Harlem Nonprofit's New Home Takes Shape In Hamilton Heights

HARLEM, NY — In the past few years, Harlem residents have grown accustomed to shiny new apartment towers popping up in their neighborhood — but one project in Hamilton Heights aims to have a different sort of impact on the surrounding community.

The youth mentorship organization Brotherhood/Sister Sol wrapped up structural work last week on its new, six-story headquarters in Hamilton Heights, where it has been based since shortly after its founding in the mid-1990s.

The new building, dubbed the Bro/Sis Center, will replace the three-story brownstone on 143rd Street that housed the organization for 20 years until it was demolished in 2018 to make way for the new construction. Brotherhood/Sister Sol has raised more than $18 million for the new building, which is set to be completed in late summer 2021.

"We believe our young people deserve a wonderful beautiful building," executive director and co-founder Khary Lazarre-White told NY1 last year. "In the same way that there are wonderful, beautiful buildings for business and for real estate, so should there be for young people and education."

The hundreds of young people participating in Bro/Sis programs will enjoy a wealth of amenities in the new building: a music studio, a commercial-sized kitchen, a tech center with SMART boards and 3-D printers, and a rooftop basketball court sponsored by Kevin Durant. The organization will also have the space to hire up to two social workers.

Hamilton Heights residents will also benefit from the new space, according to John Dumey, the organization's director of development, who said Bro/Sis has long cultivated close relationships with its neighbors — including through its biweekly food giveaways.

The coronavirus crisis, Dumey added, has only highlighted the need for a stable community center that Harlem's young people can rely on.

"When complete it’s going to be not just a space for Bro/Sis to expand its efforts but sort of a beacon for the community and a beacon for young people," he said.