Bronx Development [Archive] - Wired New York Forum

krulltime

July 14th, 2004, 02:45 PM

Development spurt bridges the gaps on Bruckner Blvd.
Cheap, accessible area becomes chic

By Tommy Fernandez
July 12, 2004

When stockbroker Sherman McCoy was waylaid along Bruckner Boulevard in the novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, all he encountered was a wasteland filled with thugs.

If the Tom Wolfe character were to stop on the boulevard now, he'd be able to buy a sofa or a 6-foot-tall Buddha. Perhaps he'd stop by Thrift World Antiques to pick up some 1930s crockery signed by the artist. "Some would call the pots jardineres," says Mary Brimage, who owns the store at 122 Bruckner.

Yuppie love

After about a decade of steady gentrification, developers are revving up for a flood of McCoys by this winter as the city completes its two-year renovation of the Third Avenue Bridge. Stores, restaurants and upscale apartments are sprouting to serve the yuppies discovering the allure of the southern tip of the Bronx.

"There is quite a bit going on in this area now," says Neil Pariser, senior vice president of the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. "It has become quite a haven for artists and other pioneering professionals."

The projects catering to them are ambitious. At 112 Lincoln Ave., the 170,000-square-foot former clock tower will have 80 live/work lofts ready to rent next month. The developer, Carnegie Management, will have another 125 ready by spring.

Across the street, a 100,000-square-foot piano factory at 26 Bruckner was recently transformed into a high-tech office building with 4,000 square feet of retail space. The developer, Bradford N. Swett Management, is finishing a building at 14 Bruckner that will provide 40,000 square feet of commercial space, says principal Christopher Doyle.

"It's far easier, and cheaper, for any business to service the northern tip of Manhattan from here than probably anywhere else," says Mr. Doyle, whose firm owns eight properties along the boulevard.

The first enterprises to settle in the neighborhood during the late 1980s were adventurous antique dealers, driven out of Manhattan by high rents. They were followed by a steady stream of artists yearning for big places in which they could both live and create. When the city rezoned the area for mixed use five years ago, even more businesses were able to enter this burgeoning SoHo of the South Bronx.

It doesn't hurt that the boulevard enjoys traffic levels of more than 50,000 cars a day, according to Mr. Pariser. The bridge renovation project has closed off traffic in one or both directions along the boulevard for much of the past two years, however, and businesses had to weather some slow seasons.

Yvette Hernández, manager of Famous Deli Grocery at 40C Bruckner, says that shutdowns made it hard for regulars to reach her store. "Coming to us and going back would take them 45 minutes-traffic would just be so horrible."

The temporary traffic problems didn't dampen developers' enthusiasm for the area, though. Carnegie Management principal Isaac Jacobs says that professionals are streaming onto Bruckner because of escalating residential rents elsewhere.

"Manhattan is priced out; so is Williamsburg, Brooklyn," he says. "Artists and people who work in midtown and uptown still want someplace close."

Neighborhood rents remain comparatively cheap, but the bargains are quickly disappearing. The lofts at Carnegie's clock tower range from $975 to $1,800 a month.

Rents rising

Commercial rents at area buildings range from $10 to $18 per square foot. These are a far cry from the average of $6 per square foot prevalent just a few years ago. The hikes have been high enough to drive away some businesses, like New York Princess Knitwear Inc.

Throughout the area, locations are being gobbled up so quickly that Mr. Pariser's group is having a hard time finding cheap vacant space to develop as parking for the area. "We don't have the luxury of vacant lots on Bruckner anymore," he explains. "It's a landlord's market now."

Copyright 2004, Crain Communications, Inc

RedFerrari360f1

July 14th, 2004, 02:52 PM

Whats going on with that new bridge up in the Bronx?

krulltime

July 15th, 2004, 01:57 AM

Pathmark Grocery Store Opens In New Horizons Retail Center In The Bronx

JULY 14TH, 2004

New Yorkers will finally be able to do some shopping at a new Pathmark in The Bronx and locals say it's long overdue.

The grocery store opens Friday inside the New Horizons Retail Center in the Crotona Park neighborhood.

Because of construction problems and delays, the shopping center is millions of dollars over budget and two years behind its original opening date, but developers say the wait will be will worth it.

NY1's Dean Meminger has more from the Crotona Park section of the Bronx.

It's finally time to do some shopping at a new Pathmark in the Bronx, and it's a long time overdue. The store opens this week inside the New Horizons Retail Center, developed by a local community group.

“Typically, this size shopping mall in an urban area has one or two anchor stores and up to 10 stores. This mall has 20 stores,” says Cicero Wilson of the Mid-Bronx Desperadoes.

The size of the mall caused big headaches for the developers. Because of construction problems and delays, the mall's price tag is at least $10 million over the initial budget of $30 million, and the opening is two years behind schedule.

When NY1 visited the site last summer, there were plenty of dirt mounds and unfinished stores, and it was a big target for graffiti artists.

But in spite of the problems, funders stayed on board.

“We had to keep going. We had 20 stores that kept their leases,” says Denise Scott of the Local Initiative Support Corporation. “Pathmark actually added $1 million to the investment site.”

Bringing Pathmark and other big business into this Bronx neighborhood is not only about making money for businesses, it's also about helping local residents with jobs. The leases the stores sign state they must hire local residents.

“This is like my first real job,” says Pathmark employee Omari Lowely. “Pathmark gave me a chance to gain experience.”

Along with Pathmark, Petland, Popeye's Chicken and Washington Mutual Bank are just some of the tenants opening.

“It is absolutely great for me. I live 15 minutes from this community,” says Bethzaida Hernandez, who works at Washington Mutual.

The New Horizons Center is located on East 176th Street off Boston Road.

Copyright © 2004 NY1 News.

Gulcrapek

October 13th, 2004, 08:50 PM

1011 Washington Avenue

http://www.lmequity.com/portfolio/new.php?pid=39

http://www.lmequity.com/images/dynamic/Washington-2.JPG

"Construction will begin on this 136 unit apartment building, located on Washington Avenue between 164th and 165th Street, in July 2004. This project is being financed through HDC's new LAMP program and will include 8,000 square feet of retail space."

NoyokA

October 13th, 2004, 10:06 PM

I wonder why they made the sky so dark in that render? Its not a bad looking building.

krulltime

January 14th, 2005, 11:27 AM

NYC Housing Authority Takes 62,000 SF at Hutchinson Metro

http://www.globest.com/newspics/nyc_1200waters.jpg

By Barbara Jarvie
Last updated: January 13, 2005 07:57am

BRONX, NY-After a four-year search, the New York City Housing Authority signed a 20-year lease for 62,000 sf at the Hutchinson Metro Center here. This marks a consolidation of employees from three Bronx locations to a single floor.

Hutchinson was originally set on 18.5 acres, the center currently has 460,000 sf of class A office space. Approximately 115,000 sf of space remains available in the first building. Owner Simone Development Cos. has purchased an additional 24.5 acres on site, creating an as-of-right opportunity for an additional 640,000 sf of office space. The $60-million first phase is expected to generate between 2,500 and 3,000 new jobs for the borough.

Cushman & Wakefield brokerage professionals Tara Stacom, executive vice president, Matthew Astrachan, executive director, and Shawna Menifee, associate director, arranged the transaction. “The opportunity that the Hutchinson Metro Center presents really didn't exist in the Bronx previously,” says Stacom. Asking rents in the complex are in the low $30s per sf.

NYCHA joins Mercy College, which recently opened its new 130,000-sf Bronx campus at the site and the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, which consolidated its Bronx offices to 50,000 sf. The Metro Center parcel, formerly the Bronx Psychiatric Center site, is located directly off the Hutchinson River Parkway in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx. The land was purchased in 2001 from the state through the Empire State Development Corp. by Hutch Realty Partners LLC. It is the first class A office complex to be built in the Bronx in more than a decade.

© 2005 by GlobeSt.com, LLC.

alex ballard

February 25th, 2005, 08:48 PM

How is the South Bronx progressing in it's comeback? What's going on with this "Gateway Center" going up at the Market? And is the Bronx booming with new development like the other boroughs?

NoyokA

March 2nd, 2005, 01:10 PM

Acadia Doubles Retail Redevelopment

http://www.globest.com/newspics/nyc_400eastfordhamroad.jpg

Tuesday, March 1, 2005
By Barbara Jarvie

GlobeSt.com

BRONX, NY-In a conference call, White Plains-based Acadia Realty Trust said costs for a redevelopment here at 400 East Fordham Rd. have blossomed to between $60 million and $70 million, instead of the $35 million to $40 million originally estimated for the effort, which is part of the firm’s urban infill concentration. The company is also in negotiations for two additional sites in the city.

"There is strong tenant demand," said Kenneth F. Bernstein, Acadia’s president and CEO. "National retailers are underrepresented here." The footprint will be larger and the scope expanded. The company is in negotiations for two more redevelopment projects, one in Northern Manhattan and the other in Brooklyn.

"We’re building a nice pipeline for future growth," Bernstein continued. These projects are expected cost approximately $100 million, as well. Its second project is a $30-million to $35-million effort in Pelham Manor. The company entered into a 95-year ground lease for a 16-acre site which will be redeveloped into a multi-anchor community retail center.

The site at 400 East Fordham Rd. is currently home to a Sears, whose lease expires in 2007. Sears has been in the site near Fordham University for 40 years. According to New York City statistics, Fordham Road is the strongest retail area in the borough and is the third largest retail corridor in all of New York City, with over 650,000 people in a two-mile radius and annual retail sales in excess of $500 million.

Acadia sees the potential for retailers not already established in the Bronx such as Target, Kohl’s, Office Max, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy and Wal-Mart. "The Fordham Road redevelopment is the first of what we expect will be several New York urban/infill redevelopment projects that we plan to execute with P/A Associates," Bernstein added.

Acadia acquired the site here through Acadia Strategic Opportunity Fund II LLC. The fund II, which has $300 million of committed discretionary capital, was established to acquire up to $900 million of real estate assets on a leveraged basis as well as invest in Acadia's Retailer Controlled Property Venture with the Klaff Organization. Upon completion of the redevelopment, it is anticipated the project will earn an unleveraged yield in excess of 10%.

During the third quarter, Acadia completed its first investment through the RCP venture. Approximately $23.2 million was invested by Funds I and II into an affiliate of Lubert-Adler/Klaff, which is part of the investment consortium, along with Sun Capital Partners, Inc. and Cerberus Capital Management LP that acquired the 257 store Mervyn's department store chain from the Target Corp. for $1.2 billion.

On a year-over-year basis, Acadia increased its portfolio occupancy by 470 basis points. Year-end 2004 occupancy was 92.3% compared to 87.6% at year-end 2003 and 86.3% for 2002. Same store net operating income for the retail portfolio increased 3.9% for annual 2004 over 2003. During 2004, Acadia executed new and renewal leases totaling 640,000 sf, or 9% of the retail portfolio at an average increase of 9% over the previous base rents on a cash basis.

Kris

March 6th, 2005, 12:26 PM

March 6, 2005

LIVING IN

The Sound of Construction

By NANCY BETH JACKSON

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/03/04/realestate/06livi.583.jpg
Hundreds of apartments and town houses have been built in Melrose Commons. New buildings, above, under construction on East 159th Street.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/w.gifHEN Paul Newman starred as John Murphy, a police officer, in "Fort Apache, the Bronx" in 1981, he patrolled a burned-out wasteland, a hostile landscape inhabited by junkies, winos, pimps, hookers, cop killers and killer cops.

Today, the tourists who come to see where the movie was filmed find a far different neighborhood. In the last five years, urban decay has been replaced by new houses and apartments.

Melrose Commons, a 35-block area in the South Bronx, still has plenty of vacant lots, but the mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood is abuzz with construction. Retail space, until recently limited to a handful of mom-and-pop shops, rented for $7 to $11 a square foot a year in the mid-1990's. A 1,300-square-foot C-Town supermarket in a 124-unit moderate-income rental building opening late next summer will pay $19.90.

According to the 2000 census, nearly 7,000 people lived in Melrose as the new housing came out of the ground. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development anticipates that about 3,000 housing units will have been added by the time Melrose Commons is fully developed at the end of the decade. New construction could add around 10,000 residents to the neighborhood, estimated Petr Stand, a principal at Magnusson Architecture and Planning who has been involved in the development for 13 years.

The change was accomplished through the efforts of a local neighborhood group, Nos Quedamos/We Stay, a coalition of residents and shopkeepers who refused to be bulldozed by an urban renewal plan with no place for them.

