The $700 million Taystee Institute building is located in the Manhattanville Industrial District, but the institute extends beyond West Harlem's manufacturing history. Surrounded by brick buildings on West 126th Street, Tasty stands 11 stories tall with glass windows overlooking Columbia University and the City University of New York. Inside a now-vacant lab, a fuzzy fireproofing spray coats steel columns as they prepare them to code for a life sciences tenant in a once-industrial area.
“For better, worse or indifference, gentrification has changed Harlem. It’s not the harem before.” The Crack Epidemic…West Harlem has the potential to become one of the nation's life science centers. ”
This potential for life sciences (loosely defined as any science related to living things) reflects both the revitalization of Harlem and the expanding industrial footprint in New York City. According to Yardi matrix dataThere are currently 3.5 million square feet of life sciences projects completed or under construction in Manhattan and Queens, with an additional 2.3 million square feet of development planned in Manhattan.
Across the city, life sciences strives to “discover things that help humanity that no one has been able to do before,” said one of the two principals at Tasty's developer, Janus Property Company. One Scott Metzner explained. The company also produced the adjacent Mink, Malt House and Sweets buildings. . These projects will create a commercial corridor that will house biotech tenants such as BioBus, Quicksilver Biosciences, and a biotech incubator. harem biospace.
But New York state's life sciences efforts, both in Harlem and beyond, have long been overshadowed by industry powerhouses like Boston and San Francisco. Cambridge, Massachusetts, in particular, is home to innovation giants such as coronavirus vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer, as well as major academic institutions such as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to Yardi Matrix, Boston has 8.2 million square feet of life sciences space under construction and boasts an industrial portfolio of 10.1 million square feet in the last decade alone.
“Every city wants to be the next Boston or San Francisco,” acknowledged Dr. Brian Brown, director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics at Mount Sinai. However, “I think New York's framework as a research and biotechnology center is the best in the country.''
Even in New York, Harlem, especially West Harlem, is the place where this type of training is practiced to the bone. West Harlem, which had many vacant buildings before the war, has utilized these vacant spaces to foster life science research led by the City University of New York and Columbia University. These institutions, along with the Metzner building, form what has become the West Harlem Innovation Triangle.
These universities have also undertaken various expansions, including the Center for Advanced Science Research in 2014 and the Jerome L. Green Science Center in 2016. Meanwhile, in East Harlem, newly constructed 121 labs It was developed near the New York Proton Beam Center, Mount Sinai, and Henry J. Carter Specialty Hospital. Needless to say, Mayor Adams assigned $27 million for life sciences;
But it is none of these initiatives, institutions, or even developments that demonstrate the potential of Harlem's life sciences. Rather, the district attracts and retains a life sciences workforce not only through biotech companies and universities, but also through (relatively) reasonable rent prices, mentorship opportunities, and ancillary infrastructure that make the location desirable. It also functions as an ecosystem where you can.
Three years ago, Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals CEO Dr. Vladislav Sandler made what he called an “opportunistic decision” to move to the Mink Building in West Harlem. Sandler, who was previously based at the State University of New York in Brooklyn, appreciated the asking rents in the neighborhood. For 10,000 square feet, Sandler would pay $80 to $90 per square foot. That's lower than the $100 per square foot price we found elsewhere in our Manhattan search.
But while price alone may win tenants, it doesn't reflect the company's larger scientific efforts. Rather, Sandler takes advantage of the university's proximity by storing Hemogenics' research mice at Columbia University's facilities. Harlem also offers access to Mount Sinai, Rockefeller, Cornell, Sloan Kettering, Einstein, and New York University, all of which are easily accessible via Harlem's multiple subway and bus lines.
Universities are scattered throughout New York City, but Harlem brings them together in one cluster, allowing for both access and collaboration, or at least motivation. Sandler always noticed Nobel laureates passing by from the Starbucks on the corner of 125th Street and Broadway.
