Football Hall of Famer and Dancing With The Stars champion Emmitt Smith will be trying his hand at Manhattan real estate: The Wall Street Journal reports that the New York City Capital Resource Corp has approved his and other investors' plan to ask for almost $20 million in tax-exempt federal financing to build a $80 million luxury hotel and retail space at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue.
Last week, the WSJ dropped the news that Smith's ESmith Legacy group was looking to develop the lot, "Plans call for ground- and second-floor retail space that will include a Whole Foods. The majority of the third and fourth floors are slotted for a new YMCA and a cultural group." The NYC Economic Development Corporation's spokesman David Lombino said, "This project would transform a long-vacant site in a vibrant commercial corridor into much-needed hotel and retail space, along with amenities for the community, creating hundreds of permanent and construction jobs."
However, there's some wariness: Rep. Charles Rangel said, "I've been brokenhearted more than these things have come to reality. Bottom line, if it creates jobs, they will have my full attention." There is still a hearing and formal board vote in in the next months; the WSJ adds, "To receive the financing, construction must begin by year's end."