The founder and executive director of the group, Yolanda Garcia, died last month. Her daughter, Yolanda Gonzalez, has been named executive director and will continue what her mother started 13 years ago.

In an interview not long before she suffered a fatal heart attack at age 53 in her modest storefront office, Ms. Garcia recalled how the neighborhood rebirth began.

Ms. Garcia, whose family owned a carpet store on Third Avenue, was among the mostly Hispanics and African-Americans who stuck it out while the South Bronx burned, only to learn by chance in 1992 that the city planned to displace them to make room for 2,600 middle-income residential units. Without being consulted in the nine years the plan was under study, 78 homeowners, 400 tenants and 80 businesses were to be priced out of their own neighborhood where the median income was under $12,000.

"You can't fight City Hall," her brother German, now deceased, told her then.

"Yes, we can," she replied.

The mobilization that followed - at one point meetings were held 188 times in six months and meetings are still scheduled weekly - taught people to make themselves heard and how to navigate the system. In the end, the city's plan was scrapped, replaced by a development vision that recognized environmental and health issues, good design and community involvement.

The real estate in question had a large concentration of city-owned property about equidistant from Midtown Manhattan and suburbs in Westchester, Connecticut, Long Island and New Jersey and good transportation by bus, train, express subways and roads. Yankee Stadium and the Bronx Courthouse are to the west. An industrial zone and Metro-North's Melrose station are on the northern edge. Third Avenue leads south to the Hub, the district's historic commercial center at 149th Street.

Melrose began as a German village in the 1850's. Population took off with the Third Avenue elevated train. By the 1920's the Hub bustled with shops, movie theaters and burlesque houses filled with Italian, Russian-Jewish and Irish immigrants as well as Germans. Before the white flight to the suburbs in the 1960's, Melrose Avenue was known as "the Broadway of the Bronx" with flower shops, delicatessens, funeral homes and at least two German bakeries.

By 1994, a German Methodist church, built in 1878, had succumbed to urban blight. Although stained-glass windows with memorials in German survived, the church organ had been cannibalized and the sky could be seen through the roof when the Rev. Eddie Lopez Jr. merged three small Spanish-speaking Methodist congregations. Inspired one Easter morning, he suggested the church be renamed Silesia la Resurreccion, reinaugurated after a half-million-dollar renovation.

The neighborhood's resurrection is well under way, too, beginning with Plaza de Los Angeles, 35 three-family town houses, which sold out five years ago. First-time homeowners with annual incomes of $32,000 to $70,000 paid at an average of $320,000 with government subsidies to encourage long-term ownership. La Puerta de Vitalidad, the first affordable-housing rental building, soon followed. Other rental apartments, including a senior residence, have been added.

Two additional rounds of subsidized town houses have been completed with more ownership projects to come. Under the city's New Foundations program, which encourages home ownership by transferring public lots to private ownership after a competitive process, private developers have begun building affordable housing on private land. Poko Partnerships, a real estate developer from Port Chester, N.Y., recently sold 10 town houses still under construction on Courtlandt Avenue. The average price of the subsidized three-family homes was $480,000.

The best source of housing availability is the Department of Housing Preservation and Development's Affordable Housing Hotline at 311 and at the Web site www.nyc.gov/hpd (http://www.nyc.gov/hpd). The site notes that a 110-unit building, under construction on Melrose Avenue, is accepting applicants for rentals, from $542 for a one-bedroom to $920 for a three-bedroom. Tenants will be chosen by lottery.

Robert Roman, who runs a small construction company, was sweeping the sidewalk one recent winter morning in front of the town house he and his wife, Diana, bought in 2003 after participating in a lottery. The block of town houses replaced a community garden, but Mr. Roman, who began renting in the neighborhood in 1987, thought it a more than fair exchange. A first-time homeowner, he is also a first-time landlord.

The new housing will mean a better community, he said. "We will pay more taxes and have more police protection," he said. Subsidy provisions prevent him and other town house owners from selling for at least five years and offer incentives for staying even longer, but he doesn't mind the restrictions. "I have no plans to move anytime soon," Mr. Roman said.

Ms. Garcia wanted more than roofs over people's heads. Mr. Stand of Magnusson Architecture recalls that she pushed good design to encourage people to identify with their buildings and insisted that owner-occupied town houses and rental apartments for the previously homeless share the same block. She encouraged everyone in the neighborhood to keep an eye out to make sure that construction was carried out as promised.

Environmental issues were addressed as Nos Quedamos explored reclaiming rainwater to wash down sidewalks or water landscaping. It was the local sponsor for New York State's first "green" affordable housing development, 30 three-family town houses called Sunflower Way I, completed in 2002.

Designed by Danois Architects, they sold for an average of $289,000 to buyers, also chosen by lottery, earning $41,258 to $75,000. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development recognized the project for excellence last year after buildings operated at or below energy use that had been predicted before construction. Sunflower II, completed in late 2003, added 41 town houses.

Because her son, Ismail Gonzalez, had died at age 25 from asthma, which is more common in the South Bronx than in most other New York neighborhoods, Yolanda Garcia was committed to building healthier buildings. She encouraged designs that impede the growth of mold.

Nos Quedamos promotes landscaping and small neighborhood parks, but an ongoing dispute in the community is the future of nearly two dozen pocketsize community gardens established when the neighborhood was in decay. Several gardens have been replaced by affordable housing.

After housing, education is the most important issue in the neighborhood. Mr. Roman, the construction company owner, wants "to do a little better" for his daughters Rose, 12, and Michelli, 5, who attend Public School 29, a few blocks down Courtlandt, but he thinks they are getting "a not bad education."

Built in 1962 as an elementary school, Public School 29 now is pre-kindergarten though sixth grade with seventh and eighth scheduled to be added by 2007. The school recently was removed from the state's list of schools in need of improvement, but last year only 31 percent of the students met or exceeded the English Language Arts test standards and about 42 percent met math standards. Rhonda Ross Kendrick, an actress and the daughter of the singer Diana Ross, has helped with an after-school drama program, but Insideschools.org (http://insideschools.org/), an independent Web guide to New York City public schools, reports that "academic achievement has a way to go."

South Bronx High, which had one of the worst reputations in the city, was replaced three years ago by the South Bronx Educational Campus, made up of three smaller schools: Mott Haven Village Prep, New Explorers and the Academy for Careers in Sports.

While streets are not crime free, local precincts reported a 65 to 70 percent drop in crime in the last 12 years.

One of Ms. Garcia's unrealized dreams was a town center around the 42nd Precinct station house in the northeast corner of Melrose Common that would include new schools, a green market and a pedestrian mall. Although that hasn't happened yet, Boricua College has proposed a campus there.Those who own businesses are optimistic about the changes under way. Paulo Delconte, 67, who immigrated to Melrose from Trieste, Italy, as a teenager, was among the shopkeepers who stayed, keeping his convenience store at the corner of 157th and Melrose Avenue open even in the worst of times.

"The housing is going to come back," he said. "It's going to be good for me, good for everyone." He plans to add a delicatessen with his favorite recipes for eggplant, veal and meatballs.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/03/04/realestate/06map184.jpg

Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

alex ballard

March 6th, 2005, 03:30 PM

Is there heat in the house market of the Bronx? What's going on in the more suburban areas to the north and east? Also, any news about the Gateway Ceter at the market?

billyblancoNYC

March 10th, 2005, 02:24 AM

HOME DEPOT TO BUILD BRONX WAREHOUSE
http://www.cityfeet.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?PartnerPath=&Id=11131

By Lois Weiss
Wednesday, March 09, 2005 - Home Depot has picked a spot on E. 132nd St. in the Bronx for a new warehouse and distribution project and is seeking city and state benefits.
Home Depot has picked a spot on E. 132nd St. in the Bronx for a new warehouse and distribution project and is seeking city and state benefits. The project is slated for the Harlem Yards area that is owned by the State of New York.

-------------------------------

March 09, 2005
Home Depot seeks $36M for Bronx facility
by Wendy Blake
http://www.crainsny.com/news.cms?id=10122

Home Depot is seeking about $36 million in tax-exempt bond financing to help it build a warehouse, distribution and fulfillment center in the Port Morris section of the Bronx.

According to sources familiar with the situation, Home Depot is eyeing a parcel of land at East 132nd Street in Port Morris, which is zoned for industrial development. A public hearing will be held April 7 on its proposal. The city’s Industrial Development Agency issues triple-tax-exempt bonds which are in turn privately underwritten, enabling companies to get lower-cost financing for projects.

Critics of big-box retailers are gearing up for a fight. Bettina Damiani, project director of advocacy group Good Jobs New York, says her organization is looking into whether Home Depot would be eligible for other types of incentives, including Empowerment Zone and Empire Zone benefits.

NoyokA

March 10th, 2005, 04:03 PM

Globe Street:

City Adds $27M for Hunts Point Economic Development
By Barbara Jarvie
Last updated: March 8, 2005 07:37am

HUNTS POINT, NY-To spur business development here, the city has committed an initial investment of $27 million to implement the Hunts Point Vision Plan. The city has already invested $110 million at the Hunts Point Fish and Produce Markets. The goals of the Hunts Point Vision Plan includes developing new waterfront parks, improving traffic safety, upgrading street lighting, repaving streets and improving the rail freight lines serving the area.

“It’s also true that this part of the city can be doing better,” says Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “This new vision of Hunts Point will attract and grow businesses, put people to work and make the community a more vibrant place to live.” The Hunts Point Peninsula has an area of approximately 690 acres, with almost half made up of the 329-acre Food Distribution Center. Much of the New York region is fed by the center, which has more than 115 wholesalers that generate revenue of more than $3 billion a year. There are a number of new developments in the center including the opening of the $85-million Fulton Fish Market this spring and the already developed $25-million Produce Market.

The Department of City Planning will rezone the area to encourage the growth and expansion of the food-related industry. The rezoning is also intended to protect the adjacent residential neighborhood, while discouraging the expansion of waste-related uses in sensitive areas.

Dovetailing with the Hunts Point initiative is the Related Cos. plans for the 26-acre Gateway Center near Yankee Stadium between East 149th Street, River Avenue and the Harlem River. Related is proposing a $330-million effort that features approximately a one-million-sf mixture of big box, specialty and smaller retail in five new buildings, parking space for about 3,000 cars and a one-acre public park with an esplanade. Construction will take about two years, and the entire retail center is expected to open in 2008. The city will grant Related a 49-year lease for the property, with options to extend to 99 years. The project will create more than 2,400 construction jobs and about 2,100 permanent jobs and generate approximately $21 million in annual tax revenue for the city, according to Related.

Over the past year, city officials worked with the Hunts Point Task Force to develop the 20-year vision plan to define a coordinated vision for neighborhood revitalization. Preliminary recommendations covered everything from transportation, waterfront, workforce, and land use policy. The task force also concentrated on identifying short-term action items.

Daily News:

Hope in Bloom in Hunts Point

BY MICHAEL SAUL and BILL EGBERT

Mayor Bloomberg unveiled an ambitious Hunts Point Vision Plan yesterday, putting his money where his vision is.

"Our administration is committing more than $27 million in capital funds to carry out the vision that the Hunts Point task force developed," the mayor said at the opening of the new Hunts Point Works job center.

The expected funding for the Hunts Point Vision Plan will go toward traffic-safety improvements, zoning changes and waterfront development, as well as a major workforce development effort, officials said.

"Hunts Point could be doing much better," said Bloomberg. "Unemployment here is 24%, the highest of any community in the city."

Kellie Terri-Sepulveda, executive director of The Point Community Development Corp., praised the new job center, but said that diversifying the area's industrial economy would boost the area's employment and quality of life.

"We definitely need to train workers," she said, "but we also need to attract new types of businesses - amenities like restaurants, bookstores and music stores."

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, a former city planner and the driving force behind establishing the task force, agreed.

"Hunts Point's potential has long been dismissed because it was regarded as a heavily industrialized, limited-use area," Carrión said.

"The revitalization plan that we have created has the vision to incorporate all of the elements of sound economic development," he said, "including infrastructure improvements, optimizing land use, developing workforce opportunities and protecting the environment."

Many of the ideas put forward by the plan are not new, but the plan brings the mayor's stamp of approval, along with funding and city agency participation.

Matthew D'Arrigo, co-president of the Hunts Point Produce Co-op, believes the mayor's personal involvement made the difference.

"I remember when the mayor came up here two years ago," said D'Arrigo. "Very soon after that visit, we started getting a lot more communication from the city. I saw a dozen EDC [Economic Development Corp.] people coming up here repeatedly since then."

The vision plan includes many items on the Produce Co-op's wish list - in particular, expanded rail links and added refrigerated warehouse space.

