As federal funds put Second Ave. subway extension
on express track, displacement looms for locals
BY JOSE MARTINEZ AND RACHEL
HOLLIDAY SMITH
THE CITY
The now-very-real prospect of securing
billions of dollars in federal
funding for the next phase of the
Second Avenue subway line has state and
transit offi cials dreaming big again about
putting the project on the express track.
“Ladies and gentlemen: Next stop, 125th
Street!” Gov. Kathy Hochul said last month
after touring a tunnel built nearly half a
century ago beneath Second Avenue in East
Harlem.
But as the MTA seeks to fast-track the
next phase of a $6.3 billion project that’s
been on the drawing board for decades, it’s
running into resistance from some property
owners in the path of the Q line’s planned
1.5-mile extension from 96th Street and
Second to 125th Street and Lexington
Avenue. The line’s Second Avenue stretch
currently starts at 72nd Street.
“One of the lessons of the fi rst phase is
that if you don’t get the property, it delays
the project,” Janno Lieber, the acting MTA
Chairperson and CEO, told THE CITY.
“The cost implications and the delay of
the benefi t was very negative on the fi rst
phase.”
An environmental assessment for the
pending section of the line was completed
in 2018, which studied the project’s effect
on air quality, open space and safety and
security, among many other factors.
The assessment estimates as many as
170 people living in 65 homes would be
displaced by the work, and up to 505 workers
could be affected within commercial
spaces disrupted by the project.
But the MTA said it will likely need less
property than originally projected to complete
the next phase of the Second Avenue
subway line. That’s due to so-called costcontainment
strategies and design-build
work in which a single contractor handles
the design and construction of an entire
aspect of the single project.
The Federal Transit Administration
concluded the subway extension would not
have signifi cant adverse permanent effects
on East Harlem — though it acknowledged
construction would temporarily affect
“traffi c, noise and community character,”
the assessment reads.
Fight at the End of the Tunnel
Until the federal infrastructure bill
passed, funding for the next phase of work
had been in question.
“The dreams have always been there,
but the money never matched the dreams,”
Hochul said last week, proclaiming: “That
era is now over.”
Other obstacles remain, however, including
the acquisition of dozens of properties
the agency has said it needs to complete the
next phase of the line.
The owners of several sites near the
northern end of the proposed extension
sued the MTA in Manhattan federal court
this month, accusing the transit agency of
thwarting the development of properties
near 125th Street and Park Avenue.
The lawsuit argues the sites “were
acquired for residential, retail and commercial
development,” but “essentially
have been vacant lots” because the MTA
has prevented them from being developed.
A transit worker walks along a section of the Second Avenue Subwaytunnel
under East Harlem, Nov. 23, 2021.
The complaint says the MTA offered
$40.7 million in August for 1815 and 1801
Park Ave., with plans to use the properties
as an entrance with six elevators and as a
space to anchor the tunnel. The offer was
rejected by the developers, according to
the lawsuit, which was fi rst reported by
Law360.com.
The plaintiffs want a “reasonable” monetary
judgement and attorney’s fees, as well
as “further relief” determined by the court,
according to the court papers.
Lawyers for the property owners did
not respond to THE CITY’s request for an
interview, and the MTA does not comment
on pending litigation.
‘Consensual’ Takeovers
Lieber said the MTA wants to make
acquisitions in a way that will keep the
project on schedule.
“We are taking all the steps to make sure
that we can acquire property consensually
by negotiation,” Lieber said. “But we also
have the usual eminent domain procedures
in place.”
The 2018 environmental assessment outlined
a preliminary list of up to 41 private
properties to be fully or partially acquired
for the project
They include vacant lots and unused
buildings for the 106th Street station, a
pair of four-story residential buildings
with ground-fl oor businesses for the 116th
Street stop and a two-story commercial
building near the 125th Street station that
houses a pawn shop, a restaurant and a
BEN FRACTENBERG/THE CITY
grocery store.
THE CITY reported in September
2020 that the MTA had begun a process
mandated by state law toward eventually
securing properties along the proposed
route and that eminent domain was a last
resort.
“We have little say in it,” said Danny
Young, whose family-owned laundromat,
Lucky Machine Wash, is in a Second Avenue
building near East 119th Street that
is marked for acquisition. “We’re kind of
resigned to it, you know?”
The project would incorporate a tunnel
built from 110th to 120th streets in the
1970s, but which was mothballed as a
result of the city’s close brush with bankruptcy.
The fi rst phase of the line opened
in 2017.
Movin’ Out
Carlos Hernandez Jr., whom THE CITY
fi rst spoke with for a 2019 story on the
project, said the uncertainty over what’s
next drove him from his lifelong home in
East Harlem.
The 62-year-old said he relocated to
Florida last year after selling 2128 Second
Ave. — which he inherited from his father
— for “dirt cheap” to a real estate group.
The combination of the pandemic’s effect
on his tenants in the four-story brick building
near East 110th Street, as well as a lack of
commitment to funding under the Trump
administration, Hernandez said, convinced
him to leave the city.
“It seemed like it was going to take forever,
so I needed to get rid of the building,”
he said. “I had to bail out.”
Hernandez sold the 5,000 square-foot
building for $1.5 million, or about $300 per
square foot, property records confi rm. Yet
the average price per square foot in East
Harlem in 2019 was $1,000, according to
StreetEasy records.
Hernandez said the building was appraised
at a much higher price before the
threat of eminent domain. With the train
project looming, he fi gures the price he got
was the best he could do.
“Two things killed me — one is the MTA
and then the COVID,” he said.
A few blocks north, Lu Nicaj said he was
glad the building near East 116th Street
that houses his tile store will apparently no
longer be needed for the subway extension.
At one time, he said, it had been pegged for
a ventilation plant.
“The last report we had was that the plan
was changed,” he said, referring to an update
he received sometime within the past year.
“They’re moving it across the street to the
northeast corner.”
Nicaj, 58, who owns Eagle Tile, believes
the subway extension will be a boon for East
Harlem, citing the changes he’s seen near his
Yorkville home since the fi rst phase of the
Second Avenue line opened.
“I’m sure in the long run, it’s progress
for the city,” Nicaj said. “But as far as the
neighborhood and the people who live here,
it’s a displacement.”
This article was originally published on
Nov. 28 by THE CITY, an independent,
nonprofi t news outlet dedicated to hardhitting
reporting that serves the people of
New York.
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/Law360.com