As a student graduated in Connecticut, Mino Lora wrote the thesis on the creation and production of a free and accessible theater in the Alto Manhattan for and about immigrants. Almost two decades later, the People’s Theater, who imagined and co -founded in 2009, will open its first permanent house in an unexpected place: a new apartment building in Inwood.
The Miramar, in West 206th Street between the ninth and tenth avenues, is a mixed and mixed -use rental located near the Harlem River in a neighborhood largely immigrant. The building, which is about to end and recently began to lease, is part of the $ 25 billion plan by Governor Kathy Hochul to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes throughout the state of New York. The multidisciplinary performing arts center is scheduled to open there in July 2026.
The Miramar takes its name from the outdoor salt water swimming complex that occupied the site from 1926 until it closed in 1969 and was replaced by a supermarket. Developers expect a good neighbor through their design, their association with cultural organizations and their mixed income model.
In 2018, a rewards plan, approved in Inwood that would largely remodel the industrial area of the east of 10th Avenue as part of the city’s effort to create and preserve the affordable housing units. Some residents opposed the plan, the wind would change the character and identity of the predominantly Dominican community.
“The neighborhoods with a community and the history so strong suspect a lot about what will come and how the dynamics of the neighboring bell would change the change,” said Colleen Wenke, president and director of Operations of Taconic Partners, which codified the Miramarh LMXD and MSQUARED.
The Miramar includes two connected buildings, and the entire complex extends almost a block. The facade uses three different colors of brick so that the site feels less excessive, said Cassie Walker, partner of Beyer Blinder Belle, who supervised the architecture.
The highest part of the complex reaches 17 stories, in cascade elsewhere to allow more sunlight. Together with the landscape terraces, the Miramar will have two patio gardens and a roof cover with grill stations and views of the Harlem River, a train courtyard and the multimillionaire row to the south of Central Park.
The comforts, available for all residents, will include an accessible room for all points of the building, as well as a pool room, a gym and a karaoke room. At the base, there is a retail space for six to nine stores, depending on how they are subdivided.
Mrs. Lora described the public theater space of the building, which cost $ 35 million to build and cover almost 20,000 feet, as a “civic, cultural and multigenerational center.”
The “flexible theater space” will have five to six different configurations that will sit between 99 and 208 guests, said Mrs. Lora, which means that she can adapt to music performances, dance, cinema and live theater. The Cultural Center, which will be called The People’s Theater: Immigrant Cultural Center, will also house an art gallery and a test space for musicians.
The city invested $ 15 million to help People’s Theater acquire the cultural center. The non-profit organization also received state funds and private donations, including $ 1 million of the Lin-Manuel Miranda family, the composer, actor, director and producer.
“The notion that Mino Lora could have an Uptown theater in Uptown Manhattan, where he has done incredible job with his team, was really very exciting for us,” said Miranda, who grew up in Inwood.
He added: “Seeing the artists who grew like me and who have remained and continue making art here is incredible gratifying.”
In a neighborhood like Inwood with deep cultural ties, the approach of a new development such as Miramar is “bringing new people, but also respecting what is there,” said Alicia Glen, the founder and managing director of MSQUARED, who served as attached mayor of the city of New York for housing and economic development from 2014 to 2019.
“It was doing the minimum amount of affordable homes,” he said. “It was doing more than we needed to do.”
Among the 698 units, ranging from studies to three bedrooms, 281 are available through the housing lottery for those that generate 40, 60 or 80 percent of the average area of the area. (The lottery closes on June 2). Another 10 percent are housing units of the workforce, or moderate income, 120 percent of the average income of the area. The remaining 50 percent is a market rate, with studies and rooms from a room that start at $ 3,100, two rooms at $ 3,900 and three rooms at $ 5,700. Corcoran is handling the lease. The first residents are scheduled to arrive in June.
“This will create well for many,” said Mrs. Lora. “And especially in the midst of neighborhood change, have our black and brown bodies and our young people acting and speaking in different languages, I think, it is essential to preserve the colors of our community.”
Sheelagh McNeill Contributed research.
