Brownfield Cleanup for East Harlem Block Nears Reality

A historic East Harlem block that recently hosted a Pathmark grocery store and a Post Office, and which is now essentially a vacant pit, may soon undergo a brownfield cleanup.

A developer who paid $70 million for the vacant lot seemingly hopes that he’ll be able to erect a residential apartment complex there, if the cleanup plan that he proposed is okayed by the New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

At issue are the detection of “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, which can cause cancer and hormone disruption. They have been linked to long-ago manufacturing operations on the block.

The MTA is reportedly intending to use the rest of the empty block—otherwise known as 160 E. 125th St.—as part of its long-delayed Second Avenue subway expansion.

Both 180 and 160 E. 125th St. were owned by the development behemoth Extell until recently; they sold the 160 plot to the MTA for $82 million in 2023, and the 180 plot to the Brooklyn-based residential developer Jacob Schwimmer in 2024.

The entire block technically touches East 124th and 125th streets, between Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue, and saw bustling foot traffic until the cornerstone Pathmark supermarket closed in 2015; it fell victim to its parent company liquidating its assets. The business had opened in 1999, and was considered one of the chain’s flagship operations. The Post Office branch, which sat on East 124th Street, was in operation from 1957 until 2013.

Extell bought the 180 plot from the Postal Service for $10 million in 2014, before announcing plans to construct a nine-story office building there in 2020, which it was going to dub “Harlem Headquarters.”

The Pathmark was finally demolished in 2021, and by 2023 Extell had pivoted toward plans to build a 543-unit residential building on the site (instead of the office building), which was to include another grocery store. By 2024, Extell had made the sale to Schwimmer, who secured a loan for $155 million related to the site.

The 180 E. 125th St. plot will sit empty until the DEC green-lights the developer’s proposed cleanup of the site, which apparently is riddled with contaminants that predate all of the aforementioned transactional activity.

According to documents filed with the DEC, “the subject property was first developed as early as 1896 with multiple [two-to-four] story dwellings on the eastern portion of the subject property, a school on the southern portion of the subject property, and the northwestern portion of the subject property [undeveloped].” Maps from 1911 indicate that the school had eventually become a lodging house.

Some of the trouble, at least from a long-term environmental perspective, reportedly began in the 1950s. “The former lodging house and several buildings on the eastern portion of the subject property were labeled as [furniture],” the documents note. “Printing operations were indicated on the northern portion of the subject property.”

According to a summary issued by the DEC, the persistence of the infamous PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) may be linked to these furniture operations: “The introduction of products such as 3M’s Scotchgard, which was widely used as a stain repellent to protect fabric, furniture, and carpets . . . are a potential source of PFAS contamination on the Site.”

Other “contaminants of concern” include: semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), metals, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and chlorinated volatile organic compounds. However, these are apparently “characteristic of fill material found throughout New York City,” contrasting with the PFAS.

The proposal ended a public comment period on Aug. 9, meaning that the DEC is currently in the midst of a 45-day review period, which will end with the agency issuing a decision on whether the cleanup can move on.