The debate over the One45 housing development project, to be located in Harlem at 145th and Lenox Avenue, has waged for years, devolving at times to ugly fights between the community, City Council, and land developer. But after another round of intense negotiations, it seems there is finally a resolution on the horizon.
On June 26, the New York City Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises and Committee on Land Use voted to approve the One45 for Harlem rezoning that will allow the housing project to be built.
“At a moment when New Yorkers in every neighborhood desperately need more affordable homes, the [c]ouncil is confronting this crisis by approving the creation of new housing that meets the needs of our diverse communities,” said City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams in a statement. The council has firmly moved into the City of Yes/All for Housing Opportunity (CHO) camp, making building more housing a priority across the city.
“After years of very real struggle and hard, yet honest conversations, One45 presents a housing development that has Harlem and our needs at the center,” said Councilmember Yusef Salaam in a statement.
New to politics, Salaam inherited the years-long debate over the housing development when he was elected last year. After a bout of public hearings, he and the council negotiated an agreement for the creation of 1,000 new units of housing throughout three buildings, 338 of which will be affordable. This is a major sticking point for many housing activists who don’t like the “33% affordability level.”
There are also 165 affordable units at an average of 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI), 122 units at an average of 80% of the AMI, and 90 units of affordable senior housing included. Other aspects of the revised One45 for Harlem agreement include an $8.8 million investment into Brigadier General Charles Young Playground; a technology center with community rooms; retail space with 20% set aside for Harlem businesses and 10% for Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (M/WBEs); a promise to hire Harlem residents, including a 20% target for job training and apprenticeship programs; a paid youth internship for Manhattan Community Board 10; and investments in the adjacent Esplanade Gardens Mitchell-Lama housing complex.
“We approved a project that places Harlem and the needs of Harlemites at its core. This project is aimed at stopping the flight of middle-class Harlemites who are leaving the neighborhood and even the city due to lack of affordable housing,” said Salaam in a statement. “One45 will allow generations of Harlemites to remain in the city by providing quality, permanent, affordable housing. This project goes beyond housing for Harlem.”
Early iterations of the One45 project were slated to have three mixed-use buildings with two towers that spanned five lots of land on the 145th Street block. It also included a civil rights museum and new headquarters for the National Action Network (NAN). It was supported by Black electeds and activists such as retired Assemblymember Inez Dickens and NAN Founder Rev. Al Sharpton, but the plans weren’t breezing through with community board and City Council approval in 2022.
Former City Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan led a series of protests against the proposed development and feuded publicly with the developer, Bruce Teitelbaum, to the point where he decided to scrap the proposal and replace it with a truck depot. Her biggest ask was for more affordability for residents of central Harlem worried that they’d be priced out of the neighborhood. The community was incensed.
After a cooling-off period, a new version of the project was “resurrected” in 2023 and renamed One45 Harlem for ALL. Those plans, which included 915 units with 50% income-targeted units, have since gone through multiple iterations as well.
“CM Salaam is a skilled and tough negotiator who was singularly focused on delivering for his constituents — and he was, by getting us to agree on an unprecedented deal,” said Teitelbaum about the approval of his current project proposal. “He demanded and he got a 100% affordable building for seniors at 50% AMI, and an additional 250 more deeply permanently affordable units, many at 40, 50, 60% AMI levels that are affordable to his constituents.”
The next steps will be a full City Council vote, followed by a mayoral sign-off.
The controversy over the One45 project is far from over, though.
Plenty of housing activists and community members are still deeply unhappy with the affordability level, like Defend Harlem NY Interfaith Commission For Housing Equality or Silent Voices United. In the City Council hearing in May, Salaam noted that the plan presented was widely different from other past proposals in terms of affordability and the 291 “affordable” units were way “too low” to be viable for Harlem residents. Many see the jump up to 338 units in the approved plan as far too low as well.
“The community doesn’t owe anything to developers for them to be profitable, and we need to really understand that. We don’t owe anyone to make money off our community. At the end of the day, [Teitelbaum] stands to profit a lot,” said Defend Harlem founder Kai Cogsville at his One45 emergency action day event on July 2. “Once we see the actual affordability rates, which I think need to start at minimum wage and really target the income of that local community at $50,000 a year … anything higher and you’re disregarding [us].”