Both improvements will serve a dual purpose, D'Arrigo noted, not only saving his co-operators money, but also reducing the impact of truck traffic on local residents.

krulltime

April 27th, 2005, 03:13 PM

Soon to be built where the old Museum is and also accompanied by a residential tower (Last Picture):

The Bronx Museum Of The Arts:

http://www.pbase.com/image/42653368.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/42653369.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/42653371.jpg

Copyright ©1997-2005 Arquitectonica International Corporation

Gulcrapek

April 27th, 2005, 08:33 PM

Oooh.. good stuff.

Derek2k3

April 29th, 2005, 01:52 AM

http://www.pbase.com/archit_kderek2k3/image/42708366.jpg

DAILY NEWS

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/303808p-260021c.html

Terminate terminal plan: pols

2 rip 'sweetheart deal'

BY FRANK LOMBARDI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The Bronx rumble over a $300 million retail redevelopment of the decrepit Bronx Terminal Market turned nastier and more complex yesterday.

Two Council members - neither from the Bronx - and other critics of the project demanded an investigation of what they charge is a sweetheart deal the developer is getting from the city and other public agencies.

But Andrew Alper, president of the city's Economic Development Corp., called the arrangement "totally above board" and a long-thwarted opportunity for the city to bring tax-generating economic development and job creation to the site just south of Yankee Stadium.

"If they want to have hearings, God bless them," he said. "This transaction is a good transaction for the city."

The two complaining Council members - Hiram Monserrate of Queens and Charles Barron of Brooklyn - were joined at a press conference on the steps of City Hall by scores of workers from the market and representatives of unions and other opposing groups.

Barron threatened to use the City Council's power over zoning to thwart the redevelopment - which envisions transforming the ramshackle ethnic food market into the Gateway Center Mall retail shopping complex.

Calling for Council hearings, Monserrate lambasted the Bloomberg administration for "rolling out" this "scary ... sweetheart deal" for the Related Companies, which now holds the long-term lease on the city-owned, 31-acre site.

Related's founder and chief executive, Steven Ross, is a close friend of Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, Mayor Bloomberg's chief economic development strategist.

Monserrate also protested the planned eviction by the developer of the 23 tenants and their 700 workers.

"We want to know how Related gets these multimillion-dollar deals without any public review," he said.

The 80-year market lease was awarded by the Lindsay administration in 1972 to landlord David Buntzman. Related Companies last year finally bought out the lease from Buntzman for a reported $42.2 million.

Alper said Related is now paying the city $250,000 a year in rent, and that would rise to a minium of $500,000 if the development wins land-use approvals.

The mall project would generate 1,600 construction jobs and more than 2,000 permanent jobs, he said, and ultimately pay the city annual taxes of $21 million.

Alper acknowledged that the city has agreed to buy back the lease from Related for some $40 million if the mall project falls through. But he said past city officials would have jumped at that prospect to rid themselves of Buntzman and get back his lease.

Originally published on April 27, 2005

http://www.bxtimes.com/News/2005/0210/Boroughwide_News/news_T10.html
FOOD FIGHT
Bronx Terminal Market
merchants take on the city
by Bobby Ciafardini

http://www.newyorkgames.org/news/archives/004259.html
March 21, 2005
Bronx Terminal deal loaded with financial incentives
Newsday
Graham Rayman

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0512,robbins1,62311,5.html
Market-Rate Giveaway
Produce merchants get the boot for a City Hall favorite and yet another Olympic stadium
by Tom Robbins
March 22nd, 2005 11:54 AM

Derek2k3

May 5th, 2005, 09:15 PM

Grand Concourse & Bedford Park Boulevard
10 stories
Build Tech Architects
Dev-Yoel Movtady
Residential
~50 units
Under Construction 2005-2006

http://www.bronxmall.com/norwoodnews/past/032405/news/qgrace.jpg

Norwood News
http://www.bronxmall.com/norwoodnews/past/032405/news/N50324page5.html

Concourse Building Demolished
10-Story Structure to Replace It

By HEATHER HADDON

In the first major housing complex built on the Grand Concourse in decades, a 10-story building will rise where a former school was knocked down at Bedford Park Boulevard.

The squat building, most recently owned by Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, was half demolished as of early last week. Yoel Movtady, a Long Island marketing executive, purchased the site for $625,000 last fall.

The new development will house roughly 50 units of middle-income housing, predominantly two- and three-bedroom apartments with a few one-bedrooms. The first floor will include some commercial space, which Movtady hopes to rent to doctors or other professionals. A parking lot is permitted for the basement.

The building is still in the planning phases, and Movtady hasn’t yet devised a timeline for the construction. Build Tech Architects, who have designed many Bronx projects, are drawing up the building’s blueprint. They also designed an 8-story building slated to rise at Perry Avenue and East Gun Hill Road.

The complex is Movtady’s first real estate development. “I saw that this is an area that could be developed,” said Movtady, who came across the site about a year ago. “The building wasn’t being used … and there should be something built here. We want to bring new housing for families to the area.”

The structure was formerly home to the Bedford Park Academy, a private school, until Grace Lutheran bought it in 1981. The space hadn’t been actively used recently, with the school’s main site located around the corner on Valentine Avenue. Rev. James Gajadhar, Grace Lutheran’s pastor, did not return calls for comment.

The entire Grand Concourse, which was planned with a consistent architectural style, hasn’t seen a major new housing development in some 30 years, according to John Reilly, executive director of the Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation. “It’s a big change,” said Reilly, a lifelong Bronx resident. “There have been renovations and conversions, but I can’t think of any new [housing] construction.”

Given the site’s prominent location, Reilly hopes that the new building will be both attractive and affordable. He didn’t think a 10-story structure would necessarily tower over the surrounding apartments, which are mostly six and seven stories, due to newer construction trends toward shorter stories.

Movtady is toying with the idea of making the building into condominiums. “We are leaning toward ownership …. but we are still searching to see if there is a market,” he said.

Community District 7 as a whole has seen a spate of three-family homes constructed recently, reversing the long-standing trend toward rental apartments. “There has been a demand for private homes, so I guess there could be one [for condominiums] too,” Reilly said.

Movtady hopes so. “If this project is a success, we will try to develop more sites in the area,” he said.

Derek2k3

May 5th, 2005, 09:30 PM

New 142-foot antenna tower to be added to high-rise.

Norwood News
Fordham Issues Study of Norwood
Radio Tower Site
By HEATHER HADDON

http://www.bronxmall.com/norwoodnews/past/110404/news/ztower5.jpg

Here's a link to a run down of projects going up in Norwood-Bedford Park.
http://www.bronxmall.com/norwoodnews/past/012705/news/N50127page4.html
NYC developers are getting away with murder.

krulltime

May 6th, 2005, 01:33 PM

NYPOST REAL ESTATE:

By LOIS WEISS

One of the largest residential buildings in the Bronx just hit the market for a relative bargain of $83 a foot. Multiply its 430,000 feet to get an asking price of $35.7 million.

Called the Lewis Morris, after one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence [not one of the former Yankees], the grand apartment house at 1749 Grand Concourse has over 270 apartments and four elevators.

According to sales broker Marco Lala of Massey Knakal Realty Services, the wealthy families that once inhabited the building used to employ full-time help that lived on the top floor.

That current SRO space is being converted to "penthouse suites." Even its 6.5 room sprawling apartments still rent for an average under $1,300 a month.

Copyright 2005 NYP Holdings, Inc.

Derek2k3

May 27th, 2005, 09:16 PM

DAILY NEWS
Complex housing for Morrisania
BY BILL EGBERT
May 27, 2005

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/313278p-267999c.html

A new affordable-housing Bronx development that opened its doors this week is showcasing an innovative approach to serving two sometimes competing housing needs.

Officials cut the ribbon Wednesday on The Franklin Avenue Apartments in Morrisania, which combines affordable housing for working families with supportive housing for formerly homeless people with psychiatric disabilities.

The $11.5 million, 66-unit building at 1363 Franklin Ave. boasts a 14,000-square-foot landscaped garden with a children's play area, a library/computer room and even wireless broadband Internet access.

"A beautiful building like this helps restore dignity to the tenants, the neighborhood and the Bronx as a whole," said Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión.

"These beautiful apartments will provide more than just much-needed housing for Bronxites," he said. "They will further strengthen the economic base and quality of life."

Tenants with disabilities will have on-site support services provided by Community Access, a-not-for-profit organization that helps people with psychiatric problems transition from shelters and hospitals to independent living.

Dunn Development Corp., a for-profit developer, took advantage of a variety of publicly funded incentives to make high-quality affordable housing more economical to build.

Financing, for example, included $9.5 million in low-income housing tax credits and a $2 million construction loan from the Community Preservation Corp., as well as rental subsidies and supportive services funding for the special needs tenants provided by the city Health and Mental Hygiene Department and the Homeless Services Department.

Community Access and Dunn Development previously worked together on the award-winning DeKalb Avenue Apartments in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Originally published on May 27, 2005

Derek2k3

June 1st, 2005, 10:25 AM

http://www.pbase.com/archit_kderek2k3/image/44167473.jpg

Outlook Point Estates , a new condominium complex, provides residents with a view of the water from the first floor patio or the second and third floor terraces.

Bronx Times
Luxury condominiums at Outlook Point Estates hit the market
by Bobby Ciafardini

http://www.bxtimes.com/News/2005/0401/Boroughwide_News/full_T14.html

A 67-unit condominium project, Outlook Point Estates, opened its doors to the public last week in Spencer Estates, offering 23 buildings, each consisting of three units with ?rst, second and third ?oor condos available for sale.

The high-end, gated residential complex is situated on a peninsula, is off Griswold Avenue immediately adjacent to Evers Marina at Outlook Point. The waterfront condominium complex features a host of amenities, including a gym and community room, which both overlook the water, a laundry room and access to the marina for boating and other water activities.

The condos, which were developed by BDM Builders Inc., are selling for between $495,000 and $725,000.

To date, four of the most expensive units went off the market and 10 total units have already been sold to prospective buyers in the ?rst week.

Architect Tony Freda, who designed Shelter Cove---another upscale water-front condominium complex in the area---said he is extremely proud of Outlook Point Estates.

"These are some of the most beautiful condos you are going to see," he said. "We saw an opportunity to create something special and we are thrilled with the outcome of the project. Outlook Point Estates is de?nitely one of the most luxurious projects we’ve done."

Ben Walker, the broker for the project, said one of the most attractive details for prospective buyers is the 15-year tax abatement on the property.

"In other words, buyers only a pay a small portion of tax on the property per year for the ?rst 15 years," Walker said. "During that time, you save quite a bit of money on taxes alone and your estimated maintenance charges range from $157 to $238 a month."

Walker also said each of the units vary in size and square footage, allowing buyers many options.

The condos themselves, many of which have skylights and cathedral ceilings, also include all appliances, and each comes with two off-street parking spots.

All of the second and third ?oor apartments have two terraces — one facing the water and the other facing the center of the complex. All ?rst ?oor units have patios with waterfront access, and a majority of the ?rst ?oor apartments have parking garages. In addition, the main entrance at Outlook Point Estates has a remote control gate with a security camera.

"The fact that the property is located on a peninsula makes it truly unique and special," said Walker, "but the other amenities are a tremendous addition to the property and add greatly to the enjoyment, safety and comfort of the buyer."

Walker also pointed out how residents of Outlook Point Estates have access to Country Club and a short commute to Manhattan, Westchester and Connecticut. "You’ll have access to all major highways," he explained. "Buyers will also have access to express lines on buses and trains nearby.

"It’s a magni?cent property," added Walker, "and we are excited to bring it to the community."

For more information on Outlook Point Estates, call the broker at (718) 892-2907 or (718) 823-0010.

http://www.bxtimes.com/news/2000/0810/Boroughwide_News/30.html
LUXURIOUS LIVING
8 waterfront homes started

billyblancoNYC

June 17th, 2005, 10:23 AM

GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Simone Signs $175M Mixed-Use Agreement
By John Jordan
Last updated: June 17, 2005 07:46am

http://globest.com/news/308_308/newyork/135331-1.html

WHITE PLAINS-Simone Development Cos. of New Rochelle hopes to break ground later this year on the second phase of its Hutchinson Metro Center property in the Bronx that will include a 10-story tower building totaling 250,000 sf of space. In addition, thanks to an accord reached earlier this week, the firm hopes to begin construction this time next year on a $175-million redevelopment project in the City of New Rochelle.

