Life under the tracks

New Yorkers have always had to be creative with space. Dimitri Gatanas’ family once operated their garden center atop a building in Manhattan in the '60s. After several moves and financial struggles over the years, Gatanas has since taken the business underneath the train tracks of the Metro North railroad in Harlem, a place owned by New York City that has no running water or electricity. Though that will change soon.

“We were desperate for the space, and we’re happy to be in the neighborhood,” says Gatanas. “We agreed to this even though it had a lack of services.”

What it does have is community support and vibrant energy.

The train roars overhead every 20 minutes or so at the store, located on Park Avenue between 116th and 117th streets. Pigeons gather on rafters above. But Gatanas has filled the space with tiny succulents, bright, bold annuals, perennials, houseplants, antique furniture and art to transform the 10,000-square-foot underpass and create his store and landscaping business, Urban Garden Center. And urban it is.

Chickens strut around in a coop under the tracks, and neighbors throw their scraps in a community compost bin, which helps feed the hens and is free for shoppers to use in their gardens. Customers buy soil by the cup at the Soil Bar. Gatanas uses antique wardrobes to display fertilizers and other sprays, a black and gold travel trunk to showcase blue and purple succulents and a fireplace mantle to decorate his greenhouse/indoor retail space, a hoop house that has been raised and modified with recycled materials, including wood recovered after Super Storm Sandy. Local artists’ work, the furniture and couch make the space feel more like a living room.

“I don’t know how often the train comes. The more I fill it with beautiful plants, the less people notice it,” he says loudly, yelling to be heard as another one rolls by. “We changed the feel of the space by having lots of beautiful plants around and lots of interesting, unique objects.”
 

Explosion derails season

March 15 is the first day of spring for Gatanas — that’s his kickoff date for the busy season.

Winter lasted longer and was harsher than in recent years, which set him back. But then on March 12, a building directly across the street from the center of his business exploded, nearly destroying everything Gatanas had built since he opened that location in 2011. The Harlem Blast was international news, and Gatanas couldn’t even access his building for a month to clean up because of the investigation.

Building debris and pieces of Gatanas garden center were smoldering and scattered everywhere. His greenhouse collapsed. Plants were blown across the space and toppled over. Windows across the street shattered from the power of the blast, and were still boarded up at the end of May. Dozens of businesses were impacted by the disaster. His office, housed in a used construction trailer across from the store between 117th and 118th streets, portable restrooms and his landscaping materials and equipment were spared.

But on a picturesque Memorial Day more than two months after the explosion, it appeared as though nothing had happened at the garden center. Staff mingled, reorganizing and watering plants and helping customers who started to trickle in. Chalk on the ground marked perennials and succulent sections and where to check out. Signs advertised the pig roast that features Korean fare and live music, Boar-rio and Harlem Seoul, which Gatanas hosts throughout the summer and fall. The train tracks serve as a stable roof, and it was not damaged in the event. Perhaps residing under that structure is what saved his business in the end. Gatanas has started working with local artists to create a permanent memorial using steel and wooden beams from the building that exploded to honor people, his friends and neighbors, who died.

Plants will grow out of a few openings on the beam, and names of those lost will be included.

“I wanted to depict the event and memorialize them in a classy way, something that people can touch and feel and enjoy,” he said, noting that the memorial will be visible from inside and outside of the store. “We never expected to be part of a tragedy, but it’s our responsibility to support the community and memorialize their lives.”
 

Roots in the neighborhood

Gatanas never planned to get involved in his family’s garden center business. His grandparents came from Greece in the '40s “with a typical $5-in-your-pocket story,” he says. They started with a flower shop and later expanded into a full-service garden center that moved several times.

But in 1999, Gatanas realized his grandmother couldn’t run the business by herself.

“I was planning on helping out for two weeks, and that turned into 15 years.”

That’s how long customer Edith Palmer has known Gatanas and the family. She shopped at the business when they were in the Bronx, and even though it required a tangle of transportation, it was worth it.

“They are so friendly, and they are so helpful. When you talk to them, it’s like you are asking a friend for something,” she says. Now the business is within walking distance for her, and Gatanas also does her landscaping. “Everyone there is like family.”

Gatanas' store is just across the street from La Marqueta, a historic space that got its start in the 1930s under the tracks between 111th and 116th streets that was once bustling with fish and fruit vendors. Over the years, there have been efforts to revitalize the area, and now there is a regular flea market operating right outside of Urban Garden Center.

Gatanas has also collaborated with local organizations to host events and workshops, some that are held regularly in the summer and fall, including Grow NYC’s Youth Farmers Market located outside of his store.

“Our business always brought in customers from other areas but not anymore. Right now Harlem is booming, and we haven’t been in a situation like this,” he says.

The fact that consumers are also gravitating toward local, eco-friendly products has been beneficial for business. But Gatanas wasn't trying to follow a trend.

He was trying to save money when he started upcycling found fountains and chairs with the help of local artists, or when he made a smoker for the pig roast out of cement blocks, or when he decided to sell beautiful wooden planters made out of recycled pallets.

Sourcing locally is also important to him. Gatanas gets his annuals, veggies and bedding plants from farms in New Jersey and New York, and his seeds are from a local vendor who grows them on a rooftop in Brooklyn.

“I built this with a green perspective at the right time because it was out of necessity,” he says. And regarding the events, “We decided our advertising dollars would be better spent investing in the community, and our community has come back and invested in us.” The city is also installing systems so that the store can finally have running water and electricity, which will be like “getting oxygen for the first time,” he says.

“I didn’t realize how much I loved this work until I got here.”

Blast images courtesy of Urban Garden Center, all others by Michelle Simakis