New Development 'Timbale Terrace' Touts 16,000 Sq. Feet 'Afro Latin Music & Arts Center' + 330-Unit Affordable Housing Complex

The Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, in partnership with Lantern Organization and Mega Development, announce today, along with the New York City Department of Housing Development and Preservation, plans to bring a new 16,000 square feet Afro Latin Music & Arts Center along with 330 affordable housing units to East Harlem.

The project, Timbale Terrace, will construct a new mixed-use development on the east side of Park Avenue between East 118th Street and East 119th Street (formerly a NYPD 25th Precinct Parking Site) with a performing arts center operated by the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance. Timbale Terrace will offer housing to low-income families while the Afro Latin Music & Arts Center will provide community programs, music and technical production training, after-school programs, free arts education classes, community event spaces, world-class live performances, and more.
"East Harlem is the community that best represents the mission of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, to use music as an entry point for service to the community and to reflect back to that community the beauty and ingenuity of its citizens," comments Arturo O'Farrill, Founder, Artistic Director, Afro Latin Jazz Alliance. "Partnering with the City of New York, the Lantern Organization and Mega Development is an opportunity to put theory into daily practice. We are honored to lock arms with these partners and serve the people of East Harlem in a manner designed by their needs. Timbale Terrace will be a place that welcomes all!"

"We feel that this is a historic moment for New York: to witness the creative connection between affordable housing and the performing arts in a way that enhances the life of people in our communities and specifically in East Harlem," adds Marietta Ulacia, Executive Director, ALJA. "The Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, in partnership with Lantern organization and Mega Development, is uniquely positioned to develop the first performing arts center dedicated to Afro Latin music and arts in East Harlem. ALJA's commitment to free educational programs, music performances, community engagement, and offering a recording studio, archival library, and café will be placed at the service of the community for the benefit of everyone."

"ALJA is very excited to be an integral part of the Timbale Terrace development to create a vibrant project that will be a resource for the entire East Harlem community," says James R. Wacht, President of Sierra Real Estate, ALJA board member and Head of the Education Committee. This project will allow the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance to expand our performance and educational programming, which currently enriches over 1,000 elementary, middle and high school students in underserved NYC public schools. Our Fat Cat youth ensembles will now have a permanent home that will enable us to attract an even more diverse and talented group of middle and high schoolers. The theater will become the new home for our seven-time, GRAMMY Award-winning Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra that has been performing at Birdland for the past 25 years."

For nearly two decades, the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance has served as a leading New York City cultural institution preserving the music and heritage of Afro Latin jazz. The opening of their very own Afro Latin Music & Arts Center affords an opportunity to advance a wider range of innovative Latin jazz programs to diverse communities across the metro area. Timbale Terrace consolidates and expands ALJA's varied initiatives offering comprehensive support to their close network of standout musicians and educators in the form of live performances, educational teaching ventures, individual artist grants, and an ability to participate in a citywide lottery for apartments at Timbale Terrace. 50% of the affordable units will be given a community preference status for residents who live in East Harlem (or served by the Community Board district of the project, Manhattan CB #11). Many teaching artists and musicians (with or without families) will qualify as Timbale Terrace applicants based on their household income.

Along with Lantern Organization and Mega Development, ALJA is eager to work with essential local arts and cultural groups such as Art For Change, the Association of Hispanic Arts, El Museo del Barrio, La Casa de la Herencia Cultural Puertorriqueña, Speaking In Rhythms, Taller Boricua PR Workshop, and many others.

ALJA's outstanding contributions to the arts and cultural sectors of New York City ensures that Latin jazz will be kept alive and well for generations to come to enjoy.

For more information regarding ALJA, please visit: afrolatinjazz.org