Joseph Simone, president of Simone Development appearing at a meeting of the Westchester County Board of Realtors Commercial Investment Division, outlined preliminary plans for the second phase of the Hutchinson Metro Center project in the Bronx. Simone explained that the project would be built on spec. At present, the 460,000-sf Hutchinson Metro Center is approximately 88% leased. Simone said that he expects the former psychiatric facility complex will be 100% leased by year’s end, thus the need for further development at the property.

Earlier this year, Simone acquired 24 acres at the site that affords the company the right to build another 640,000 sf of office space. No cost estimates on the second phase of the center were released. “We intend at some point to have 1.8 million sf at the site, that is the goal,” he said.

Gulcrapek

June 17th, 2005, 02:52 PM

I hope the architecture is better on the "tower."

Kolbster

June 19th, 2005, 01:46 PM

pianoman11686

June 24th, 2005, 01:52 AM

This is an eye-opening article. I had no idea the South Bronx, of all places, is becoming a trendy, artsy neighborhood, and may soon become a less-expensive version of SoHo. It seems like good times abound in all of the boroughs these days.

Goodbye South Bronx Blight, Hello Trendy SoBro

By JOSEPH BERGER

Published: June 24, 2005

Last summer, Todd Fatjo stepped out on the roof of a former piano factory in the South Bronx and fell in love with the jagged panorama - the workaday bridges along the Harlem River, the blur and purr of three highways, the rooftop water tanks, the gaudy billboards and the hulking housing projects.

"It's great at sunset," said Mr. Fatjo, a 29-year-old D.J. who was raised in the countryside of Middletown, N.Y., in the foothills of the Catskills. "I like the industrial scene, the metal, the brick. I've seen enough sunsets over mountains."

Mr. Fatjo is part of a crop of newcomers, many of them refugees from the rising rents of Brooklyn and the East Village in Manhattan, who are making the South Bronx the city's new cutting-edge address.

Hundreds of artists, hipsters, Web designers, photographers, doctors and journalists have been seduced by the mix of industrial lofts and 19th-century row houses in the Port Morris and Mott Haven neighborhoods. Some now even call the area SoBro.

Yes, it's the very South Bronx that had a reputation for grinding poverty, rampant arson, runaway crime and as the starting point of Tom Wolfe's race-relations nightmare, "The Bonfire of the Vanities," which chronicles what happens to a Master of the Universe driving with his mistress in his Mercedes-Benz on a creepy Bruckner Boulevard.

Well, Bruckner and the blocks nearby now boast two tidy bars that a Master of the Universe would feel more than comfortable patronizing, including one, the Bruckner Bar and Grill, that offers pear and arugula salad.

There are a dozen antique shops, at least one new lively art gallery, Haven Arts, to join three older ones, and a cafe partly owned by a resourceful Dominican immigrant that sells bourgeois bohemian delights like croissants and veggie wraps.

There are also the allures of the longstanding Latino and African-American culture - sidewalk dominoes games, flamboyant murals, lush vacant-lot gardens and restaurants with fried plantains and mango shakes - that give the neighborhood a populist authenticity that cannot be matched in the more decorous precincts of Manhattan or Brooklyn.

Porfirio Diaz, who owns the Maybar Cafe and Piano Bar on Third Avenue, said his new customers are "very happy with Spanish food because the prices are low."

Still, no one expects the area to become another TriBeCa or SoHo anytime soon.

The newcomers, some of whom have spent much of their lives abroad or in the hinterlands and are not as easily put off by the Bronx's outdated reputation, say they have felt welcomed. Nevertheless, those welcomes sometimes mask fears by longtime residents that they may someday be priced out of the neighborhood.

"It's going to attract a class of people whose incomes and lifestyles are going to be radically different from those in the South Bronx, which is one of the poorest areas in the city," said Hector Soto, a lawyer active in developmental and environmental issues.

Many of those fears coalesced around a rezoning measure passed by the City Council last March that essentially added another 11 square blocks of Port Morris to a five-block zone where, starting in 1997, apartments were permitted among the factories.

Mr. Soto and other critics - backed by artists and professionals - fought in vain for provisions that would have assured that half of any new apartments be set aside for low-income families.

Amanda M. Burden, the chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, objected successfully that such set-asides would have discouraged development.

Neil Pariser, senior vice president of the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, a nonprofit group that has renovated factories and apartment buildings in the area, acknowledged that some poor people could eventually be displaced, but doubted the relocations would be "wholesale."

"What you don't want to do is relegate an area that has finally achieved a place in the market to only the poor," he said. "This should be for everybody."

Indeed, longtime locals have been attracted to the newly available lofts and row houses. Jose Baez, a 36-year-old freelance photographer, rents a 1,000-square foot loft in the Clocktower, the former piano factory, for $1,350. "For what you get here, you get a closet in Manhattan," he said. And local merchants appreciate the infusion of new money.

Ronald Trinidad, a 27-year-old Dominican immigrant, started the Open House Cafe a year ago with his business partner, Eric Beroff, in what had been a Mexican restaurant, and he sells croissants to artists heading to the subway stop at 138th Street and Third Avenue.

"Lots of people come here from downtown Brooklyn and ask me, 'Where do I rent?' " he said.

The area they are beguiled by is dominated by factories like the Zaro's Bread Basket bakery and warehouses like Shleppers Moving and Storage as well as by car washes and gas stations, all framed by the elevated stretches of the Major Deegan Expressway and ramps for the Willis and Third Avenue Bridges.

Many lofts were forsaken with the decline in American manufacturing, and in the 1970's the neighborhood went into a tailspin of arson, foreclosures and rampant crime.

City programs reclaimed hundreds of burned and abandoned buildings and built ranch houses and town houses on vacant lots. Crime plummeted. The South Bronx slowly recovered.

Purnima Kapur, director of the Bronx office of the city's Planning Department, said the "mixed use" rezoning of 1997 had created at least 200 new apartments and other homes.

Most new tenants are single people or childless couples, so the quality of the local schools - not among the city's most stellar - has not been an issue.

Although the impact of arriving artists was probably negligible at that point, an analysis of the 2000 census showed that median household income in Mott Haven alone had risen by 29.1 percent in the previous decade and the number of college educated residents by 86.5 percent.

By 2000, Linda Cunningham, an Ohio-born sculptor whose outdoor installations have been exhibited near the United Nations, felt secure enough about an investment to buy a five-story loft on East 140th Street with two partners for $660,000.

Now anyone strolling on Bruckner can see boxes of geraniums and satellite dishes adorning the industrial windows of the Clocktower, the five-story red-brick former piano factory that was converted into 75 apartment lofts by a landlord experienced with lofts in East Williamsburg. Those lofts rent for between $1,000 to $2,000, according to Mr. Fatjo, who, in addition to working as a disc jockey at parties, helps pay his Clocktower rent by showing apartments to artists.

"He talks their language," said Isaac Jacobs, the building's owner. (Mr. Fatjo was the subject of an article in The New York Times last summer about signs that the hipster scene in Williamsburg might be fading.)There are some newcomers who worry that gentrification will lead to an unappetizing blandness.

"A lot of people in the Clocktower feel a sense of guilt," said Darcy Dahl, an artist whose work is exhibited at Haven Arts. "They feel they are part of the first wave of gentrification and they don't want the second wave to come, but they created it."

That paradox doesn't bother Mr. Fatjo so much as that he not get caught in a neighborhood that's played out. "This neighborhood is already happening," Mr. Fatjo said. "I may have to move soon."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Schadenfrau

June 24th, 2005, 12:33 PM

Anyone who calls that neighborhood SoBro is a fool. How embarrassing.

ablarc

June 24th, 2005, 01:38 PM

Anyone who calls that neighborhood SoBro is a fool. How embarrassing.
What makes it so?

Schadenfrau

June 24th, 2005, 01:57 PM

The area already has names: Port Morris and Mott Haven.

"SoBro" is obviously a term primarily used by desperate real estate agents on their less-savvy clients.

Frankly, I'd hope that anyone using the term would just stay away. The neighborhood is better off without them.

alex ballard

June 24th, 2005, 11:19 PM

That is a horrible name, it really is. However, let keep in mind what image the "South Bronx" conjours up:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fis.unipr.it/~alabiso/pagpers/fotonewyork/bronx.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fis.unipr.it/~alabiso/pagpers/fotonewyork/bronx.html&h=616&w=415&sz=54&tbnid=xVrfktKJZgMJ:&tbnh=134&tbnw=90&hl=en&start=55&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSouth%2BBronx%2B%26start%3D40%26hl%3D en%26lr%3D%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN

I suggest using the neighborhood names.

pianoman11686

June 25th, 2005, 01:02 AM

It doesn't matter what the name "South Bronx" conjures up, as you put it. Showing us that it was crime-ridden in the early and mid-90's is no different than showing it ablaze in the late 70's. The area has changed for the better, in that crime is down. Now it's changing in a different way. I won't say I think it's the best way for change, but I think it's a positive nonetheless. Artists moving in will only make it a more eclectic and desireable neighborhood, and quality of life will go up. Let them call it whatever they want.

alex ballard

June 25th, 2005, 10:20 AM

It does matter. I'm only saying why it was re-named.

Anyway, I'm glad it's getting better. I hope they bring back those old apartment buidlings instead of new townhomes, so there can be more density to the neighborhood.

lofter1

June 25th, 2005, 11:51 AM

THe real estate folks should really stop making up these silly names. Already we're suffering through NoLita, Solita, etc.

Let's try out a few other names that the marketing folks might try to conjure up:

NoMan (anywhere in Manhattan north of 145th St. that the marketing people haven't figured out how to sell)

WeeMan (the group of high rise sites in Manhattan west of 10th Ave. that have a view of Weehawken)

QueEasy (anywhere in Queens that Weezy could see from the Jefferson's high-rise windows)

Any others?

Schadenfrau

June 27th, 2005, 12:40 PM

Despite what the papers are reporting, most of the people moving into Port Morris don't make a living off of their art. However, it doesn't sound very romantic to carry on about the influx of waitresses and bartenders moving to the South Bronx.

I've lived there for five years and can't tell you how many times people have started a conversation with, "So, are you an artist?" When I tell them that I'm not, a look of confusion inevitably appears.

It's a personal pet peeve, but it's pretty offensive to assume that the only reason a white person would live in the neighborhood is to sit around in an old factory and pontificate about how cool it is to be an artist.

ryan

June 27th, 2005, 12:53 PM

QueEasy (anywhere in Queens that Weezy could see from the Jefferson's high-rise windows)

QueEasy is awesome - you should have entered it in the curbed neighborhood name contest (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/06/21/hoodwinked_we_have_a_winner.php). I was particularly fond of ToeHo myself...

alex ballard

June 27th, 2005, 01:55 PM

Schadenfrau

June 27th, 2005, 02:14 PM

billyblancoNYC

June 27th, 2005, 02:42 PM

Who said anything about the middle-class, AlexBallard? I was expressing frustration that real estate agents and landlords are hellbent on promoting the idea that "artists" are the only means to stability in a neighborhood.

Most so-called artists are sporadically employed at best. Wouldn't the long-term stability of a neighborhood have a better chance if people with steady, moderate incomes (i.e. city workers) were encouraged to lay down roots?

Agreed, but the value of artists as a "bellweather" is what follows...bars, shops, new development. It's happened so many times that just the thought of some artists moving into an area causes the developers to go crazy, right or wrong.

Schadenfrau

June 27th, 2005, 02:50 PM

alex ballard

June 27th, 2005, 03:32 PM

"Middle-class" whatever, I'm saying stable employment.

We're both saying the same things, just in different words.

Anyway, it's all for glitz. The working-class hood has no appeal to planners or developers. The reason being is that people simply cannot believe that there is such a thing as an "Urban middle class". People continue to hold to the notion that the city is poor and rich and the middle live in the brubs. Anything else is too much for people to handle.

As for you being an artist, Schadenfrau, are you white? Just wondering...

Art is so overrated;).

Schadenfrau

June 27th, 2005, 04:03 PM

As for you being an artist, Schadenfrau, are you white? Just wondering...

I apologize if I'm being dense, but what exactly do you mean by this?

ryan

June 27th, 2005, 04:09 PM

But are the people who are considered artists really people who earn a living from art? Landlords and reporters consistently mistake me for an artist. I think that developers are doing themselves a disservice by using outdated notions of indicators of economic progress.

I don't think so - I think they use the word in place of hipster... or stylish white person under 40... or yuppie if you're feeling mean-spirited. Bottom line is whiteness - that's the quality I suspect realtors and landlords are after. Artists (aside from wildly successful ones) don't make enough money to excite these folks on their own...

I think you can call a person an artist even if they don't earn their living from it. Lots of artists I know have day jobs - it takes a huge amount of success in the art world to make a middle-class living - and I think that the group of people who do live off the sales of their work is not the best and/or brightest of the art world.

