NYC developer behind One45 housing plan to open ‘social services hub’ alongside controversial truck depot

The real estate tycoon behind the on-again, off-again One45 housing project in Harlem is opening a “social services hub” next to the controversial truck depot he has been operating at the site since the development fell through, he told the Daily News on Thursday.

The hub will operate out of several vacant storefronts on the stretch of 145th St. between Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Blvds., where developer Bruce Teitelbaum has since 2021 tried to build a massive apartment complex containing more than 900 housing units.

Teitelbaum said he will pay for “the build-out costs” of the center, which is expected to be completed by Easter. Local nonprofits are then going to operate a food pantry out of there and also use it to offer clothing and counseling to people in need, he added.

“Now that pandemic-era SNAP benefits are being cut, the problem of food insecurity will only worsen and we want to help,” Teitelbaum said, referring to an increased food stamp allocation for low-income New Yorkers that expired earlier this month.

However, the new initiative does not mean Teitelbaum’s going to put the kibosh on his truck depot, which has drawn intense backlash from the Harlem community.

“It’s not only fully operational; it’s bustling,” Teitelbaum said of the depot. ”It is open, and it’s staying open.”

While operating the truck depot and the forthcoming social services center, Teitelbaum has another Uniform Land Use Review Procedure application pending before the city government to construct his One45 housing complex.

The new application includes roughly the same housing affordability levels though it has some additional apartment units baked into it, as reported by Patch earlier this month.

Teitelbaum opened the depot in January, months after he withdrew his One45 apartment complex proposal in the wake of local Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan vowing to block his development plan.

Unlike the housing complex, Teitelbaum could open the truck stop under current zoning rules. Community activists and politicians have been up in arms over it, as it’s bringing waves of big-rig truck traffic into a neighborhood that already has a disproportionately high rate of child asthma.

Richardson Jordan, a democratic socialist, said last year she’d fight tooth and nail to block Teitelbaum’s development application because the project’s housing affordability rates weren’t deep enough. Roughly half of the project’s units were supposed to be classified as affordable and set aside for middle- and low-income New Yorkers under Teitelbaum’s original proposal.

Richardson Jordan’s office did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

Teitelbaum said the social services center may become permanent, even if he ultimately gets the green light to develop the housing complex.

“The center will remain open to serve the needs of the community at least until a final decision is made about how the entire site will be developed,” he said.

Among the volunteers who are expected to make use of the social services space are Adama Bah of Team TLC NYC, a mutual aid group that has provided assistance to many of the city’s recently arrived migrants, and Rev. Walter Sotelo of NYC Love Kitchen, a food pantry.

“This community center is desperately needed, especially now when so many people can use a helping hand,” Bah and Sotelo said in a statement. “We will be able to help thousands of people because of the developer’s decision to do the right thing.”