La Fortaleza Community Development Corporation

PROJECT REACH & SCOPE: La Fortaleza CDC’s hub is El Barrio/East Harlem. We extend our programming to other communities in North Manhattan and the South Bronx. Our scope of programming and influence encompasses the arts/ culture communities and radiates out into small businesses, community-based organizations, health & wellness, and other areas of community life.

MISSION: Our mission is to create small business opportunities and job preparedness to transform East 116th Street, East River to 5th Avenue, into a diverse business corridor centered in the arts & culture that influence surrounding neighborhoods generating skilled and unskilled employment while drawing professional services providers and new businesses. A second identified possible hub is Lexington Avenue, East 103rd Street to East 116th Street. Along this stretch were art centric cafes, artist galleries, cultural center, bookstores and service organizations. Both hubs intersect at 116th Street & Lexington Avenue.

DESCRIPTION: Puerto Ricans are the predominant Spanish speaking group in New York and the Northeast inherited a neighborhood in decline, El Barrio/East Harlem, and turned it into “La Cuna/the Cradle” of its Boricua community. La Fortaleza (the Fortress) is a group of vested community stakeholders and neighborhood investors. It is seeking to retain the rich multicultural, working-class, history of El Barrio/East Harlem, the loss of $500 million in local revenue, and define itself in terms of being resources and assets collaborating in branding the neighborhood as a small business art & culture hub.

VISION: The vision of La Fortaleza is to radically change El Barrio (East Harlem) and up-grade the quality of life, well-being, and standard of living of its residents and branding it into thriving ethnic community open to new cultural investments.

OBJECTIVE: La Fortaleza will realize its vision and accomplish its mission by using the arts & culture industries as economic engines and implement place-making strategies to create employment, recognize accomplishments and milestones, open performance and exhibition spaces, and provide much needed related services to the area. Through place-making, La Fortaleza will add value and importance to existing resources by bringing together various aspects of the community and initiate the process of economic development – greatly increasing consumer traffic visiting and patronizing Latino businesses. 

SUMMARY: La Fortaleza Community Development Corporation is El Barrio/East Harlem’s most experienced event planning development entity. We have conceived, planned, trained, employed & contracted, and met our goals of contributing to the local economy & cultural maintenance. We are poised to make achieve greater aspirations with access to new resources and support.