Schadenfrau

June 27th, 2005, 04:18 PM

You're exactly right, Ryan. What better to shill to an "artist" than a "loft", aka studio apartment that's not legally zoned for live/work space?

The irony of this is that I was involved running an art gallery in Port Morris a few years ago. The things that are going on there now just really make me want to hork and I really wish I could take it all back.

ryan

June 27th, 2005, 04:46 PM

Well, if Jerry Saltz is right, the art bubble is going to burst any minute now, so mediocre art galleries everywhere should get their comeuppance soon...

alex ballard

June 27th, 2005, 05:32 PM

I apologize if I'm being dense, but what exactly do you mean by this?

I guess I'm the one who's dense...

I thought you had said "They think all white people here are artists"

Did I misinterpret?

Schadenfrau

June 27th, 2005, 05:44 PM

I thought that I had made clear that I am white and not an artist.

Gulcrapek

July 20th, 2005, 04:31 PM

Riverdale Tower
19 floors
64 units
Architect: Alexander Gorlin

This might be the original proposal for Arlington Suites, I'm not sure.

www.gorlinarchitect.com/index_content.html (http://www.gorlinarchitect.com/index_content.html) > projects > high rise residential > Riverdale Tower

sfenn1117

July 20th, 2005, 05:21 PM

This tower replaces the homes on Tulfan Terrace right? Imagine living on a tiny lane in a cute little house and seeing this 19 story monster rising. This is one instance where I think nimbys have a case. But nonetheless here it is.

The design isn't bad. At least it's glass.

MarkV

August 30th, 2005, 02:31 PM

ASchwarz

August 30th, 2005, 03:26 PM

I understand there are 2 new highrise (9-story) condo projects proposed in the Melrose District on Third Avenue north of the Hub - about 115 units total. Are there any other new or recent condos in the Bronx that are comparable? Are new 1BR for $200k, 2BR for $250k and 3BR for $340K realistic?

I know a developer who is building a number of sizable condo buildings in the Morrisania neighborhood. The buildings are in the vicinity of Third Avenue and the East 160's. He plans around 300 units total. They will all be market-rate condominium buildings.

The first building broke ground around July 1 of this year. I'm not sure if prices have been set.

Could we be talking about the same development?

krulltime

September 25th, 2005, 09:19 PM

Bronx retail development moves forward

by Tommy Fernandez
September 22, 2005

Plans for a $48 million development in the South Bronx took a step forward when executives for developer Related Companies presented the latest version of the project to a community board last night.

The 170,000 square foot, two-story retail and office development at 156th Street and 3rd Avenue will have two anchor tenants, Staples and Formans Clothing Store. Space will also be rented by the Department of Transportation. The site is now an empty lot.

The project is controversial because some community leaders worry that the development could drive away business from local merchants. Related and community board officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The Bloomberg Administration and Bronx government have been vocal supporter of the project. "The neighborhood is obviously well-located for retailers," said Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion. "This project will help bring many jobs to the neighborhood."

Related is negotiating to complete the purchase of the lot and plans to break ground on the project next Spring.

©2005 Crain Communications Inc.

krulltime

September 25th, 2005, 09:20 PM

More retailing in store for Bronx: Related Cos. plans shopping mall

Tommy Fernandez
September 26, 2005

There is a reason why upscale developer The Related Cos. is willing to gamble $400 million on a dilapidated market in a Bronx neighborhood that still scares some locals.

Its research shows that holes in the Bronx's retail landscape create opportunities. More than half of the $13.8 billion Bronx residents spend each year on retail shopping is done outside the borough. What's more, the borough has 225,000 residents per department store, compared with 40,000 in nearby, and well-served, Westchester County.

"The Bronx is one of the most underserved boroughs with regard to retail development," says Glenn Goldstein, executive vice president at Related. "We know so many people are traveling outside the borough to get what they need. Why not bring these stores to them?"

Related is bucking for city approval of Gateway Center, which will transform a sizable section of the aging Bronx Terminal Market into a 1 million-square-foot shopping center. The project has generated controversy: Retailers, including 24 store owners who work in the terminal and are slated for eviction, have complained that the megacenter could drive small shops out of business; a pending lawsuit challenges the evictions.

The proposal recently passed muster with Community Board 4 and is now on the desk of Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, who has roughly 30 days to review Related's plan. He says he is "committed" to the project, adding that he wants "to make sure we find good new locations" for any displaced merchants.

But Gateway Center is not the only game in town for Mr. Carrión. Retail rejuvenation is central to a number of other Bronx projects he is pushing. "Retailers are very bullish on the Bronx now," he says. "What we need to do is make sure these destinations are attractive enough--with the right consumer mix--to keep these shoppers in the county."

To do so, he helped negotiate $90 million of private financing for a 250,000-square-foot office building, which will include some retail, at Hutchinson River Park. He lobbied to get financing for a $32 million infrastructure makeover along the Grand Concourse and is promoting 1 million square feet of additional development at the Bay Plaza shopping mall at Co-op City.

But more needs to be done, says Mr. Carrión. For example, he is not satisfied with the redevelopment of 161st Street. "The area is still sort of ratty and needs some work," he says.

©2005 Crain Communications Inc.

krulltime

September 28th, 2005, 06:46 PM

Bronx development to beat records, officials say

by Tommy Fernandez

Economic development in the Bronx is on track to beat records, according to statistics released today by the borough president’s office.

The borough’s unemployment rate was 6.7% in August, down from a record-high level of 11.2% in January 2003. The average was just over $35,000, up by $4,000 since January 2000. Investment totaled $400 million during the first six months of the year and over 3,000 new businesses were incorporated.

The borough has benefited from the city's overall economic upswing and gentrification trend. The Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. has aggressively courted developers, spurring construction especially in the South Bronx and waterfront areas.

Bronx borough President Adolfo Carrión attributed the improvement to programs such as the “Buy Bronx” campaign to encourage firms to employ Bronx businesses and the “Bronx at Work” campaign to encourage employers to hire locally. “These campaigns have led to unprecedented economic development in the borough,” Mr. Carrion said in a statement.

©2005 Crain Communications Inc.

Viva

February 25th, 2006, 04:37 PM

The neighborhood has a name already---Mott Haven
why do we need a new one?

Schadenfrau

March 3rd, 2006, 01:29 AM

What realtors call "Sobro" has many names, not just Mott Haven. Isn't anything south of Westchester now considered the South Bronx?

tmg

March 15th, 2006, 02:23 PM

Hub of activity at last

Ground broken for $53M biz project

BY ROBERT KAPPSTATTER
DAILY NEWS BRONX BUREAU CHIEF

Ground was broken yesterday on the long-awaited redevelopment of a plot of land and a derelict parking garage on the edge of the South Bronx's main shopping area.

A retail and office center anchored by the Bronx office of the city Department of Finance will anchor the new development.

The Related Companies will develop the $53 million two-story Hub Retail and Office Center and rehab the parking garage on the property just north of the Hub, the principal shopping and business district for central and South Bronx.

Related is also the major developer of the Gateway Mall project near Yankee Stadium, which many have called a sweetheart, no-bid deal with the city to replace the deteriorated Bronx Terminal Market. The developer is still locked in a legal battle with the ethnic foods merchants there over their eviction and relocation.

But at yesterday's groundbreaking ceremony for the Hub project, it was all smiles among officials as Mayor Bloomberg, joined by Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión and Steve Ross of The Related Companies, called the project "another major milestone in the ongoing renaissance of the South Bronx."

Besides bringing new economic activity and 225 full-time jobs, Bloomberg said, the 170,000-square-foot facility will extend the Hub to "the growing residential area of Melrose," where the city "has invested heavily in revitalization projects."

He said the city Finance Department office, which will replace the two current Bronx ones on Williamsbridge Road and on Arthur Ave., "will provide Bronx residents a one-stop location to pay bills and check records" as well as "attract thousands to the area, spurring additional retail growth."

Related was the successful bidder to buy the city-owned property for $1 million three years ago, but it took that long to begin construction to pursue financing and because a potential deal with Kmart to open a store on the site fell through, officials said.

Related estimated yesterday that the new center, between 153rd and 156th Sts. on Third Ave., should be open by the summer of 2007.

Besides the city finance office, it will be home to Staples, Rite Aid and Forman Mills, an apparel retailer, as well as Community Board 1.

The four-story garage will be completely renovated, with space for 265 cars.

The city will provide about $16 million for construction and equipment of the Finance Department's business center, and Carrion's office will provide an additional $500,000 for the project.

Originally published on March 15, 2006

BrooklynRider

March 15th, 2006, 04:29 PM

Always good to see the Bronx getting new investment...

Kris

March 18th, 2006, 03:01 PM

March 19, 2006
As Development Booms in Bronx, Residents Fear the Reverberations
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

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A new multistory building near an older house in the Bronx.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/03/19/nyregion/19bronx3.large.jpg
New construction is changing the look of many Bronx neighborhoods, but some fear the effects of gentrification and the loss of green space.

For decades, the area known as the Hub has been the retail heart of the South Bronx, attracting throngs of people to its small family-owned stores even as the residential blocks around it were ravaged by crime and, at times, consumed by flames.

But now, those who have kept this scrappy shopping district alive are worried, and the source of their fears is not robbers or arsonists, but development. A long-vacant lot is the planned home of a major shopping center that will include national chain stores like Staples, Forman Mills and Rite-Aid. Their impending arrival has caused as much apprehension as happiness.

"We have to watch out for the mom-and-pop stores, said George Rodriguez, chairman of the local community board, who for years has sought to bring national retailers to the area. "They did not move out, they did not capitulate. They served the clients in the area."

And the Hub is just the heart of it. A few decades after it became a national symbol of urban decay, the Bronx is home to a rash of new construction projects that are changing neighborhoods that have seen little new building in half a century. Many residents are uneasy.

The anxiety extends from woodsy Riverdale, which has had a spate of new condominium construction, to the suburban-like eastern Bronx, where huge homes have started popping up, and to the South Bronx, where plans for luxury condominiums and high-end stores have prompted fears of gentrification. Projects either planned or under way include thousands of units of new housing, shopping malls, an $800 million baseball stadium for the Yankees — perhaps a convention center and the borough's first major hotel.

The frantic pace has spurred opposition to small and large projects alike, resistance that only a few years ago would have been unthinkable in the borough, which includes one of the poorest Congressional districts in the country. The aversion to the boom is due to the dizzying speed of change, and has grown as New York City has become a more desirable place to live. Property values have skyrocketed, and wealthy people who in past generations might have moved to the suburbs are now staying and looking for more space. Poor people often find they cannot leave their current homes for fear that they will not find any place as affordable. And longtime businesses fear they will not be able to compete against chain stores.

Many are pleased about the rush. The Bronx borough president, Adolfo Carrión Jr., notes that construction means new jobs in a borough with the highest unemployment rate in the state, 7.6 percent. Still, that is much lower than the 11.2 percent rate in January 2003.

"It's a good problem to have when the arguments that people are having are not so much 'Why is nothing happening?' but 'Why is so much happening and how can we absorb it?' " Mr. Carrión said. "It's a fair concern that people have."

Dozens of residents who are critical of specific projects say they are not generally against new construction, saying their borough has been starved too long for restaurants, brand-name shops, even banks and grocery stores.

The Bronx remains seared in many minds as a symbol of urban decay — an image crystallized when a fire near Yankee Stadium led Howard Cosell to announce during the 1977 World Series that the Bronx was burning. That same year, President Jimmy Carter toured Charlotte Street, which was so ravaged it looked as if it had been bombed.

"We all know what happened in the 70's in the Bronx," said Anthony Perez Cassino, a Riverdale resident who grew up in the borough. "It's exciting to see all the development, but there's a downside — which is that in some areas, it's happening too much, too quickly. "

Last year, 9,168 building permits were issued in the borough, almost double the 4,955 awarded in 1995. And the 901 permits allotted for construction of new buildings last year was triple the number issued in 1996. The value of residential property in the Bronx has increased 42 percent, to $2.5 billion, since 2000. Land in the borough is at such a premium that single-family homes are being razed for multistory apartment buildings, houses are being built in alleys and in one case, a three-story apartment building is being constructed around a neighbor's tree.

"We're not paying attention to the alternatives for the people who are going to be displaced," said William Bosworth, director of the Bronx Data Center at Lehman College.

In Geneva Causey's neighborhood near Yankee Stadium, residents say they learned of definitive plans for a replacement ballpark through a news conference announcing the plan in June 2005. After 38 years of living in the South Bronx, Ms. Causey believes it finally might be time to move: The proposed new Yankee Stadium would be built across the street, 90 feet from her bedroom.

