Historic Harlem Bank Restored, Businesses Needed

The renovated Corn Exchange building finally opens for business. Now all it needs are tenants.

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By Andrea Marks

On a rainy October evening, executives from Artimus developers welcomed a group of about 20 visitors to the lobby of its latest construction project, the newly rebuilt Corn Exchange on East 125th Street and Park Avenue. Chief Operating Officer Ronen Haron displayed historic photographs of the once grand structure, which was filled with soil and sprouting trees when the developers purchased the dilapidated landmark in 2012.

“It was a labor of love for us,” Haron said, describing how workers hauled debris, bucket by bucket, to a dumpster and cut apart a steel vault by hand to open additional first floor space.

This spring, the Harlem company completed a $17 million renovation of the 131-year-old building that had once housed the Mount Morris, Corn Exchange and Chemical banks. Before construction began, nothing but the crumbling first floor had remained.

But the building needs tenants. The developer is seeking retailers for the lower levels and office occupants on floors three through eight, and hasn’t secured a tenant since units first went on the market in May. Furthermore, a recent increase in nearby drug activity threatens to derail the developer’s plans.

Inside the newly rebuilt Corn Exchange

Inside the newly rebuilt Corn Exchange

“Oh, they’ve had a lot of trouble renting it,” said Joshua Singer, vice president at the Heller Organization, the company leasing retail space on the ground level, basement and second floor. “I think I’m the fourth broker on the site, but I intend to get it done.”

The Corn Exchange has had a tumultuous history. Completed in 1884, it first housed Mount Morris Bank with residential apartments above it. The Corn Exchange Bank took over in 1931, followed by Chemical Bank, which closed in 1965. A church stepped in briefly, before the city repossessed the building in 1972 for unpaid taxes. It stood largely abandoned since, but was named a city landmark in 1993.

After a fire claimed the two-story mansard roof in 1997, a neighborhood activist made an unsuccessful effort, spanning several years and lawsuits, to turn the space into a culinary school. In 2009, the city demolished the remaining top four floors before they could collapse on their own.

Over eighteen months, Artimus, which purchased the Corn Exchange from the Economic Development Corporation, worked closely with the Landmarks Preservation Commission to rebuild. The final product reflects the building’s original architecture, with projecting bay windows and copper trim. The only anachronism Haron pointed out was a practical one: durable, rubberized slate on the roof, instead of the fragile authentic material.

Yet in August and September on East 125th Street, the sudden spread of synthetic marijuana (K2) turned sections of the high-traffic street between Lexington and Park into what The New York Times called “a street of zombies,” where homeless people get high and zone out on the sidewalk. East Harlem’s 25th Precinct has reported the highest crime rate per resident in upper Manhattan so far this year.

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The neighborhood’s struggles heighten the need to stoke the local economy with new businesses and restaurants, meanwhile making them all the more difficult to attract.

Beverly Draggon, a real estate agent for Douglas Elliman, working largely in West Harlem, said six months without a retail tenant isn’t cause for concern. “It is a typical amount of time,” she said. “It’s a range, based on what the price point is and what the renter has to do to the space.”

Asked about the drug and homelessness problem in his new building’s neighborhood, Haron offered no comment, but said he has seen plenty of interest from prospective tenants—just not the right ones.

He insists he’ll only rent to companies that will contribute to the local economy. “Hiring locally is critical to us,” he said. At the least, “they have to advertise in the area.” He and Singer both emphasized they’d rather rent retail space to cafés and coffee shops than chains and fast-food places.

Singer is on the lookout for an independent restaurant for the ground floor. “It’d be a nice amenity, especially because of the MetroNorth station,” Singer said. The Harlem-125th Street stop lies just across the street. “Our goal is to bring someone of quality to the neighborhood.”

“I hate the idea of commuters coming through and not spending a dime in Harlem,” said Haron, a Harlem resident himself. “That isn’t how you create economic development.”

The second floor awaits restaurant use, too, with kitchen flooring already laid.

Haron said units will rent for $45,000 to $55,000 monthly, depending on the space. Singer specified $160 per square foot on the ground floor and $60 per square foot for the second floor, annually. Major ground floor retail space on 125th Street averages $141 per square foot, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s Spring Retail Report. That’s an 20.5 percent increase from last year.

As for the office space, Haron envisions an architecture or engineering firm or a bank taking the top six floors.

A nighttime view from the roof of the Corn Exchange

A nighttime view from the roof of the Corn Exchange

Eric Yarbro, executive managing director with Colliers International, leasing agents for the Corn Exchange office space, says he’s unintimidated by the gritty landscape. His team met with officers at the 25th Precinct and asked police to ramp up their activity in the area. “I think they understood the success of the building was needed to bring in tenants and shops,” he said.

Since then, he said, he’s reviewed city crime maps and hasn’t seen incidences of major crimes near the Corn Exchange. (The city’s September 2015 crime map showed no major crimes on the building’s block that month, but nine incidences of grand larceny and one felony assault between Park and Lexington on 125th, east of the Corn Exchange). “We’ve been really pleased with the response,” Yarbro said.

He is also encouraged by city plans to overhaul the MetroNorth 125th Street station and the plaza beneath it. He sees the intersection blossoming the way Chelsea has since the completion of The High Line. “New lighting, new restaurants, new amenities,” Yarbro said.

The Corn Exchange and its tenants, he thinks, will be ahead of the game in a soon-to-be popular neighborhood destination. “We hope to have an announcement about a deal for the entire building in the not-too-distant future.”

On the evening of the tour, visitors seemed impressed by the space, ogling the raw beams and ceilings—each floor a ready canvas for inhabitants. As the crowd dispersed, Haron took those who lingered to a rooftop balcony. The darkened upper Manhattan skyline stretched in all directions, with glowing MetroNorth tracks receding downtown, where a sliver of the Empire State Building showed between buildings.

“Isn’t this just the living end?” said one woman to Haron. “You should put this on your website.”

(Photos by Andrea Marks)

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