harlem its first renaissance -- Duke Ellington popularized jazz, and the poetry and prose of Langston Hughes delighted this storied uptown New York City neighborhood. Now Harlem is undergoing a new renaissance, but it's not art this time that's at the center of activity -- it's commerce.

Helping to shape this renaissance is former basketball player Earvin "Magic" Johnson. Magic Johnson Theaters, a joint venture between Loews Cineplex Entertainment and Johnson Development Corp., is building a nine-screen multiplex theater as an anchor for Harlem USA -- a $66 million, 285,000-square-foot retail and entertainment complex due to open in time for Christmas.

The center is expected to fill a long-standing need for chain retail and entertainment in the historic neighborhood.

"All we have around here are small business shops," said Michael Rodriguez, a resident of Harlem and a Chase Manhattan Bank customer representative, during a customer appreciation day celebration for the bank's patrons held in June.

"If we want to go to a movie or buy something special, we have to go out of the neighborhood.''

The complex, located at the intersection of 125th Street (Harlem's main artery) and Frederick Douglass Blvd., is being developed by New York-based Grid Properties and the Gotham Organization, in conjunction with Commonwealth Local Development Corp. Commonwealth, a local not-for-profit economic development corporation, also owns the land and has leased it to the developers.

The three-floor structure takes up a square block of Harlem and is a hulking expanse of steel and concrete. Harlem USA is 80% leased, and will feature a two-level, 35,000-square-foot Old Navy; The Disney Store; Jeepers!, an indoor amusement park for children ages 2 to 12; HMV; and a New York Sports Club, which will have a full-service health and fitness facility on the top floor. The 2,700-seat multiplex cinema will also be located on the top floor.

The 62,000-square-foot theater will offer stadium seating and digital sound. Concession stands will offer traditional snacks, as well as gourmet coffee, baked goods and various hot foods such as chicken wings, popcorn shrimp and curly fries.

Down the line, a corner restaurant will be added to the project. The complex will not have any parking, but is within walking distance of several New York City subway stations.

The project will also include a Chase Manhattan Bank branch, which is already located on the site but on a different corner. A long-time Harlem presence, Chase Manhattan is the primary lender in the project, providing $29.7 million to developers.

As is not uncommon in inner-city development, Harlem USA will be the result of partnerships between private and public entities. In addition to the funding from Chase, $11.2 million will come from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corp. -- set up by the Clinton Administration to help revitalize distressed communities -- and $3 million will come from The Empire State Development Corp., a New York-state agency involved in community revitalization. The rest is being funded by the developer.

Harlem USA's design, by Chicago-based Skidmore Owings & Merrill and Oakland, Calif.-based Simmons Design Group, will have a glass facade and direct street-level access to retailers.

According to James Tuman, project executive for Grid Properties, one challenge the developers had to face was building Harlem USA around an apartment house.

"It took creativity to make the space here work,'' said Tuman, "There is a tenement with only about five families still living there that we couldn't buy out. They wouldn't leave, so we built around them."

The project will draw from a market made up of an estimated 500,000 residents of Upper Manhattan, and the more than 1 million tourists who visit the neighborhood annually, according to Grid Properties. More than 100,000 of the residents have attended college; 22,000 families have incomes over $50,000 and 47,000 families have incomes over $30,000. Also, Harlem residents spent a total of $2.4 billion last year, but 70% was spent outside the neighborhood.

The center is expected to create 500 permanent jobs. Tuman estimates the complex will generate about $200 million a year in sales.