Mr. Carrión and other local politicians say the project will jump-start economic development. The City Council is expected to vote on the project in April. The Yankees want to start construction by May 1.

The proposal calls for building a stadium on two large neighborhood parks adjacent to the current stadium. Residents fear that the patchwork of new parks that will replace them will not make up for the green space, and the popular gathering spots, that they will lose.

"This is not going to be a desirable living area," Ms. Causey said. "It's kind of like, 'Where do you go?' This is affordable housing for people in this neighborhood. You will kill the community off."

Within walking distance of Yankee Stadium is the Bronx Terminal Market, a 31-acre collection of crumbling but popular warehouse shops. As part of a $400 million redevelopment plan, the market's remaining merchants and hundreds of their employees are being evicted. The market, which dates to the 1920's, will be replaced by Gateway Center, a mall that will include national chain stores.

Majora Carter, executive director Sustainable South Bronx, a community organization, said that officials had accepted projects that were not necessarily the best for the community because of an "inferiority complex" left over from the borough's leaner years.

"I'm all for development, but there's nothing in the middle at all," Ms. Carter said. "It's either they do a large-scale development or nothing at all. There are no neighborhood-scale shops."

And then there is the planned $50 million, 170,000-square-foot commercial development in the Hub, which like the proposed new Yankee Stadium, depends on government financing. It will include a Forman Mills discount retail store, a Staples and a Rite-Aid when it opens in two years. Though the area has sought chain stores for years with little luck, residents and community leaders like Mr. Rodriguez wonder if by upgrading they might upset the area's delicate economic balance. "We've got to make sure that whatever is done is done for the benefit of everyone in the community," Mr. Rodriguez said.The eastern Bronx has similar concerns. BJ's is trying to move into the area, and City Councilman James Vacca, who represents the district, said he fears a warehouse-style store would hurt local businesses, including several new supermarkets that have opened in the area recently.

The eastern Bronx has also had an increase in the number of huge homes being built on relatively small lots, which for years has been a problem in other areas of the city but is a relatively new phenomenon there. In response, neighborhoods like City Island and Throgs Neck have successfully lobbied for zoning laws in recent months to limit new building.

"We always saw ourselves as a touch of suburbia in the Bronx," Mr. Vacca said. "You want to retain trees and open space, and you don't want to live on top of your neighbor."

In the northern Bronx — including parts of Riverdale and Kingsbridge — zoning laws have changed as well to keep out new multistory apartment buildings and homes deemed too large for their lots.

Still, modest-size houses on streets that have not been rezoned have been bought by developers and demolished to make room for huge houses in the past year. In one case, on Tulfan Terrace in Riverdale, a 20-story condominium tower was built on the space that had housed three of the cul-de-sac's eight homes.

"We are in the midst of the most intense development push since the apartment house boom that transformed large parts of Riverdale in the 1950's," said Bradford Trebach, an associate broker and general counsel for his family's real estate firm, Trebach Realty.

Sometimes large-scale development has been greeted with praise. In Kingsbridge, a proposal to build a 207,000-square-foot shopping mall has received wide support among residents, even though some shops that the developers are in talks with, like Whole Foods, have higher prices than residents in the nearby housing projects are used to.

The new stores, which could include a chain bookstore, would force nearby retailers to adapt, said Fern Jaffe, who has owned the Paperbacks Plus bookstore for 36 years.

"We can weather the storm," Ms. Jaffe said. "Would I rather they weren't there? Of course. But development is development."

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Manny Fernandez contributed reporting for this article.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

krulltime

April 14th, 2006, 12:58 PM

City to fund affordable housing in the Bronx

by Catherine Tymkiw
April 14, 2006

The Bronx will get two new affordable housing buildings with the help of $29 million in tax-exempt bonds from the city's Housing Development Corp.

The Arker Cos. and the Jackson Development Group will spend $26 million to construct the Rev. Ruben Diaz Gardens Apartments at 967 Kelly St. in the Longwood section of the Bronx. The building will include 111 units, 20,000 square feet of retail, 27,000 square feet of offices and underground parking.

Atlantic Development will spend $28 million to build the Villa Avenue Apartments at 3121 Villa Ave. in the Bedford Park neighborhood, located one block west of the Grand Concourse. It will also include 111 units.

Both projects will be financed through HDC's low-income affordable marketplace program, which offers funding to developers who build apartments reserved for families earning no more than $42,540.

The buildings, which should be finished in 2008, are part of an ongoing affordable housing initiative by HDC. "We have a pipeline of apartments," said HDC spokesman Aaron Donovan. HDC expects to issue an additional $143 million of bonds to help fund 1,300 affordable apartments by year-end.

The agency said it has already provided more than $728 million to preserve or construct 28,084 affordable housing units.

©2006 Crain Communications Inc.

Kris

April 19th, 2006, 05:40 PM

April 19, 2006
The Greening of a Landmark of Urban Blight
By MANNY FERNANDEZ

http://graphics9.nytimes.com/images/2006/04/19/nyregion/19green.650.jpg
Nancy Biberman and Sam Marks at the site where their group is building housing for low-income families.

In the South Bronx, vacant lots achieve a kind of fame, if not infamy.

President Jimmy Carter's visit in October 1977 to an abandoned lot at Charlotte Street and Boston Road transformed an anonymous stretch of New York City into a national symbol of urban blight.

A couple of blocks away, a small patch of land became notorious as both Hollywood backdrop and neighborhood dumping ground. The five-story buildings that sat on the triangular lot at Louis Nine Boulevard and Intervale Avenue were torn down around 1980. The remaining mound of debris was used to set the mood for a bleak scene — the one where a prostitute kills two police officers — in the 1981 movie "Fort Apache, the Bronx." The lot has been vacant ever since, home to burned-out cars, trash, broken television sets and blackened soil from a 40-square-foot diesel spill.

It is here, of all places, that Nancy Biberman is planning to build big — and green. The empty lot will be the site of a $45 million, 174-unit housing complex for low-income families. A groundbreaking ceremony is to take place today.

Amid the concrete and grit of a neighborhood near the rattling elevated trains on Southern Boulevard, the red brick building will be surrounded and shaded by nearly 100 trees. By using high-efficiency boilers, it will use 85 percent less natural gas to generate heat and hot water than typical low-cost housing in the city, according to a project consultant. The paints, glues and other materials used in construction will be low in the pollutants known as volatile organic compounds. Four to 18 inches of soil will cover most of the roof, part of a green roof system of shrubs and small trees to reduce air pollution and absorb storm water runoff.

Ms. Biberman is president of the Bronx nonprofit group building the complex, the Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation, known as Whedco, which is hoping to create an intricately designed, energy-efficient home for families earning $28,000 to $39,000 a year, with one-bedroom apartments renting for $660 a month. The building will offer a touch of elegance and sophistication — each unit will have a computer and be wired for high-speed Internet access — in one of the nation's poorest Congressional districts.

On Monday afternoon, Ms. Biberman took a walk around the lot, once owned by the city, to see the transformation firsthand. For now, it remains a rocky, weed-covered area. But workers have been digging out what remained of the demolished buildings left to rot for more than two decades. The oil spill at the front of the nearly one-acre lot was cleaned up, but at the back of the site, a machine was busy scooping up contaminated soil and dumping it onto trucks for removal.

Debris that was buried in the ground or dumped on the surface was scattered. There were clumps of bathroom tile, a rusty oil tank, a flattened Rheingold can. The machine clawed the earth along Louis Nine Boulevard, working in the same spot where the scene in "Fort Apache, the Bronx" was filmed.

"This lot has been vacant and rubble-strewn, and just a reminder of bad times," Ms. Biberman said. The new building, she added, is "symbolic in a way of the rebuilding of the Bronx."

Whedco plans to start renting out the building, which will also include commercial storefront space, in the fall of 2007. It will be one of the few low-cost housing developments in New York to have a major environmentally friendly focus, and it will be built with a combination of city, state, federal and private funds in a section of the city where asthma and air pollution have long been a problem.

There will be a sculpture garden designed by the Bronx Museum of the Arts, interior motion-sensor lights and 42 trees planted in sidewalk plots about four times bigger than most such pits, to give the roots more oxygen and water.

Ms. Biberman said the choice to build green was about more than the environment. The building's tenants, she said, "do not have the money to take a break from city life and be in a place that's green and quiet and beautiful. If people can't afford to go there, then we're going to bring it to them."

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

antinimby

June 10th, 2006, 04:21 AM

Solaria Riverdale

http://solariariverdale.com/

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_06_solaria.jpg

krulltime

June 29th, 2006, 07:50 PM

Condo culture hits S. Bronx

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Artist drawing of
Orion condo with
elevators that will
be going up in S. Bronx.

By LORE CROGHAN
DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER
June 29, 2006

Affordable housing is going upscale in the South Bronx - where excavation is under way for the area's first elevatored condo building.

The nine-story Orion will rise on Third Ave. near E. 156th St. in Melrose Commons, a 35-block urban renewal zone where a new wave of construction is starting.

Once burned-out South Bronx nabes are seeing a real estate resurgence, as old factories become handsome rental apartment buildings and townhouses sprout on vacant lots.

"This is a breakthrough," said architect Magnus Magnusson, whose firm designed the Orion and has an ownership stake in it. "It will show that the South Bronx is no longer the backwater of New York City."

His firm, Melrose Associates, is one of four partners developing the Orion - and a second condo building set to break ground later this summer.

The quartet includes Nos Quedamos (We Stay) - a community group that got the city to abandon an urban renewal plan that would have evicted thousands of Melrose residents and businesses - and builders Procida Realty & Construction and L&M Equity.

"We believe everybody needs a little piece of something to own," said Yolanda Gonzalez, Nos Quedamos' executive director.

The 60 condos in the brick and cast-stone design at 3044 Third Ave. will have fancy touches like bamboo floors, though most units are for low- to moderate-income buyers.

The developers hope to start the sale process in the fall, said Christine Procida of Procida Realty & Construction.

The builders get tax breaks and grants from the city.

Seven units are for low-income purchasers - who earn $58,320 or less per year for a family of four. A total of 39 apartments are for middle-income buyers - who earn up to $80,190 annually for a family of four - or moderate-income buyers, who top out at $94,770 for a family of four.

Fourteen flats are "market-rate" - with no income restrictions.

Prices are expected to range from around $145,000 for one-bedrooms for low-income buyers to about $325,000 for market-rate three-bedrooms, Procida said.

The developers will coordinate a lottery for buyers with the city Housing Preservation and Development department and the Housing Partnership Development Corp. People who want their names on a mailing list for notification about the start of the lottery should call Procida at (718) 299-7000, extension 221.

The second building is called the Aurora and will have 90 units - 7 for low-income buyers, 62 for moderate-income buyers and 21 market-rate flats.

All contents © 2006 Daily News, L.P.

krulltime

July 3rd, 2006, 02:37 PM

Bronx Hub revival gathers steam
Retail nexus for the borough pulls in national chains, new projects -- and hopes of higher rents

http://www.therealdeal.net//issues/JULY_2006/images/1151609191.jpg
(Top) Retail at the Hub's 149th
Street and Melrose Avenue; and
(bottom) a planned project on
Third Avenue between 153rd and
156th streets that will house a
branch of the city's Department
of Finance.

By Marc Ferris
July 2006

Signs of change abound at the Hub, a historic crossroads once known as the Broadway of the Bronx. Some civic leaders are now trying to have this pocket of the South Bronx designated as Downtown Bronx, with limited success.

Major roads, including Third, Melrose, Willis and Westchester avenues intersect with East 149th Street here, at Roberto Clemente Plaza. Foot traffic is constant and fingers of retail extend to ancillary streets, especially the canyon along Third Avenue between 149th and 156th streets, the northern borough's analogue to Times Square. There are no electric billboards, but instead a riot of gaudy orange and yellow signs. Scaffolding and construction projects are beginning to sprout at the Hub, which is within walking distance of a recent spate of proposals to revamp the Bronx Terminal Market and rebuild Yankee Stadium.

Well-known chains like Duane Reade and Washington Mutual Bank have joined typical outer-borough establishments such as Mr. Discount, Audio Shack, Cookie's Department Store and the 99¢ Express. For every Burger King or McDonald's, there's a Jumbo's Hamburger Place. Bodegas abound.

The city's Economic Development Corporation helped jump-start the Hub's resurgence. One project still in the planning stages is an ambitious development of 180 residential units, 300,000 square feet of office space and 500,000 square feet of retail, including a supermarket and a cinema along 149th Street east of Third Avenue, which will be built by Blackacre Capital Management LLC and Cypress Equities, said Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman for the agency.

