By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/ Producer
HARLEM — A entertainment complex featuring a jazz museum and an art house cinema may soon find a new home on 125th Street across from the Apollo Theater.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation announced Monday that it is seeking a developer to build up to 67,000-square-feet for cultural and commercial use that would house the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, an art house movie theater dedicated to black and Latino film called ImageNation Sol Cinema, a visitors center for city tourism agency NYC & Co., and a café and/or retail space.
“The creation of this will reinforce Harlem as an arts and culture destination,” said Kyle Sklerov an EDC spokesman.
The complex is planned for the former site of Mart 125, a roughly 10,000-square-foot building at 260 West 125th St. that housed street vendors until 2001.
Sklerov said a previous plan to create a commercial building that would include retail and restaurant space fell through when Harlem, LLC, a development corporation, was “unable to execute its lease.”
The subsequent rezoning of 125th Street by the Department of City Planning in 2007 to reinforce the street's arts, culture, and entertainment identity led to the inclusion of the cultural institutions in the request for proposals.
Chris Heywood, a spokesperson for NYC & Co., said Harlem has increasingly become a popular tourist destination over the past several years.
Tour buses zoom across the 125th Street providing glimpses of Harlem’s broad avenues and tree lined streets and walking tours introduce visitors to the history of the area on a range of topics from music to food to spirituality.
And with the addition of two new hotels slated to open on West 124th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in August and 125th Street and Lenox Avenue in the coming years, tourists will soon have more options to stay in the area as well.
“People far and wide have looked at Harlem as a global icon for New York City,” Heywood said. “This project can only be a positive thing, one more reason why people would go up there.”
Lynette Velasco, chief of staff for City Council Member Inez Dickens, said that Dickens sees the benefits of tourism for the area—such as job creation for residents and a strong economy for small business owners—but is watching the project closely with concerns that more traffic could increase pollution and congestion.
“The Council Member does see the benefits of tourism, but is also interested in maintaining the fabric of Harlem community and culture,” Velasco said.
The National Jazz Museum in Harlem is currently located on 126th Street in East Harlem. ImageNation Sol Cinema currently has no venue space. And NYC & Co. currently has a tourism desk at The Studio Museum in Harlem.
Developer submissions for the project are due July 30, after which a winner will be announced and a timetable will be set for project completion.
