The developers of the One45 project in Harlem are offering a higher number of affordable units. 

“We are aware of what the concerns of the community are, and that’s the reason our plan was changed to reflect those concerns,” said developer Bruce Teitelbaum.

But the new proposal didn’t seem to sway any council members at a zoning committee hearing.

What You Need To Know

  • The City Council Zoning Subcommittee held its first hearing on the One45 development project

  • Affordability and gentrification concerns persist, despite the higher number of affordable apartments offered

  • Harlem Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan is asking for deeper levels of affordability
  • If the proposal fails in the City Council, the developer could build a smaller structure with 44 market-rate units

From the beginning, Harlem Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan has been adamantly opposed to this project, which was also rejected by the local community board and the Manhattan borough president.

The new proposal for two massive residential towers on 145th Street and Lenox Avenue includes 367 apartments at different levels of affordability and 549 market-rate units. 

“I’m representing the stats of long-term Harlemites and not the stats of new gentrifiers,” Richardson Jordan said.

But Richardson Jordan says the affordability criteria being used citywide doesn’t reflect the reality of the long-term residents of Harlem. 

“It doesn’t apply to the humans who actually live here in our district, in our community,” she said.

Before the hearing, members of the 32BJ and laborers unions rallied in support of the project. 

But the developer is not guaranteeing all the construction jobs will go to union workers, drawing opposition from groups like the Carpenters Union. 

Last week, the Reverend Al Sharpton pulled a proposed Civil Rights Museum from the project. Sharpton’s new National Action Network Headquarters is still part of it. 

If the rezoning application fails in the City Council in the coming weeks, the developer could build a smaller structure with 44 market-rate units.