125th Street Building Seized By MTA For Second Avenue Subway

The building, at 120 West 125th St. — between Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Malcolm X boulevards — is currently home to FINO, a men's clothing store.

Though it sits about a half-mile west of the new subway line's planned terminus at Lexington Avenue, the MTA is acquiring the 125th Street site because it plans to build an unspecified "ancillary facility" there, according to court records. (An MTA spokesperson told Patch that the property's exact use has not been determined, but said it will not be open to the public.)

On Wednesday, the MTA filed documents in state court laying out plans to take over the building, which is currently owned by a private landlord, M.K.K. Properties.

It is the first of more than a dozen property seizures that the MTA plans to make as it clears room for the subway — a power granted to it by the state's eminent domain law, which allows governments to take control of private land if it will be redeveloped for public use.

The other buildings slated to be seized are mostly along Second Avenue in East Harlem, where the MTA needs to build subway entrances and ventilation towers for the two-mile, $6.3 billion project.

After stalling for years, the plan to extend the Second Avenue subway to Harlem from its current terminus at 96th Street is finally advancing, thanks in part to anticipated funding from last year's federal infrastructure bill. It cleared another hurdle in January when the federal government moved it into the engineering phase, allowing experts to study its impact ahead of its eventual approval.

Once construction starts, it will take about eight years to build the new line, which will include stations at East 106th, 116th and 125th streets.

Last spring, Patch reported on a hearing that the MTA held to discuss its plan to seize privately-owned properties — most of which it hopes to achieve through "negotiated settlements" with owners, according to one MTA leader. Still, some owners pleaded with the agency to reconsider.

"Please don't take our property and let us continue with our development," said Peter Peccora, whose real estate company has sought for years to construct an apartment building on Second Avenue and East 120th Street — a project that would be canceled if the MTA seizes the land.

Once complete, however, the MTA says the Second Avenue subway's Harlem phase will be a boon to the city, serving around 100,000 daily riders and creating new access to the transit-starved East Side.

Related Second Avenue Subway coverage:

• Second Avenue Subway's Harlem Extension Clears Federal Hurdle
  
• Second Avenue Subway Extension Pushes Forward: See Underground
• 2nd Avenue Subway Extension Pushing On Into Harlem, MTA Says

Have a Harlem news tip? Contact reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.