MTA proposes 684-unit development above future Second Avenue Subway terminus in East Harlem

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants to rezone a block in East Harlem to allow for a nearly 700-unit residential building above the future terminus of the Second Avenue Subway. The MTA filed plans on Tuesday to rezone the south side of East 125th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues, where the station for the last stop on the Q line will eventually open as part of the Second Avenue Subway extension. As first reported by Crain’s, the MTA plans to partner with a private developer to build an apartment tower with up to 684 units on the block’s west side, an MTA-owned property.

The project would generate revenue from the future developer through a ground lease and payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs). The push to create more housing around the transit project also responds to criticism of the extension’s first phase on the Upper East Side, where the city and state offered little support for new development.

“One of the lessons learned from Second Avenue Phase One is I don’t think we did enough transit-oriented development, both as a means of recouping some of the costs of the project with the property that needs to be acquired…and also in terms of making the end product feel more integrated with the community, and more active,” Fitzpatrick told Crain’s.

In 2023, the MTA purchased a future development site in Harlem from Extell for $82 million after weighing the option of seizing it through eminent domain. The east side of the block, also formerly owned by Extell, was sold in December for $70 million to JCS Realty, which plans to build a 15-story residential building.

The block proposed for rezoning has remained vacant since 2015, when a long-standing Pathmark supermarket was demolished. The site was largely exempted from the 2017 East Harlem rezoning following an unsuccessful effort to keep the grocer open. According to Crain’s, the MTA says the rezoning would align the block’s zoning with the denser development already permitted on nearby Park Avenue.

Under the proposal, the block would receive a new mixed-use zoning designation, C6-11, established through Mayor Eric Adams’ “City of Yes” housing reforms and which lifts the cap on residential density. The floor area ratio (FAR) would be increased to 15.

The proposed development includes 684 apartments, with 25 percent, or 171 units, designated as affordable for those earning no more than 60 percent of the area median income. The ground floor would include a residential lobby and a new entrance to the Second Avenue Subway station on the corner of East 124th Street and Lexington Avenue, which would also connect below ground to the existing Lexington Avenue 4, 5, and 6 lines.

According to the MTA, the building could have a 125-foot base with a residential tower of 40 to 53 stories above it.

The MTA plans to issue a request for proposals to select a developer, though that process is still years away. As Crain’s notes, the RFP will not be released until construction begins, with completion expected around 2032. The agency is pursuing rezoning now to meet a federal requirement for local approvals before the project can move forward.

Earlier this year, the authority announced it had acquired dozens of private properties necessary to begin construction on the Second Avenue Subway extension. However, it still needs to secure 17 additional sites to build the planned stations at 106th and 116th Streets, as reported by Crain’s.

The Second Avenue Subway extension is decades in the making, designed to deliver subway access to an area that has been a subway desert ever since the Second Avenue El stopped service above 57th Street in 1940, as 6sqft previously reported.

The $7.7 billion project would extend the Q train from 96th Street to 125th Street in East Harlem, with three new stations at 106th Street, 116th Street, and 125th Street, as well as a direct connection to the existing 125th Street station on the Lexington Avenue subway line.

In 2017, after a decade of construction, the first phase of the extension opened, bringing the Q line from 63rd Street to 96th Street with new stations at 72nd and 86th Streets. The project was temporarily halted in June 2024 following Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to delay congestion pricing, but resumed the next month after she allocated $54 million to restart work immediately.

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