“When you have all these buildings next to each other and people eating lunch in the same coffee shop…you start mixing ideas, and that becomes an engine of innovation in itself, just like New York has built itself on. It becomes an organic driver in the financial sector,” Brown said.
That doesn't mean we overlook the growth and potential of other life science projects in New York City. The Alexandria Life Sciences Center in Turtle Bay operates very close to New York University (although it has been embroiled in a construction-related scandal), and additional biotech facilities are located around Sunset Park and other boroughs in Brooklyn. is being constructed.
However, many of these developments represent one-off projects rather than elements of a robust, open scientific network like the one that has emerged in Harlem. “Instead of these opportunistic single projects, let's anchor our neighborhoods and have a real impact,” Metzner said, not out of touch with the realities of the life sciences industry. .
The pandemic and subsequent stock market shock hit startups hard, resulting in contraction across major life sciences markets. Similarly, Yardi Matrix report Overvaluation and oversupply of lab space has led Pfizer to close facilities in North Carolina, Seattle, New Jersey and other locations in the past two years. Life Sciences Cares executive director Elizabeth Fassberg said the company is struggling to raise funds because of industry layoffs nationwide.
The city's housing options are also an impediment to life science growth, as biotech doesn't lend itself to remote work. Also, this city is not classified as low cost, even in Harlem. “The housing situation in New York is the difference between winning and losing for biotech companies,” Brown said, noting that biotech workers aren't making billions of dollars.
Still, Harlem may be one of the most affordable places to live in Manhattan. From June to August of this year, the median asking rent in West Harlem was $3,500, compared to $4,500 for all of Manhattan, according to Urban Digs data. According to UrbanDigs, the median sales price in Manhattan was $1.68 million in the second quarter of 2024, compared to $1 million in West Harlem.
However, as lower housing prices bring with it the threat of gentrification, life sciences development risks prioritizing new talent over established communities. Among the residents of Harlem, spoken Opposing Columbia's West Harlem expansion. According to social service associationThe Black population in District 9, the community that includes West Harlem, decreased by 14 percent between 2010 and 2020, and the Latino population decreased by 10 percent during the same period.
still Janet Rodriguez, founder and CEO of the cultural nonprofit So Harlem, located in the Mink building, said that enough science nonprofits are working with young people to prioritize the interests of the Harlem community. I believe that we are working together. These nonprofits are making scientific organizations “understand that they have an obligation to not just rent space, but to be part of this community,” she said. “Are we producing graduates who live in the neighborhood and are qualified to do the job?'' Is there an employee training component?''
Many of these efforts are already happening in Harlem. Fassberg runs a citywide student program called “Science Day,” which is scheduled to be held at Metzner's Tasty Building in October. Similarly, Brown helps run student assistance programs at Harlem's Park East High School and Atmosphere Academy in the South Bronx.
“If you're going to build a biotech center in Harlem, it's very important that you don't displace residents,” Brown said. Ideally, biotechnology companies would also “serve their communities by providing jobs for local people and by encouraging people in those communities to train and work in the field of biotechnology.” can.”
Harlem is also seeking to attract scientific talent to balance life science development with community benefits. Attracting residents isn't just about jobs and housing, it's about the neighborhood as a whole, emphasizing the importance of local businesses.
From the 1988 African restaurant Massaw to the student-popular Plowshares, both new and established eateries are already adding vibrancy to Harlem. But Curtis Archer, president of the Harlem Community Development Corporation, said there is room for more growth. “All these things that are close to institutions of higher learning, like restaurants and shopping opportunities, really just enhance the potential of the community and enhance the culture,” Archer said.
These social aspects of neighborhoods represent a chicken-and-egg situation. Ancillary businesses can not only attract and retain a workforce, but also receive support from that workforce to continue operating. English said people want to live and work in a vibrant area, but Harlem still has a stigma that it's trying to shake off.
“People just need to understand that [Harlem’s] It’s not that far away,” Fassberg said. “It's not dangerous. It's a beautiful place and has beautiful people like any other part of the city.”
