It’s Finally Coming: Essex Crossing
By Caroline Loscalzo and Maxwell Stern
For sixty years, all that lay on the six acres of land were empty parking lots, an unfulfilled promise. Torn-down tenements made way for nothingness. Apartment buildings, businesses, and religious institutions all disappeared in the name of progress.
For sixty years, this neighborhood has waited for housing that the city has yet to deliver. Nearly 2,000 families have waited for replacement homes after being expelled from apartments in the 1950s.
Now, finally, new developments have been under construction for five years and are slated to open in 2024. Gleaming office spaces and 1,000 apartments, a Target, a bowling alley, and a multiplex movie theater will alter the character of an already gentrifying neighborhood. ¨The buildings will change the way people see the neighborhood,¨ said George Checo, a salesman at Richie’s shoe store that faces the clanging construction site.
Specifically, the plan envisages 15,000 square feet of open space, a modernized Essex Street Market, a dual-generational school, a community center, a museum, 350,000 square feet of office space and diverse retail stores.
The construction would fulfill the goal of federal plan six decades ago to transform slums into shining apartments complete with energy efficient systems and stainless steel amenities. The largely Puerto Rican tenants were forced from their homes and have been waiting for the pledged replacement housing since.
Building plans stalled over the next four decades as various politicians, community groups and ethnic groups fought over issues such as the concentration of retail and market-rate apartments. However, even when compromises were finally reached and construction broke ground, rancor over the project continued. Many people living around the site fear rising rents and further displacement as their neighborhood would become more desirable to live in.
¨[The development is] anti-urban, appealing to suburban mallrats,¨ said Arthur Chabon, an architect who studied the history of buildings in the neighborhood.
Similar debates have been playing out in various parts of the Lower East Side. Over the last two decades, the character of the neighborhood has shifted dramatically. Once a primarily low-income district of Puerto Ricans and immigrants — Eastern European, Chinese, Italian — has become younger and wealthier. Artisanal bakeries, upscale boutiques and art galleries have largely replaced the Jewish delis and Asian fish markets.
The development team is a mix of big money such as Goldman Sachs and local nonprofit groups like Grand Street Settlement. Its website promotes the site as, ¨a diverse mix of large and small retailers, apartment renters, homeowners, and entrepreneurs.¨ The luxury condos are going for $1.6 million to $7 million, while a one-bedroom being offered in an income-capped lottery is going for a more affordable $65,000 to $83,000. To put this into perspective, the average annual income of Lower East Side residents is $61,167.
While Essex Crossing should bring more foot traffic to local businesses, it could push out small entrepreneurs who have been there for ages.
¨Rent is up 20 to 25 percent in some buildings. Some have stayed the same but many have not,¨ said Kawcher Alam, an employee at a small convenience store near the construction site.
For some locals, the construction cranes, deafening drilling, and a sea of canary yellow hard hats make the project feel very abstract. Among the skeptical are Brandon Wisecarver, the general manager at Con Artist Collective, an arts space a few blocks from the construction site.
¨I’m gonna reserve judgement until it happens,¨ he shrugged.
