Public School Turns to Private Space
By Saif Choudhury
After 40 years of standing still, the abandoned P.S. 186 is finally undergoing renovations. This time, the finished project won’t house hundreds of students in its classrooms — rather it will house hundreds of residents in its apartments. The former public school, constructed in 1903, is being converted to an apartment complex with 78 affordable rental units that are on or below market value.
“I think having apartments here will be a great idea,” says Marisol Lucia, a receptionist at the Caribe Hotel — the building right next door to the construction site. “I’ve been working here for several years, and this building has always been a nothing. But when things started getting boarded up a while ago, and they put up pictures of what’s going to be here by this summer, people got much more interested and excited. Best part for me is that the construction hasn’t been so noisy so far!”
The new apartment, which is projected to be completed by June, 2016, is a joint project by the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem, Monadnock Development and Alembic Community Development. The Boys and Girls Club, which bought the empty building in 1986, was able to partner up with those developmental groups to raise the $48.6 million needed to make this complex a reality.
The city has also been involved with construction, as the Department of Housing Preservation and Development have approved construction plans. Interestingly enough, the Boys and Girls club originally wanted to do away with the entire structure of P.S. 186, but for historical preservation concerns, the external structure and other internal features like the staircases and windows will be reinforced.
“History is in an important aspect here,” says Barbara, a librarian at the New York Public Library down the street from the construction site. “The school here was founded early in the twentieth century, and thousands of Harlem residents grew up here over the years. This is a piece of Harlem.”
The piece of Harlem was actually shrouded in the midst of controversy in the 1970s, as people complained about run-down conditions and questioned the safety of the facility. When the building finally closed down in 1975, the Boys and Girls Club bought it up a decade later but were not able to follow through with plans of development — that is until now, with their plans for an apartment complex.
As mentioned, the apartments will all be at or well below market value, but all considered affordable (according to the NYU Furman Center— which reports on the State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods — the median value for an apartment at Hamilton Heights is $2200). The apartments, which were mainly designed for very low-, low-, and middle-income families, will also include a Boys and Girls Club facility that will showcase academic, athletic, and art programs.
Some community members, like Barbara, miss the school that P.S. 186 used to be: “I work at a library — of course I would much rather have a school still standing here! I want education to blossom! But if anyone should have the building, it should belong to the Boys and Girls Club. I’m more than happy with the work they want to do with the community on top of just making apartments.”
Other members are looking forward to what the future holds. “I put my name in the application pool for getting the apartment,” says Lucia. “This neighborhood has everything within blocks and I happen to work in the building right next door. I hope I get in!”
