The Human Part of The Story

+ The Lee Building

Author

The Harlem Neighborhood Block Association
August 03, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

At the end of the year, we posted a piece on the history of the Lee Building and how it came to have New York State’s largest methadone program. One of our readers wrote in with the following:

I read the story about the Lee Building. It can be summarized thus: Gene Giscombe acquired the building, rented it to the methadone clinic, collected 58 million dollars, and died.

The human part is missing from the story. This is the story of a man who purchased a building in Harlem for about 40K. All the floors in the building's interior were in poor repair and loaded with garbage. I know because I saw it. I was there. Gene's commercial real estate business at the time I came to Harlem was called Giscombe Henderson Inc. It was located in the building on the 11th floor. I was a licensed real estate salesperson. My previous experience was not in Harlem and was only residential.  I remember him saying, "We only do Commercial Real Estate here." I said, having no idea what commercial real estate was, "GREAT." That is where my commercial career began, and I am most grateful for the opportunity. 

Those of us on the 11th floor had to share an old-school elevator that had a gate with the patients who were in the methadone program, the tenant he inherited.  The agreement was that Beth Israel would move to the side of the building after an agreed-upon number of years and build a private entrance and elevator dedicated to the program. 

The hard part:

Missing from the story was the years of struggle to bring the property from a dump, valued at 40K to a fully rented commercial building with modern passenger elevators, fully rented offices, a lobby attendant, art, and security, valued at what I understood to be 48 Million Dollars. Little by little, year by year, as we did deals in the community, Gene poured his money into improvement and renovation and getting new office tenants.  Gene was a tough but, steadfast and even fun at times, leader. 

He had to take Beth Israel to court to get them to abide by the terms of the lease to move to the side. I was called as a witness to the negative impact on our business (especially the elevator situation) and the inability to attract new business tenants. After many years of hard work and gradual upgrading. (new floors, walls, ceilings, lighting, boiler, AC, elevators, lobbies, windows, exterior work). Gene sold the building. 

The sad part: Two months after the 48 Million dollar sale, Mr Giscome died. RIP Gene.

  • Yvonne Stafford, Commercial Leasing and Sales Specialist

  • Stafford Realty Group Inc. [email protected]

Here is the Original Post:

The building where Mount Sinai runs methadone distribution is called “The Lee Building,” and the history of that naming is described here:

“The most interesting transaction in a great many years in Harlem has just been closed. It involves the sale of the Lee Building on the northeast corner of Park Avenue and 125th Street. This is a twelve-story fireproof office and warehouse building on plot 90 by 100. … The Lee Building was originally owned by the Pittsburgh Life Insurance Company who, in 1913, leased it for twenty-one years to Lee Brothers Storage and Warehouse Company, a young and growing concern. On the failure of the Pittsburgh Life Insurance Company, this property, among other assets, was taken over by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, who, in 1922, sold to Lee Brothers. Originally the building was almost entirely used for furniture storage, but gradually Lee Brothers have converted about a third into offices, with retail stores on the ground floor. …” (NYT 3 May 1925, pg. RE17).

The building changed hands, and eventually became an office building:

“A syndicate represented by Robert B. Bowler bought from Lee Brothers the twelve-story structure at the northeast corner of 125th Street and Park Avenue, opposite the Harlem station of the New York Central. … The sellers are furniture dealers, who occupy the lower section of the building. They purchased the property in March, 1922… It was built by the Hamilton Storage Company and was later converted into offices.”

By the late 60s and 70’s The Lee building was on the verge of collapse and unable to secure an anchor tenant. David Rockefeller (NYS Governor), Fred Samuels, and Charles Rangel (Harlem politicians) approached Mr. Giscome who was then the Chair of Community Board 10 with an idea to move a methadone program from the East Village to East Harlem.

The deal was for him to accept the program and they would give him the building on 125th and Park Avenue, with the help of Webb and Broker who at the time were the biggest realtors in Harlem.

At first Giscome didn't like the idea because the building had over 40K in violations, but the men involved believed that the deal could work and that Community Board 11 would look the other way regarding deals near or above 125th Street.

Once the methadone program (and government-secured

funding) was in place as The Lee Building’s anchor tenant (then run by Beth Israel) they arranged for a Bank loan for about 50K to take care of the violations.

Before his death Giscome sold the building for 54 Million.

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