Work started on the National Urban League’s new headquarters in Harlem, where the organization was first established over a century ago.
The Urban League Empowerment Center, on 125th St. between Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Ave., will also include the Urban Civil Rights Museum Experience and the National Urban League Institute for Race, Equity and Justice, plus affordable housing, office space and retail space.
As part of the $242 million project, the National Urban League will build a nearly 42,000-sq.-ft. national headquarters in the same neighborhood where it was founded by Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George Edmund Haynes in 1910.
The site will also house the 19,500-sq.-ft. National Urban League Institute for Race, Equity and Justice conference center, and the nearly 21,500-sq.-ft. Urban Civil Rights Museum Experience-New York’s first civil rights museum to share and illustrate the story of civil rights advocacy in the north.
The project includes more than 170 residential units affordable to households earning between 30 percent and 80 percent of the Area Median Income, and includes supportive housing for young adults aging out of foster care.
In addition, the project will include below-market-rate office space for nonprofit groups including the New York chapter of 100 Black Men of America, the United Negro College Fund, and the Harlem-based Jazzmobile. Additional retail and Class A office space will invite future tenants who offer jobs and resources for the neighborhood. The retail portion will be anchored by Trader Joe’s and Target.
The National Urban League’s project is being financed by New York State Homes and Community Renewal and supported by grants from Empire State Development. Other partners include the New York City Economic Development, BRP Companies, L+M Development Partners, Taconic Investment Partners, Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, Dabar Development Partners, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, Harlem Community Development Corporation, and the Prusik Group.
