Levine Builders hits Harlem home run

Real Estate Weekly, Jan 26, 2000 by Jeff Levine

The whirlwind of activity surrounding the real estate market in Manhattan has quickly spread north to Harlem, as availability decreases and prices skyrocket in all categories. Developers are looking away from traditional hotspot locations below 96th Street to procure prime Harlem locations heretofore undervalued, properties that are now leaping off-market at a furious pace.

The late 1990's has marked the resurgence of Harlem. Once a neighborhood lacking investment, the community is now bustling with retail, residential and commercial activity. The Fairway supermarket chain has opened a large outlet at 130th Street and 12th Avenue, and the establishment of the Empowerment Zone in the area sparked the development of Harlem USA on 125th Street, with anchor tenants such as Disney, Old Navy and a Magic Johnson multiplex movie theater.

On the residential side, the revitalization of Harlem's housing stock is reflected in the dramatic rise in value of the neighborhood's historic townhouses. A shell on Astor Row recently fetched over $220,000, while a fully renovated townhome has reached the $450,000 plateau. Hamilton Heights is also seeing a residential renaissance, where the price of a six-story townhouse recently topped $650,000.

Proving the old maxim "the early bird gets the worm," Levine Builders perceived this trend in its earliest stages and acted accordingly - acquiring and developing some of the area's most valuable properties before the current spate of activity limited space and ballooned prices.

Levine Builders has scored a major success as Renaissance Plaza, with the Alliance for Neighborhood Commerce, Home Ownership and Revitalization Partnership (ANCHOR) program, becomes a reality. The result has been both a boon to Harlem as a community and the City as a whole.

Renaissance Plaza is a $60 million, 11story building with 241 ownership units (limited equity cooperatives) and 60,000 square feet of retail space rising on West 116th Street. Major tenants include Rite Aid, Met Foods Supermarket, Petland Discounts, Ashley Stewart women's clothing and a 200-car parking lot managed by Imperial Parking. Suna/Levine is developing the project and Levine Builders is the contractor.

Financing is being provided by the NYC housing Development Corporation; NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development Capital Budget; the Empire State Development Corporation through the New York State Metropolitan Economic Revitalization Fund; the NYC Retirement System; the NYC Investment Fund; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and a syndicate led by Chase Manhattan Bank, European American Bank, Fleet Bank and North Fork Savings Bank. Loan guarantees are being provided by the State of New York Mortgage agency and the federal Section 108 Guarantee Program.

The ANCHOR/Partnership Plazaprogram is operated under the auspices of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the NYC Partnership with the goal of redeveloping vacant city properties, thus stimulating jobs and services in depressed areas. Renaissance Plaza is the largest of ANCHOR's projects and represents a significant investment on the part of Levine Builders to revitalize Harlem and remain at the forefront of the real estate market's move to Harlem.

Levine Builders believes that the Renaissance Plaza project will have a lasting, positive effect on the community, as well as positioning the company at the center of Harlem's real estate activity. Levine Builders has been providing its services to projects conceived through municipal agency participation for more than a decade. Noting that the demand for development in new territories such as Harlem is increasing during the current economic boom, the company is looking to reap the rewards of exploring "out-of-the-box" propertiesbefore the competition.