Walking past the National Black Theater the other day led me to take a photo of the drilling crew.

This kind of activity typically means the property is going to change hands or be refinanced (the purchaser or the lender will want to evaluate the potential buildable height and if there are any restrictions on development indicated by the coring operation). Or it could mean that the current owners could be interested in restarting the development of the site.

If you recall, in 2017 the project was to include 240 residential units would be located on the fifth through 20th floors, of which 72 units would be made permanently affordable.

The project then changed, and by 2019, The National Black Theater project was going to move the affordable housing units off site, out of CB11, and into CB10 on West 118th Street (working a deal with HCCI – https://www.hcci.org/).

When word of how the National Black Theater wanted keep any affordable units away from it’s new theater/condo leaked, the outrage at how the National Black Theater was turning its back on the Harlem community caused an abrupt about-face.