Is a “for sale” sign about to be slapped with a big “SOLD” sticker over Harlem?
Developers, corporate investors and big money-making movers and shakers are counting pretty profits and rubbing greased sweaty palms, and anticipating much more.
The historic Victoria “Five” Theater is the latest prominent Harlem landmark being eyed by “outside forces” as a delectable real estate statistic in someone’s fat portfolio.
State and local officials are presently engaged in a to-and-fro over who exactly should be given the contract to redevelop this 125th Street property. Will it be one of two Black firms: Danforth or Victoria Towers, whose proposals twice won the approval of the Harlem Community Development Corporation (HCDC), or will a new state-selected late arrival, Apollo Realty Estate Advisors and Starwood, slip in and snatch up one of the gems of Harlem’s famous commercial and cultural corridor?
Not if Assemblyman Keith Wright, HCDC chairman, has his way. Visiting the Amsterdam News Harlem offices, he declared, “This is two-fisted. We are rocking this in the streets, but they’ve forced me to be this way. I may not want to fight, but I know how to.”
He denounced what he described as the improper move that is opening the door for Apollo Realty Estate Advisers, self-proclaimed as, “one of the most active and prominent opportunistic real estate investors in the United States and internationally.”
Both a former asset and a buffer, the vendors are long gone. Big businesses and multi-nationals are now well-established on 125th Street, and sky-rocketing rents have for some time announced re-gentrification like a clarion call.
Asked if Harlem is for sale or already sold, former Manhattan Borough president, and current state senate candidate C. Virginia Fields told the Amsterdam News, “Clearly there are a number of changes that have and continue to take place in Harlem. I don’t believe that Harlem is for sale in terms of when people ask that question and they mean that everything is being turned over. But, I do believe that a number of changes have taken place.”
Fields added that she is happy that the story is out about the Victoria Theater, and asked, “Why did the state move to try and change the rules midstream, even though the two developers won fair and square their places as the two finalists? It is outrageous. Obviously these things went on when we were not at the table, that is why it is very important for us to be at the table and to be a part of the process. The state should not be allowed to override the process and the decision of the Harlem Community Development Corporation.”
“The bottom line is, as chairman of the HCDC I am fighting for the soul of one of Harlem’s edifices,” stormed Wright. “The board has voted for two finalists, and the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and Chairman Gargano need to butt out and stop trying to impose their most-favored proposal, meaning Apollo Reality. Danforth and Victoria Towers are both developers from, and by, the Harlem community. We know how to build and we know how to employ and serve our community. We don’t want to be a part of any underhanded political deals from Governor George Pataki’s administration.”
The Amsterdam News called the governor. But neither he nor anyone from his office responded.
Used as a meeting space for the last few years, the Victoria is a three-story building designed in 1917 as a Loew’s Theater for vaudeville and movies. Towards the end of the 1980s, it became a multiplex movie theater.
Now, a splendid hotel and matching condominiums are proposed to sit atop a cultural and performance space. But for months there has been a tug-of war over whom will get the contract between members of Pataki’s Empire State Development Corporation, their uptown subsidiary Harlem Community Development Corporation, and associated State-elected officials.
Senator David Paterson (D-Manhattan) told the Amsterdam News that he has been on the HCDC board for 20 years, but now Pataki and ESDC are “trying to ram the Starwood group down the community’s throat. There are members of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) board, who I think should be subpoenaed to testify that this was a sweetheart deal for Starwood. I have no problem with Starwood, but there was a bidding process during which the governor and the ESDC changed the terms of the bid, that would give an unfair advantage to some other bidders.”
Charles A. Gargano did not return an Amsterdam News phone call. However Mark Weinberg, ESDC spokesman did. “The HCDC board has short-listed two developers and are now going through the appropriate due diligence to select one to complete the project,” insisted Weinberg. When asked about a third party being finagled into the process by the governor, Weinberg simply repeated his statement.
“Because of Empire State’s negligence and interference there has been no progress, whereas we should have put a shovel in the ground more than two years ago,” boomed Wright.