Cogsville said advocates from Defend Harlem want an additional economic and cultural impact study on the building’s ramifications. A racial impact and environmental study has been done on the property so far. He believes the use of the city’s Area Median Income metric cannot fully explain the development’s affordability.
“A lot of it is just the amount of people making — almost double or triple what most of the existing residents in that area [earn[,” said Cogsville. “It will definitely cause gentrification and displacement, but also expedite it. Also, that will give a dangerous precedent for Lenox Avenue for other developments that might also start accommodating residents [who] aren’t necessarily from this community [with] incomes [at] around $100,000 … there’s a lot of cultural, political, and economic vulnerabilities that are going to come to play if this project is executed affordably, as well as targeted to people [who] are actually from the community.”
Seemingly in response to the City Council’s approval of One45, a shadow person or group also cropped up in the last few weeks.
It anonymously bashed Salaam, more specifically his chief of staff Wilma Brown, and New York County (Manhattan) Democrat Party Boss Keith L.T. Wright. In a series of emails forwarded by the “Harlem Truth Circle” to the Amsterdam News, the dissenters attached black-and-white sketch cartoons depicting Salaam as a puppet on strings being controlled by Wright and Brown. The emails also talk about a sense of “betrayal” over the housing project approval and accuse Salaam’s staff of allegedly politicking without community interest in mind.
In accordance with our mission, the Amsterdam News editorial team decided against including a photo of said cartoons with this story.
Cogsville categorically denied involvement with circulating the emails or cartoons of Salaam. Additional emails clarified that the opinions of the Harlem Truth Circle were “not reflective of any affiliations with Save Harlem, its coalition of longtime Harlemites, Silent Voices United Inc., its Executive Director, Tiffany Fulton, or Defend Harlem and its founder, Kai Cogsville.”
Wright said that if someone had a grievance with him, that they should address him directly on the matter and not resort to an anonymous tactic. He denied controlling Salaam’s office, although he does have family connections to it. His son, Assemblymember Jordan Wright, was Salaam’s campaign manager and chief of staff for a time. He theorized that the email attacks could be from a “disgruntled employee” or someone with a personal beef with Brown, but didn’t know for sure. He added that he is neither for or against the One45 housing project, but is sure that the community needs housing built.
“You want a truck depot or do you want housing?” he said in a brief phone interview with the Amsterdam News.
“Let’s celebrate a win for Harlem. January 27, 2021, developers filed permits to demo the buildings on 145th Street. This left Harlem with a gaping hole,” said Salaam. “I entered office with a vision that included having that hole filled with affordable housing. I also knew that housing was not enough. As a family man, I also knew we needed family-sized apartments, two- and three-bedroom units. This was something I made sure was in the deal at an affordable rate. We need jobs. We need training. We need more green space. We need a pathway for upward mobility. We need updates and investments in already existing housing in buildings like Esplanade Gardens. Harlem needs affordable housing and so much more.”
Salaam added that the requests from Community Board 10 were exceeded. This includes reduced building heights, increased local hiring, a Community Benefits Agreement with oversight, more community space, and youth opportunities.
“What does all of this mean? Don’t let the naysayers cloud your vision. We are bringing much-needed housing to Harlem, jobs, training, opportunities for local businesses, a technology center, improvements to already existing housing, and filling that empty hole,” he continued.
Wilma Brown didn’t respond to a request for comment by post time.
Additional reporting from Tandy Lau.
When it comes to affordable housing New York needs all the help they can get. I used to live and work in New York for over thirty years. And couldn’t find a decent place to live. Now my Daughter and her kids can’t find a place to live in New York. That is no way to treat your citizens. Who have gave so much to the greater New York.
