New York –The Janus Property Company is pleased to announce the newest addition to the mixed-use Manhattanville Factory District (MFD) in West Harlem, New York. Communitas America recently executed a 10-year lease for the entire fifth floor of Building 3 in the recently completed Malt House on West 126th Street, east of Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan. The floor contains approximately 7,200 RSF of newly constructed, high-ceiling, column-free space.
Communitas America will take a critical step in the newest expansion of its entrepreneurial ecosystem and will create its first North American accelerator at the Malt House. Known as “Heyground” and modeled after two successful precursors (https://medium.com/@urwellxcome/a-good-space-created-by-a-good-heart heyground-14135a66d00d) in South Korea, the new lease will allow for a comfortable and inviting space for social innovation and collaboration. Communitas America joins SoHarlem, the highly-regarded cultural industries incubator next door at the Mink Building, in creating and expanding opportunities for New York’s artisans and entrepreneurs.
Communitas America was recently designated a New York State-certified Business Incubator along with Cornell Technology Park and Mount Sinai Innovation Partners by the New York State Empire State Development Division of Science, Technology & Innovation.
“From the beginning of an idea to delivery to the marketplace, New York State supports start-up innovation and inclusion. As New York’s newest business incubators, Communitas America, Cornell Technology Park and Mount Sinai Innovation Partners will foster the diversity and growth of BIPOC entrepreneurs, agribusiness and medical technology startups, and add to the robust resources available to support their success.” said Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight.
“The Malt House location will be a dynamic business accelerator built for entrepreneurs who have important ideas on how to impact today’s most complex social issues. It will provide visibility and resources for tomorrow’s leaders and their projects and focus predominantly on social impact sectors, specifically concentrating on entrepreneurship in the areas of education, health and well-being, economic justice, digital and racial equity and arts and culture.” said Sunmoon Jang, Executive Director of Communitas America.
“Communitas’ West Harlem Heyground will highlight the extraordinary architectural features of the Malt House and feature expansive ceiling heights, flexible offices and open spaces that will drive community participation in a wide variety of formats including socializing, small team and individual workspaces, lectures, films and live events,” added Scott Metzner, President of the Janus Property Company, developer of the Malt House and the 1.3 million RSF Manhattanville Factory District. The space will be designed by Sebastian Quinn Building Workshop, which has completed numerous projects in the Factory District.
The Malt House, located on West 126th Street between Amsterdam and Morningside Avenue in West Harlem’s Manhattanville Factory District, has been completely re-imagined and re-built by Janus while preserving and enhancing the building’s iconic exterior. The preserved building development includes an approximately 100,000 RSF new construction build-over and landscaped courtyards connecting West 125th
Street and the Taystee Lab Building to 126th Street, 127th Street and 128th Street, the Malt House, City College, and the A, B, C, D subway. The Malt House is also located just a block and a half from Columbia University and the #1 train. The project’s lead architect was Gluck+ Architects, with extensive coordinated landscaping, recently highlighted in Architectural Digest, by TerrainWork.
In addition to the Malt House, the 1.3 million square foot Factory District includes the 150,000 RSF Mink Building, the 50,000 RSF Sweets Building, the newly completed 350,000 RSF purpose-built Taystee Lab Building, multi-family rentals and Plowshares Coffee Roasting and Café, as well as several additional future development sites. Beginning at Amsterdam Avenue and spanning from West 125th to West 128th Streets, the contiguous campus includes extensive public and private outdoor amenity space. Each component of the campus has been carefully designed to tailor to the context of the surrounding neighborhood, while bringing new uses and a revolutionary walkable innovation campus to one of New York’s friendliest and most dynamic neighborhoods.
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