Exhibiting flashes of his recently late father, Judge “Cut 'Em Loose” Bruce, the assemblyman continued, “We are fighting for the soil (of) this community. This is David versus Goliath as far as I’m concerned, and as you know David won.”
In October 2004, the Harlem Community Development Corporation issued a request for proposals (RFP) for redevelopment of the Victoria Theater. They received nine offers.
Maintenance of the theater’s façade, and an economic (job creation) and cultural component were all factors needed to be included. Votes in January and April whittled the list down to two: Robert Jones and Paul Williams of Victoria Tower Development, and Steven C. Williams of Danforth Development Partners.
Pataki’s administration supported Apollo however, and after the January vote, they declared that the HCDC must now comply with a new state law which says that the highest bid must be considered, as opposed to the one which best incorporates community economic and cultural benefit. Reportedly Danforth had a bid of $21.75 million and Victoria Tower’s proposal was $19.6 million.
Gargano told the New York Times last week that the bid by Apollo and partner - Starwood (big Pataki contributors), of $27 million was simply greater than any other bidder. Gargano and an Apollo spokesman denied that financially-inspired political favoritism played any role in the sudden consideration of this third party.
Danforth’s proposal includes: housing, a 90-room hotel, a Savoy Ballroom, two theaters, and community arts programs and employment opportunities.
Robert Jones told the Amsterdam News that the Victoria Tower proposal includes, “the restoration of the 29,000 square feet theater, a new community arts and cultural space, a 162 room hotel, condos for 103 persons and a full service health club. We have an agreement with B.B. King to bring a dinner theater restaurant similar to what he’s got downtown, only priced for Harlem residents.”
The Apollo/Starwood plan offers a W hotel, condominiums, office space for the unrelated Apollo Theater Foundation, and a theater.
Danforth’s Steve Williams told the Amsterdam News that all the developers, “entered the project understanding that the needs of Harlem’s community were paramount; that is to create employment opportunities; to create a new venue for cultural arts and visual arts.”
Likewise, Jones said his team’s plan was to create “jobs for the community and minority ownership and operation.” They made their bid with the understanding “that we would be the owner-operators of the building. That is very important because a lot of white folk come to Harlem and identify with a Black front – when, in fact, the owners and operators are white, like 55 West 125th Street, where Clinton is. They brought in a Black front so they could tell the community that there is Black ownership, where in fact the Black ownership is very minimal.”
The Victoria Tower team determined that going into business with a white contractor would have to have “the understanding that we would be at the table for all contracts, so that we would be able to ensure maximum minority participation and maximize minority involvement in all aspects.”
The HCDC votes should stand, said Jones. “Now we are in limbo because we were told that we were among two finalists, but now the Empire State Development Corporation is trying to interject a third party.”
Curtis L. Archer, president of HCDC told the Amsterdam News, “As far as I know, the decision of the HCDC board will be honored. They will be considering not of three but two proposals. The process is moving ahead and I’m confident that the HCDC board wishes will be carried out.” With the next pursuit of a memorandum of understanding, Archer said that, by as early as “the end of June there should be a decision.”
Paterson told the paper, “The governor passed new legislation saying that the highest bid should get the contract. They passed the law after the fact to try and change the board’s determination. The Empire State Development Corporation is trying to force the board to accept the new law retroactively.”
That is highly unusual, said Paterson. “We can only find one Black partner in the Starwood company, and we were hoping to give the contracts to a minority business, and every rule change and every game frustrates me more and more.”
Aggravated, but not defeated, the state senator running for lieutenant governor told Amsterdam News, “I intend to wait to see who gets the contract, and if I think there was malfeasance of duty when they make the final award, I think there has to be an investigation.”
“Will ESDC let HCDC and the Harlem community decide the fate of the historic Victoria Theater - a Harlem legacy?” asked Jones, who has over 30-years experience in real estate, and whose buildings include the public garage on 125th Street and the U.N. hotel in midtown.
He concluded, “Part of the answer lies in how the Harlem community responds to yet this latest attempt by outsiders to decide what’s best for Harlem.”