Heavy equipment has been deployed to begin the Hub's most dramatic project, now under construction by the Related Companies on Third Avenue between 153rd and 156th streets, which will house a branch of the city's Department of Finance and the offices of the local community board. Retail components will include a Forman Mills discount clothing outlet taking 42,000 square feet, a Staples Superstore with 18,000 square feet and a Rite Aid with 16,245 square feet. Related is also renovating a 273-space parking garage.

Though the developer won the RFP floated by the Economic Development Corporation in 2003, the $53 million job just got under way. "It's a challenging site to lease out to various retailers," said Glenn Goldstein, an executive vice president at Related. "You need to have a significant project like this pre-leased."

There are still 15,000 square feet to lease, he said, which will be housed on the first floor of the garage. Related is also revamping the Bronx Terminal Market near Yankee Stadium, which will boast 970,000 square feet of retail.

Located on 156th Street across from the Related site is a privately-funded project by Procida Development, which has yet to break ground but will consist of housing and retail.

Though national chains have arrived, bringing their sense of sameness, the local outlets can offer an element of charming seediness. Several buildings are fully rented on the ground floor but are clearly vacant -- even dilapidated -- up top. One large green sign on 149th Avenue advertises a pawn broker.

"It's not quite the Fulton Mall, and the arrival of national chains is not happening so quickly, but retailers do quite well," said Mario Procida, Procida Development's head. "Over the next few years, the change will be significant."

Though the Hub is happening, two other Bronx locations, Fordham Road and Bay Plaza at Co-op City, take in more money, though that may change. Within spitting distance of the intersection of Third Avenue at 149th Street, rents exceed $100 per square foot, said Nicholas Burns, director of sales at Massey Knakal Realty Services. In contrast, rents on Manhattan's major retail corridors average around $330 a square foot, according to a spring report by the Real Estate Board of New York.

"Some very small spaces get $200," said Burns. "But the farther away you get from the main drag, retail rents drop dramatically."

The Related project may single-handedly boost rents to new heights.

"It will extend economic activity from the core center and it will add 225 jobs to the area," said Burns. "Across the street from the site, one ground-floor tenant who paid $20 to $25 a square foot was struggling, so when the lease expired, the owner signed up a national tenant in the $40-square-foot range. That's just the beginning."

Despite the presence of stately buildings with good bones that are at least 80 years old, the office market has yet to catch up with retail, but Burns sees that changing as well. He points to government programs that offer tax incentives and other bonuses, including a task force created several years ago by Sen. Charles Schumer, named the Group of 35, to create ancillary business districts to house back-office functions for companies that don't require inviting retail spaces, such as computer and printing firms. Back on the retail side, the city's Industrial and Commercial Incentive Program has also helped, spurring Thor Industries to build a large complex at 2914 Third Avenue.

The activity in the Hub is one of the most significant signs that the Bronx' building boom has only just begun, said Goldstein. "We're actively looking at other things," he added. "The borough is in a resurgence and is under-retailed, so we strongly believe in the future."

Procida shares that optimism: "We've been based here since the mid-1970s and have been bullish on the Bronx for quite some time."

Copyright © 2003-2005 The Real Deal

krulltime

July 24th, 2006, 02:57 AM

Vacant Lot Was Their Paradise

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Geraldo Justiniano watched a crew last week work on the foundation of a three-family home being put up
on East 139th Street in the South Bronx.

By MANNY FERNANDEZ
July 24, 2006

Technically, the lot on East 139th Street near Willis Avenue in the South Bronx was vacant, according to city records.

Yet there was nothing vacant about it.

Over here was the camper where the guys from the neighborhood watched football games on Sundays. Over there was Izzy’s 1981 Yamaha motorcycle, an old motorboat, a wheelchair, three Rottweilers and the cages for Mr. Lopez’s chickens. Children from across the street used it as a playground. There were parties, domino games, volleyball matches, auto-repair workshops and pig roasts.

About 12 years ago, Geraldo Justiniano decided to reclaim the abandoned lot for the neighborhood. He put up a chain-link fence, laid down some gravel and mowed the grass. And though he lives in a two-bedroom apartment a few blocks away, he would often sleep in the camper on weekends, soaking up life in the great outdoors of East 139th Street, the morning crows of a rooster his alarm clock.

When the construction crew arrived this month, no one was really surprised. Mr. Justiniano — people call him J. J. — watched one day last week as a giant claw tore a deep hole in the soil. Five three-family homes are going up on the lot, which had become known in this corner of Mott Haven by two names: La Yarda and Paradise.

“A lot of memories,” said Mr. Justiniano, 39. His friends and neighbors have been feeling equally nostalgic: On the Fourth of July, they threw him and La Yarda a farewell party.

The commercial and residential development that has transformed the South Bronx in recent years has done more than added jobs and housing. It has altered the physical landscape, filling in the empty topography that in the 1970’s and 80’s came to symbolize the decline and abandonment of entire parts of American cities.

The vacant lots of the area’s past — the eerie urban prairies strewn with garbage and the rubble of dead tenements — graced the covers of books and the pages of newspapers. They starred in Hollywood movies like “Fort Apache, the Bronx.” They drew visits from local politicians, a president, a future president and even a pope.

Yet for many South Bronx residents, the empty land was something more than an eyesore or an emblem of urban blight. Lots remained abandoned for so long that they took on an unexpected, improvisational life of their own in one of the poorest communities in the country. Now, as new apartment buildings, homes and businesses rise in the area, this small piece of gritty South Bronx history — the abandoned lot — is disappearing.

These lots were unloved for the most part, but not unused. They were dumps, drug bazaars and a breeding ground for illegal activity, but they also became community gardens, outdoor churches and places where streetwise entrepreneurs set up shop. They were home to wooden crosses, discarded couches, oil spills, beat-up cars and people like Jorge Luis Manzo, known as Choco, who years ago lived in a small wooden shack on a burned-out stretch of St. Ann’s Avenue, one of many streets devastated at the time by rampant arson.

Anthony Perez Cassino, a lawyer who is the chairman of Community Board 8 in Riverdale and grew up in the South Bronx in the 1970’s, said the abandoned lots cast the entire borough in a negative light, a reputation that continued long after they began to be replaced by much-needed housing. “It’s good to see it go,” he said of the empty spaces. “In the bigger picture, it’s for the better.”

According to land-use and geographic data from the Department of City Planning, there were 1,300 vacant parcels in the South Bronx in 2005. Many are now construction sites or are no longer empty, the result of the borough’s building boom. Since 2002, $3 billion in private and public money has been invested in residential, commercial and institutional development projects in the Bronx, according to figures from the borough president’s office. The number of new Bronx addresses issued in 2005 was 1,352, nearly double the number in 2001.

The empty lots that remain are narrow slices of pavement or large expanses of urban wilderness. Some are impromptu junkyards. Others have five-foot-tall weeds. Chain-link fences act as billboards advertising mattresses for sale and Carlo’s Lite Mover. The fences do not keep people out so much as keep them in. There are dining room chairs set on the grass, crushed beer cans, cigar butts and tables.

At a lot on Fox Street, there is a touch of gallows humor: a freshly dug mock grave and a cross at the edge of the sidewalk. At a lot at Prospect Avenue and East 156th Street, there is Mama Isabels Place, a food van that has been a neighborhood staple for years. People sit beneath the van’s canopy on cafeteria-style chairs, eating $1.25 pastelillos de carne, or meat turnovers.

And there is La Yarda.

The 100-by-100-foot space, which is being developed by the Jackson Development Group of Bellerose, N.Y., has been the scene of an unusually friendly property dance, as Mr. Justiniano, the lot’s unofficial tenant, moves out and the company, which bought the site six months ago, moves in. The developer even hired Mr. Justiniano to work as a security guard during construction.

Mr. Justiniano is short and stocky, and he has a tan as deep as any lifeguard’s from spending so many hours in the lot. He grew up in the apartment building next door, and his unorthodox view of public and private property began early, when he took over one empty lot on the block at age 9 and another at 19. Now he runs an office-supply delivery company and is the vice president of the Bronx chapter of the Lunatics, a New York City motorcycle club.

As he sat on a bench that used to be the back seat of someone’s van, he talked about the old times in Paradise. He and his friends brought in a projector to show movies on the wall. They had an Easter egg hunt for neighborhood children and once hitched a motorized water scooter to the back of a Jeep during a snowstorm. “Our own field of dreams,” said Mr. Justiniano’s friend Izzy Fortuna, 45.

At the goodbye party on the Fourth, neighbors signed a banner spray-painted with the words “Farewell La Yarda.” A woman named Sandra wrote: “We will miss the good times.” Someone else scrawled: “Home never has a name.” José E. Serrano, the Bronx congressman whose district includes Mott Haven and who happened to be in the neighborhood that afternoon, signed the banner and took home a plate of food.

“This is an example of a spot in the neighborhood that became sort of an oasis,” Mr. Serrano said. “I’ve always seen people using a lot. I’ve never seen anyone say goodbye to one.”

Mr. Justiniano is storing the camper, the children’s toys and other items at another lot at the corner. It is much smaller than La Yarda. But he thinks it will be perfect for a pig roast.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/24/nyregion/24bronx.large2.jpg
Justino Lopez greets a Rottweiler that was relocated, along with the camper, from Paradise to another lot.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Strattonport

August 14th, 2006, 08:42 PM

Groundbreaking Held For Bronx Terminal Market Mall
August 14, 2006
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/images/live/102/203052.jpg

Link to article (http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=12&aid=61775)

Officials in the Bronx presided over a groundbreaking ceremony Monday to mark the beginning of construction for a new shopping center at the Bronx Terminal Market.

The Gateway Center, a one million square foot retail facility, is expected to bring some 5,000 jobs to the area.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the center will be a major part of the Renaissance of the Bronx.

"For far too long this 18 acre site, in many respects the front yard for the Bronx, has represented exactly the wrong face of a borough that does so much for our city," he said. "The dilapidated and neglected buildings of the old Bronx terminal market were an all too visible eyesore, to everyone driving by on the heavily traveled Major Deegan Expressway."

One of the largest private investments ever in the Bronx, the Gateway Center will also provide new public access to the Bronx waterfront.

The $500 million project is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009.

The market was formerly the home of ethnic food merchants. Earlier this year, merchants lost a two-year fight with the city to keep the market open.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

NY1's Dean Meminger filed this report.

The Bronx Terminal Market is being terminated. Work crews have started to knock down the 70-year-old property, where vendors sold ethnic foods up until this summer.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion are happy to see what they call an eyesore disappear.

“This was a commercial and industrial ghetto, and the landlord here was a slumlord,” Carrion said Monday.

“For decades and decades this place just went downhill with no progress being made," added Bloomberg.

If was two years ago the Related Companies bought the lease for the property from the old landlord and announced plans for a major shopping mall called the Gateway Center on the 18-acre site.

Food vendors fought the move, but after City Council hearings and court battles, they received some financial and moving assistance from the city and Bronx officials.

Critics claimed the politically connected developer got a sweetheart deal, because it didn't go through a bidding process for the city-owned land, which also included the old Bronx Detention Center.

“There is always somebody that says, ‘I could have done that,’ or, ‘I would have done it at better terms,’” said Bloomberg. “My recollection is that we couldn’t find anybody that wanted to invest in the South Bronx before we all got into office. Now, everybody does."

The new landlord of this property says they already have national retailers lined up to move in when the new Gateway Center opens. They include Target, Home Depot, Best Buy and BJ's Wholesale Club.

Many local food vendors who had their stores at the market say they feared they were being forced out by politicians in order to make space for a national wholesaler like BJ's.

“We practically do some of the same kind of business. Why couldn't they have offered us the opportunity to renovate and fix up the market for the people that was all ready there?" asked Food Fest worker Claudette Bernard.

The borough president says the nationally known stores will offer a lot more for area residents looking for bargains.

“They price shop in New Rochelle and Westchester County and north New Jersey, buying Pampers and food and all the stuff that it takes to raise a family. We are giving that kind of price competition to Bronx families," said Carrion.

The mall, estimated to cost $500 million to build, is predicted to bring in 5,000 construction and retail jobs.

The Related Company has promised to give a $3 million contribution towards job training and other initiatives to improve the community.

The mall is scheduled to open in 2009.

- Dean Meminger

ablarc

August 14th, 2006, 09:00 PM

The borough president says the nationally known stores will offer a lot more for area residents looking for bargains.

“They price shop in New Rochelle and Westchester County and north New Jersey, buying Pampers and food and all the stuff that it takes to raise a family. We are giving that kind of price competition to Bronx families," said Carrion.

