The Urban League Empowerment Center, on 125th Street between Street between Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Avenue, will include the National Urban League’s headquarters, the Urban Civil Rights Museum Experience and the National Urban League Institute for Race, Equity and Justice, along with affordable housing, office space and retail space.
“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.”
Over the last several years, the National Urban League has turned down offers to relocate to other cities, including Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Chicago and others, Morial said.
“New York City is where we were born, and we’re proud that New York City is where we will stay,” he said. “We’re even more excited about the neighborhood economic development the building project represents.”
Tim Murphy, Chair of the National Urban League Board of Trustees, said the project epitomizes the organization’s mission of economic empowerment in communities of color.
“The Urban League Empowerment Center is aptly named, as it puts the League’s principle strategy of innovative collaboration among civic, public and private institutions into action,” Murphy said. “We look forward to being an active and constructive partner in Harlem’s fast-growing economic and cultural future.”
A formal groundbreaking will be scheduled in the near future. Completion is expected by late 2023.
The project is supported by Empire State Development, Homes and Community Renewal, and Harlem Community Development Corporation. The development is being led by BRP, L+M Development Partners, Taconic Partners, the Prusik Group, and Dabar Development. Private funding is being invested by Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, Red Stone Equity Partners, and Santander Bank, N.A. Additional partners include New York State Office of General Services, New York City Economic Development Corporation and Settlement Housing Fund, Inc.
