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Artimus Construction to Build Housing on 110th Street near Central Park

By Jeff Mays | December 19, 2013 8:54am
 A new residential building will rise on the site of what was a gas station at 110th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.
110th Street Gas Station Redeveloped
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HARLEM — Artimus Construction was chosen by the Economic Development Corporation to build a 50-unit apartment building with space for a local dance group on 110th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

The 13,500-square-foot lot on the northwest corner of Central Park North at 2040 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, which contained a gas station and was described by the city as the last underutilized piece of property on Central Park, was bought by Artimus for $25 million.

The company, which has built several projects in Harlem, plans a development that is 80-percent market-rate and 20-percent affordable.

The building could be 12 stories tall without requiring any zoning changes. The ground floor will also contain a retail space.

Millennium Dance Company, currently located in a 3,000 square foot space on Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 135th and 136th streets will occupy 8,000 square feet of space on the first floor. The dance company provides classes for children and adults with a pre-professional track for youth.

"This planned mixed use space has a really nice balance of market rate and affordable housing, cultural space and community space," said a NYCEDC spokeswoman.

The former BP gas station, one of the few in the area, closed down recently. It was believed to be the only gas station along Central Park.

The former owner of the space Carmie Elmore Jr., vice president of 110th Street Service Station, Inc., owned the space but the city maintained the right to reacquire the property as part of the 1996 deed of sale.

Elmore had filed suit against the city but came to a settlement, said city officials who declined to disclose the amount. Calls to Artimus were not immediately returned.

Workers were seen dismantling the gas station Wednesday.

NYCEDC issued a request for expressions of interest for the chance to redevelop the 13,500 square foot space on the northwest corner of Central Park North at Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 110th Street in June of 2012 and received "robust" interest in the project from developers. They then issued a request for proposals.

Area groups such as the Friends of Frederick Douglass Circle say they want whatever is built there to fit in with the recently renovated circle.

The circle is at the entrance to a revived Frederick Douglass Boulevard which has seen an explosion in the last several years of restaurants, bars, lounges, co-ops, condos and newly renovated apartment buildings.