A request for proposals (RFP) has been issued for the redevelopment of B-East, a city-owned development site on Second Avenue between East 125th and East 126th Streets in East Harlem, Manhattan. Released on Monday by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the RFP seeks a mixed-use residential building that will yield around 140 homes, including affordable housing pursuant to 485-x without public subsidy, according to HPD Commissioner Dina Levy. The project will also include an active ground floor with neighborhood-serving retail and community uses, as required under the East 125th Street Development Points of Agreement.
B-East Site, via NYC EDC.
The RFP requires respondents to maximize the site’s development potential within its C6-3 zoning, deliver a comprehensive local hiring and wage program, meet or exceed a 30 percent M/WBE participation goal, and advance sustainability and carbon-neutrality targets. Responses are due on Tuesday, October 20, 2026.
B-East Site, via NYC EDC.
The site is part of the East 125th Street Development, a three-parcel, roughly 6-acre assemblage running from East 125th to East 127th Streets between Second and Third Avenues. Approved in 2008 following a 2006 RFP and a rezoning that mapped C6-3 across the site, the plan envisioned approximately 1.7 million square feet of residential, retail, and commercial space and up to 1,000 homes. To date, HPD and NYCEDC have delivered more than 450 units along with the 121,000-square-foot Proton Center healthcare facility. The B-East lot has sat vacant for nearly two decades despite carrying its approvals, a point Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal pressed in a statement accompanying the release.
The RFP lands alongside a larger reimagining of the district’s remaining parcels. NYCEDC, HPD, the Department of Education, and the School Construction Authority recently presented plans to Community Board 11 for the A-Block: A-West, a 7,000-square-foot parcel on Third Avenue between East 126th and East 127th Streets, and A-East, a 1-acre parcel on Second Avenue between East 126th and East 127th Streets. Together those sites are expected to yield more than 1,000 homes, 40 percent of them affordable, plus two new public schools at A-East.
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Buildings should be much taller in this location.
Totally agree, this entire stretch should be rezoned for significantly higher density to take advantage of all the transit options.
Of course
Is “taller” ‘gentrification?”