My singular regret cuts to the bone of Harlem’s collective failure: the abdication of our responsibility to secure housing for those earning 80 to 130 percent of Area Median Income. Harlem has allowed itself to become a bottom-feeder, seduced by the theater of low-income housing that systematically excludes the very people who built this community and deserve to remain in it. The cruel irony is unmistakable: young black professionals with deep roots in Harlem and those seeking to root themselves in Harlem find themselves trapped in a bureaucratic purgatory, deemed “too affluent” for affordable housing yet financially powerless against a market that demands they sacrifice a third or more of their income to stay home or make Harlem their home. There is no luxury multifamily housing in Harlem, stupid. Every so-called “market-rate” unit in Harlem is, by any honest assessment, middle-income housing—yet we’ve constructed a system that forces our own and those seeking belonging among us into financial servitude or exile. #APPROVED
I saw the interview by Dean Meminger with Yusef and Malcolm Punter regarding ONE45. This was my response:
Before I go into that response, let’s be clear, I am very well versed in the law pertaining to CEQR and the City Charter regarding ULURP applications.
I have been involved at every phase of ONE45, the first time around and the current application. There is something known as a Draft Scoping Hearing for the EIS which happens before certification. I’m documented there too. However, there was no Draft Scoping process the second time around and there should have been.
You can find submissions from me at every level. And we’re not talking a piece of paper. Power Points, graphs, reports, etc. There is really no one who is more documented on ONE45 than me.
With that said, let me begin:
A key thing Yusef said. “If people were to move in today…” But they’re not. So, based on the trajectory of AMI increases, there is a strong likelihood that the AMI will be 250,000 for a family of 3 at the time these units go to market. (There seems to be confusion out there on what AMI is being used for this project. It is HUD’s AMI, which doesn’t HAVE to be used btw.)
Now let’s look at those deeply affordable units: 10% at 100K, 5% at 125K, 10% at 150K. Then the rest of the affordable units which we really can’t say are “deeply” affordable, will be 200K, 250K, and 300K.
These are the income salaries mind you that will be required to qualify for these units.
So unless Yusef says these income requirements are based on the current AMI, then people are being totally bamboozled. That’s $146,000 for a family of three with adjustments according to family size in either direction.
And let me qualify this affordability. 82 units will be marketed to households of 3 earning 100-150K. And 256 will be marketed to households of 3 earning 200-300K.
So you’re right Dean, Grandma Rosie will not be able to live here. Now as for the senior building, all they’re saying is that the units will be 100% affordable. But I just learned that they’re set for incomes at 50% of the AMI. So our grannies and grandpas will have to earn 125,000 or about 100K if they live alone.
And Yusef is waiving the victory flag over this?
Then there is the height factor. 30 stories could still be 450 feet. These buildings could be the tallest buildings in Harlem by a lot. So M. Punter comparing these buildings to Esplanade, Savoy, etc., is not an equal comparison. A height restriction is based on height, not stories.
Then we have the situation of the project being in a brownfield. In a high risk for liquefaction zone at that. The developer never did an environmental assessment on this liquefaction issue, let alone one pertaining to an area that’s in a high risk for liquefaction that’s compounded with being situated in a brownfield.
This is required under CEQRA Law. And when this came up it gets ignored by the community board, BP, CPC, and City Council. It doesn’t even get mentioned, nor does any agency, body, board, commission say, “Mr. Tajiddin you’re wrong about this.”
The Department of City Planning even failed to require the developer to do a draft scoping hearing for the EIS prior to the proposal’s certification. When the liquefaction issue came up it was incumbent on CPC or the DCP to force one because projects being built on high risk for Liquefaction soil is a serious environmental matter.
So, Mr. DM, if they were following the law we probably wouldn’t be doing this project because quite frankly, to deal with the brownfield and liquefaction issues will be quite expensive. And we don’t know how the developer plans to mitigate these serious environmental impacts.
Our fear in the community is that the developer will sell the land. And, do these so-called benefits run with the land or the developer? Because if it runs with the developer then we get nothing. How smart are the negotiators then if that happens? And everyone was warned that not only could this happen, it’s been happening in New York City.
Another thing Mr. DM. The zoning request in the proposal goes further west, to Fine Fair Supermarket. This developer I believe bought the land that extends outside of the project footprint. No benefits were attached to THAT land. Again, how smart are the negotiators then if that happens? Everyone was warned about that possibility too.