NEW YORK (December 15 2020) – Savills played a significant role in the National Urban League’s (NUL) recent decision to re-establish its presence in Harlem and relocate its headquarters to the neighborhood. Dubbed the Urban League Empowerment Center, the 17-story project located on 125th Street, between Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Avenue, will not only be home to NUL’s headquarters but also include the following:

• The Urban Civil Rights Museum Experience and the National Urban League Institute for Race, Equity and Justice
• 170 apartments of affordable and supportive housing
• Dedicated retail space on the ground floor

In 2011, Savills was officially tapped as an advisor to the NUL. At the time, the nonprofit was in leased space at 120 Wall Street. After a series of discussions, it became clear that NUL should return to its historic home in Harlem.

“Our team outlined to NUL’s leadership the benefits of ownership over leasing, especially in an environment where tax exempt lending allows for particularly low interest rates and the premises would be exempt from real estate taxes. This especially resonated with leadership, because NUL strongly advocates for individual home ownership,” said Ira Schuman, who consulted NUL alongside Savills colleagues Marc Shapses, Richard Eaddy and Kurt Handshumacher.

Savills was ultimately retained and scoured the Harlem area, walking every viable street in the neighborhood. The team identified an ideal site, a parking garage, owned by New York City and the State of New York that was not on the market. Savills encouraged NUL to propose to the government to put the site on the market, under the theory that a new national headquarters for an important nonprofit organization would be much more impactful to the neighborhood. Savills recommended that NUL propose a mixed-use facility including the aforementioned components, resulting in NUL’s proposal being selected and the nonprofit being awarded a 99-year lease to the property at a very nominal rent to build a new 420,000-square-foot building.

“We were introduced to NUL by the Alliance (Metropolitan Executive Alliance), of which I am the president, in 2007 and since then have developed a longstanding relationship with the organization. Over the course of several years, we worked closely with the executive team to assist NUL realize its longstanding goal of returning to Harlem. To see this project become a reality is extremely rewarding, considering what it means to the organization and the impact it will have on the community in-and-around Harlem,” said Shapses. 

“This project represents a major investment in the neighborhood where the National Urban League was founded,” National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial. “For more than a century, across the country, the National Urban League has worked to strengthen and vitalize urban neighborhoods through community investment. We’re pleased to be able to put those same guiding principles to work with our own future home.”

The Urban League Empowerment Center is being co-developed by BRP, Dabar Development, L+M Development Partners, Taconic Partners and the Prusik Group. As per NUL, the project’s office component has announced lease agreements with One Hundred Black Men of New York, the United Negro College Fund New York, and the Harlem-based Jazzmobile. In addition, Target recently announced a 44,000-square-foot lease for retail space. The project is expected to break ground in the near future and be completed in 2023.