Extell Development Company is moving forward on its first office building in East Harlem in New York City. Known as Harlem Headquarters, this nine-story building, whose construction is scheduled to begin next year and be ready for fitouts by the end of 2022, will offer 441,600 sf of Class A office space. The development includes a 7,500-sf roofdeck terrace and a 40,851-sf community center.
Gensler designed Harlem Headquarters with 56,000-sf floor plates that can be divided into three zones, so layouts can be customized for tenants, says Rose Disarno, Associate and Design Lead at Gensler’s New York office. Each space will have access to its own terrace outside.
Extell is touting Harlem Headquarters’ “smart design,” which Disarno explains includes a solar array installed on the roof and MIRV-14 filters installed throughout the building, whose façade will be insulated to exceed New York’s 2016 requirements.
Leasing is expected to begin sometime this fall, with Cushman & Wakefield serving as the building’s marketing agent. Disarno believes that the Harlem Headquarters’ roofdeck will be a “critical” amenity as employees return to offices on a fuller-time basis. The building is also adjacent to several subway stops, and eventually is expected to have access to the Metro Line rail line that stretches to the city’s surrounding suburbs.
Extell did not disclose the construction cost for Harlem Headquarters, whose Building Team includes Monadnock (GC), GMS (SE), AKF (MEP and lighting), Philip Habib + Associates (CE), IBA Consultants (façade), Bright Power (renewable energy), Matthews Nielsen Landscape Architects (landscaping), Longman Lindsey (acoustics), and JM Zoning (zoning).
Extell had been exploring opportunities to develop property in East Harlem for a while, according to its chairman and founder Gary Barnett. In April 2014, the company acquired the property where Harlem Headquarters will be built, located at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, for $39 million from a partnership known as East Abyssinian Triangle.
Large floor plates within Harlem Headquarters (above) will accommodate tenant customization. Each tenant will have access to outdoor terraces (below).
ONE DOOR CLOSES, ANOTHER OPENS
Harlem Headquarters will feature 30,000 sf of ground-floor retail, and Disarno says there’s been some talk about luring a grocer as one of the tenants. A grocery would be a welcome addition to this development, which sits on a site that once encompassed a 68,000-sf Pathmark that, when it opened in 1997, was this community’s first supermarket. Hunter College’s New York Food Policy Center estimated that the Pathmark was serving 30,000 customers a week before it closed in November 2015, following the bankruptcy filing that previous July by its parent company The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known locally as A&P.
A site on New York’s Lower East Side where another Pathmark closed in 2012 is where Extell, in the spring of 2019, completed construction on One Manhattan Square, an 800-ft-tall, 80-story residential high rise with 815 condos designed by Meyer Davis, the studio behind Oscar de la Renta’s flagship retail boutiques.
An acre of private gardens and quiet spaces that overlook New York's East River and Manhattan Bridge is one of the amenities at One Manhattan Square, an 80-story condo high rise. Images: Evan Joseph
One Manhattan Square features one of the largest private outdoor gardens in New York City, more than one acre—45,000 sf—and designed by The Netherlands-based West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture. The gardens are situated on a gradual incline that overlooks the East River and Manhattan Bridge. This amenity is further evidence of how landscape architecture and biophilia are becoming central to designs for various typologies.
Related Stories
| Oct 12, 2010
Guardian Building, Detroit, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Special Recognition. The relocation and consolidation of hundreds of employees from seven departments of Wayne County, Mich., into the historic Guardian Building in downtown Detroit is a refreshing tale of smart government planning and clever financial management that will benefit taxpayers in the economically distressed region for years to come.
| Oct 12, 2010
The Watch Factory, Waltham, Mass.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards — Gold Award. When the Boston Watch Company opened its factory in 1854 on the banks of the Charles River in Waltham, Mass., the area was far enough away from the dust, dirt, and grime of Boston to safely assemble delicate watch parts.
| Oct 12, 2010
Building 13 Naval Station, Great Lakes, Ill.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Gold Award. Designed by Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt and constructed in 1903, Building 13 is one of 39 structures within the Great Lakes Historic District at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill.
| Oct 12, 2010
From ‘Plain Box’ to Community Asset
The Mid-Ohio Foodbank helps provide 55,000 meals a day to the hungry. Who would guess that it was once a nondescript mattress factory?
| Oct 11, 2010
HGA wins 25-Year Award from AIA Minnesota
HGA Architects and Engineers won a 25-Year Award from AIA Minnesota for the Willow Lake Laboratory.
| Oct 8, 2010
Union Bank’S San Diego HQ awarded LEED Gold
Union Bank’s San Diego headquarters building located at 530 B Street has been awarded LEED Gold certification from the Green Building Certification Institute under the standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council. Gold status was awarded to six buildings across the United States in the most recent certification and Union Bank’s San Diego headquarters building is one of only two in California.
| Oct 6, 2010
Windows Keep Green Goals in View
The DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has almost 600 window openings, and yet it's targeting LEED Platinum, net-zero energy use, and 50% improvement over ASHRAE 90.1. How the window ‘problem’ is part of the solution.
| Sep 21, 2010
New BOMA-Kingsley Report Shows Compression in Utilities and Total Operating Expenses
A new report from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International and Kingsley Associates shows that property professionals are trimming building operating expenses to stay competitive in today’s challenging marketplace. The report, which analyzes data from BOMA International’s 2010 Experience Exchange Report® (EER), revealed a $0.09 (1.1 percent) decrease in total operating expenses for U.S. private-sector buildings during 2009.
| Sep 13, 2010
Triple-LEED for Engineering Firm's HQ
With more than 250 LEED projects in the works, Enermodal Engineering is Canada's most prolific green building consulting firm. In 2007, with the firm outgrowing its home office in Kitchener, Ont., the decision was made go all out with a new green building. The goal: triple Platinum for New Construction, Commercial Interiors, and Existing Buildings: O&M.
