Harlem River Yards (also known as Harlem River YardAn Evaluation of New York’s Full Freight Access Program and Harlem River Intermodal Rail Yard Project
Benjamin Miller, CUNY Institute for Urban Systems, November 2005) is a waterfront industrial property located in the

Mott Haven Mott Haven is an American primarily residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of the Bronx. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are East 149th Street to the north, the Bruckner ...

and Port Morris neighborhoods of

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It is operated by Harlem River Yard Ventures, part of the Galesi Group, under a 99-year lease with the State of New York signed in 1991. The yard owes its name to the property's prior and current use as a freight rail yard. However, only a 28-acre portion of the site has been retained for intermodal rail use, with rail traffic to and from the yard limited to municipal solid waste shipment. Beginning in the late 1990s, Harlem River Yards has been the site of substantial commercial development, including a

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

printing plant, a waste treatment plant, and a

FedEx FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

distribution center.

History

Harlem River Yards was a 96-acre freight rail yard owned by the

Penn Central Railroad The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

, which in turn acquired the yard and associated lines in 1969 when it consummated a regulatory-induced, forced merger with the

New Haven Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

. When the Penn Central went into bankruptcy in the 1970s, the State of New York condemned the rail yard and placed it under the stewardship of the state's Department of Transportation. The yards were a key component of New York's Full Freight Access Program, a multi-decade effort to create manufacturing jobs by modernizing

rail freight transportation in New York City and Long Island From the start of railroading in America through the first half of the 20th century, New York City and Long Island were major areas for rail freight transportation. However, their relative isolation from the mainland United States has always pos ...

. This project involved raising vertical clearance on the rail lines along the east shore of the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

from the Albany area into

and

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

to accommodate Trailer on Flatcar (TOFC)

intermodal freight transport Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (e.g., rail, ship, aircraft, and truck), without any handling of the freight itself when changing ...

, and the construction of the

Oak Point Link The Oak Point Link, also known as the South Bronx–Oak Point Link, is a long railroad line in the Bronx, New York City, United States, along the east bank of the Harlem River. It connects the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line (on the Spuyten ...

. However, efforts to develop an intermodal rail facility at Harlem River Yards were frustrated due to multiple factors, including a lack of commercial interest and shifting political priorities. The Oak Point Link finally opened in 1998, but connected to a small intermodal facility at Harlem River Yards which used a small 28-acre portion of the site. In 1991, the State of New York entered into a 99-year least agreement with Harlem River Yard Ventures, a subsidiary of the Galesi Group, to develop and operate Harlem River Yards as a mixed-use industrial park. Harlem River Yard Ventures proceeded with industrial development of Harlem River Yards, with a New York Post paper printing and distribution facility built on the site in 1998, and FedEx distribution facility built on the site in 2007. In 2012, online grocery retailer

FreshDirect FreshDirect is an American online grocery company and among the first enterprises to sell and deliver perishable foods to consumers without maintaining a retail operation. Established in New York City, the company serves the New York metropolita ...

proposed moving its main food distribution hub from

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

to the Harlem River Yards. Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz, Jr. has said that he expects the new FreshDirect facility to create roughly 1,000 jobs in the Bronx over the next decade. However, some residents in the South Bronx protested the development and organized efforts to promote conversion of the Harlem River Yards into a park space. A lawsuit brought by a South Bronx advocacy group challenged the environmental review process for the FreshDirect facility, and also attempted to void the lease of the Harlem River Yards property to Harlem River Yard Ventures as well as Harlem River Yard Ventures' sublease of land to FreshDirect. This lawsuit was ultimately dismissed by unanimous appellate decision in 2014. Construction on FreshDirect's Harlem River Yards facility began in December 2014. In April 2018,

The Related Companies The Related Companies, L.P. is an American real estate firm in New York City, with offices and developments in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco, Abu Dhabi, London, São Paulo and Shanghai. Related has more than 3, ...

and

Somerset Partners ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

announced plans to build a mixed-use complex above the rail yard adjacent to the Willis Avenue Bridge. The development is planned to contain 1,779 apartments and a 26,000-seat stadium for

New York City FC New York City Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in New York City that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), the highest level of American soccer, as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. The club is co-owned b ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Bronx New York, New Haven & Hartford; Harlem Yard Float Bridges; Bronx, NY
Rail freight transportation in New York City Rail yards in New York (state) New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Transportation buildings and structures in the Bronx Mott Haven, Bronx Buildings developed by the Related Companies Multi-building developments in New York City

History

See also

References

External links