The mall, estimated to cost $500 million to build, is predicted to bring in 5,000 construction and retail jobs.
Big Box City looks like the wave of future retailing.

Too bad this project isn't mixed use. Where's the housing?

Schadenfrau

August 14th, 2006, 09:19 PM

I'll add my voice to that question, Ablarc.

virtualchoirboy

August 16th, 2006, 12:20 AM

Are there renderings for this project?

I have been waiting for this for a long time. Adolpho Carrion has done so much more for the Bronx than that narrow minded Ferrar. He has pushed the envelop.

krulltime

August 16th, 2006, 03:16 AM

Here is a small rendering...

http://www.therealdeal.net//breaking_news/2006/08/14/images/6709.jpg

http://www.therealdeal.net/breaking_news/2006/08/14/1155574481.php

virtualchoirboy

August 17th, 2006, 08:20 PM

Here is a small rendering...

http://www.therealdeal.net//breaking_news/2006/08/14/images/6709.jpg

http://www.therealdeal.net/breaking_news/2006/08/14/1155574481.php

This made be off subject...but the city convinced BJ's Wholesale, said to occupy a large chunk of the space, to accept food benefits (or welfare) cards.:eek: :mad: :(:rolleyes: :p :D :cool:

Kris

October 7th, 2006, 05:26 AM

October 8, 2006
Postings
A Forlorn Neighborhood Revitalized
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/10/08/realestate/08post.1.190.jpg
RETURNING GRANDEUR A derelict mansion in the Bronx is to anchor an affordable-housing complex, shown in a rendering below.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/10/08/realestate/08post.2.190.jpg

THE Denison-White mansion, in the Longwood section of the Bronx, retains little of its original grandeur.

Built around 1850 by Charles Denison, a Manhattan merchant, and later occupied by Samuel White, his son-in-law, the long-abandoned property is covered in graffiti and surrounded by empty soda bottles and rusty spray paint canisters.

But it seems a rebirth is imminent.

Friends in the City Inc. and the Lantern Group, both Manhattan-based nonprofit developers of affordable housing, are teaming up to restore the Denison-White residence, turn it into a community center and build 95 apartments — 93 of them categorized as affordable.

The planned $28 million renovation and reuse of the property, which served as a real estate office, social club and Police Athletic League center at various points in its history, has been enough to pique the interest of neighbors and affordable-housing advocates in this blue-collar neighborhood.

But the development, to be called Cedars, is perhaps most notable for its focus on a demographic increasingly known as the “grandfamily”: grandparents (or other older relatives) raising grandchildren.

While the bulk of Cedars apartments will be rented to low-income people 55 and older, the developers intend to reserve 28 units for generation-skipping families.

This will place the project on the leading edge of a nationwide trend. With 2.4 million grandparents serving as the primary caretakers of their grandchildren across the country, according to census data, a growing number of developers and municipalities are building housing aimed specifically at grandfamilies.

Donna M. Butts, executive director of Generations United, a Washington-based group that promotes intergenerational programs and policies, said that so far there were eight grandfamily developments across the country — one each in Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Baton Rouge, Chicago, Las Vegas, New Haven and the Morrisania section of the Bronx.

Dorothy Jenkins, 76, a resident of the Morrisania development, called GrandParentFamily Apartments, took in three of her seven grandchildren when a daughter died of a brain aneurism in 1993. “Let me tell you,” she said, “it wasn’t easy.”

But Ms. Jenkins, a retired embroiderer and union official, said she had found solace in a support group at GrandParentFamily, which opened in June 2005.

Carol Jackson, project manager at the Lantern Group, said that Cedars, scheduled to break ground next month, will have safety features like grab bars in the bathrooms and soft carpeting in the hallways.

The development — financed by private donations, grants, loans and $18.8 million in financing from the New York City Housing Development Corporation — will also provide counseling, after-school programs and other supports, she said.

And in a forlorn corner of the Bronx, there will be something vital again. “These families are dedicated to staying together,” Ms. Jackson said. “There is something there that is the core of a very strong relationship that should be preserved.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

lofter1

October 7th, 2006, 12:19 PM

Great intentions with this project ... hoping that they will do some revisions to the unrelenting blank walls behind the former mansion.

antinimby

October 9th, 2006, 07:06 PM

Daily News: City selling empty lots in the Bronx for affordable housing development. Link to the article here (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=124654&postcount=71).

investordude

November 4th, 2006, 01:19 AM

Soapbox:

I'm surprised there isn't more heat on NYC for losing all the new developments to Westchester cities like Yonkers and New Rochelle. Most likely rent control and other policies are the culprit (or at least, I don't see how Yonkers in particular is closer to the major job markets either in New York or Connecticut). How can Yonkers attracted 3.6 billion in development while the Bronx gets nothing, and no one thinks New York City has a policy problem?

I think people should be more annoyed about this than they seem to be.

antinimby

November 4th, 2006, 03:31 AM

It's no one's fault the Bronx is getting ignored except for the residents themselves. Community residents are against everything--good, bad or otherwise.

It seems like the people of this city aren't particularly fond of large-scale development (or development of any kind for that matter).

Need I remind you of Atlantic Yards? Don't forget Yankee Stadium also.

Kris

January 17th, 2007, 05:52 AM

January 17, 2007
Working-Class Housing Complex Will Rise as Part of the Greenery
By JANNY SCOTT

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/17/nyregion/0117-met-web-HOUSINGmap.gif
The property, in the Melrose section of the South Bronx, was condemned by the city in 1972.

The Bloomberg administration, hoping to inspire more imaginative design in working-class housing, intends to turn over one of a dwindling number of large tracts of city-owned land to a development team with an unusual plan — to build a low- and moderate-income housing complex bound together by courtyards and roof gardens that would be used for everything from harvesting rainwater to farming vegetables and fruit.

The proposed project, selected from among five finalists by a jury that included not only architects but a professor of environmental psychology and anthropology, would include an outdoor amphitheater, apartments designed for breezes, a fitness center, wiring for Internet access, “live-work units” for people who work at home, stoops with photovoltaic canopies, even a Christmas tree farm.

“We started out on this process to try to raise the level of design and the level of sustainability for housing not just on this site but with the hope that this could be really a model,” said Shaun Donovan, commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. “Given the responses we got, I think there’s a real opportunity for this to be a project that changes the future of housing in this country.”

The competition, announced last June and sponsored by the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects and Mr. Donovan’s department, attracted interest from 32 teams of architects and developers from around the world. The Bloomberg administration has vowed to create or preserve 165,000 units of low- and moderate-income housing by 2013.

The winning team, to be announced today, is made up of an international architectural firm, Grimshaw Architects; a New York firm, Dattner Architects; and two developers, the Jonathan Rose Companies and the Phipps Houses Group, a New York nonprofit that develops low- and moderate-income housing. For one dollar, the city plans to give the team an oddly shaped, empty 60,000-square-foot lot at Brook Avenue and East 156th Street in the South Bronx, which it condemned in an urban renewal program in 1972. The property, which includes abandoned railroad tracks and possibly contaminated soil and groundwater, lies northeast of the Hub, the third-largest shopping district in the Bronx.

The 202-apartment complex, called Via Verde, or the Green Way, would include an 18-story tower at the north end, a mid-rise building with duplex apartments, and townhouses to the south. Sixty-three units would be co-op apartments for sale; the rest would be rentals. The garden would begin at ground level, then spiral upward in a series of roof gardens that face south, culminating in what the team calls a sky terrace.

“There’s a reason why people like to be in parks and gardens and trees,” said Jonathan F. P. Rose, president of Jonathan Rose Companies. “We grew out of nature. How can we make this very urban building but also give people a connection with nature?” He said the team decided to “wrap the building with a garden,” beginning with a contemplative space and moving “from very private to increasing levels of communality.”

The so-called green roofs have multiple purposes — social, psychological and environmental. They would enhance insulation, reduce heat absorption and help manage storm water runoff, the developers say. They would help with solar and rainwater harvesting systems. Every apartment would have two facades, allowing cross-ventilation and plenty of light; all mechanical systems would be energy efficient.

Other environmentally sensitive technologies that might be used include geothermal ground loops for heating water in winter and cooling it in summer. To encourage conservation, residents would be given control of their own energy consumption. There would be low-flow, water-conserving plumbing fixtures and rooms for recycling and bicycle storage.

“The premise is simple — to create affordable, humane housing,” said Vincent Chang, a principal at Grimshaw, which was founded in the United Kingdom and has offices in Europe, New York and Australia. “What’s unique is we genuinely sought to make a connection to nature accessible, to bring that level of community into the overall design.”

The co-ops would be for households making no more than 130 percent of the median income for the city, or roughly $70,000 for a family of four. The rest of the apartments would be rentals for households making less than 40 percent, between 40 and 60 percent, and between 60 and 80 percent of the median income. The low and moderate rents are to be made possible with the help of city, federal and state subsidies. Construction is expected to begin in mid-2008.

Joan Blumenfeld, president of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects, said it remains to be seen whether the project and the process that produced it would serve as a model. But, she said, “I think it also will start a thought process about looking at different ways of trying to finance and procure these projects in general and trying to introduce design as more of a requirement upfront.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

investordude

January 18th, 2007, 08:12 PM

The article about building a green working class housing complex makes my heart sick. If these government idiots want to improve the environment, then end rent control. How much pollution gets saved when landlords invest in their properties, fix insulation problems, etc. Aside from all the other issues market rents would alleviate, clearly one good side effect would be on carbon emissions and energy waste.

Why can't the Times be objective about these godawful policies that hurt poor people and the environment?

antinimby

January 18th, 2007, 11:35 PM

Don't blame the Times for just reporting the news.

lofter1

January 19th, 2007, 02:11 AM

investordude: show me one instance where a landlord was forced to buy property covered by rent regulations.

Those laws have been in effect for 35 + years.

If the landlord can't make a go of it then sell the property and get out of the way of tenants who are simply trying to live their lives.

Related story:

Spitzer Shelves New Rent Regulations (http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?&aid=65956&search_result=1&stid=3)

Schadenfrau

January 30th, 2007, 09:41 PM

antinimby

February 6th, 2007, 02:12 AM

Kingsbridge seeks retail revival

Lack of activity at Bronx parking lot worries shopping center boosters

http://www.therealdeal.net//issues/FEBRUARY_2007/images/1170196443.jpg
Kingsbridge broker Joan Kuzniar said
there are great expectations for a
development planned on the lot seen
behind her. Others see no progress
and their patience is running out.

By John DeSio
February 2007 (http://www.therealdeal.net/issues/FEBRUARY_2007/1170196443.php)

For years, residents of the northwest Bronx have been salivating over the potential benefits of a plot of city-owned land in Kingsbridge at Broadway and West 230th Street, currently occupied by a parking lot.

In an effort to expand retail offerings in the area, the New York City Economic Development Corporation sought interest from developers in August 2004, but residents have had to wait more than two years for word that a still undefined project will go forward. In January 2006, the corporation selected Kingsbridge Crossing, a joint development of Ceruzzi Holdings, a Fairfield, Conn.-based development and property management firm, and the Blumenfeld Development Group of Syosset, New York, as the winning bidders to develop the plot.

A year later, Janel Patterson, a spokesperson for the EDC, and Jamie Van Bramer, a spokesperson for Ceruzzi Holdings, said that they could not discuss the project due to ongoing negotiations between the two parties. Local leaders see the project, reported to include major retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond and grocery retailer Whole Foods, as the linchpin of a revitalization of the Kingsbridge shopping district. However, the lack of progress since the developer was named leaves many wondering about the future of the project and the future of Kingsbridge in general.

Kingsbridge, which runs along a stretch of Broadway between West 230th and West 240th Streets, enjoys proximity to neighboring, upscale Riverdale, and both neighborhoods are isolated from the rest of the Bronx by barriers both natural (the Hudson and Harlem Rivers) and man-made (Van Cortlandt Park and the Major Deegan Expressway). Though it's landlocked, with Marble Hill to the south, and sits only a brief train ride away from the rest of Manhattan, Kingsbridge has failed to see the same type of gentrification as outer borough communities like Brooklyn's Williamsburg or St. George in Staten Island. A lack of retail development is part of the problem.

Even Inwood and Washington Heights, uptown Manhattan communities within walking distance of Kingsbridge, have far outpaced their Bronx neighbor in terms of urban renewal.

Local leaders are quick to point out that the decline of a once-bustling Kingsbridge shopping district has played a major role in keeping Kingsbridge depressed while housing prices in neighboring Riverdale continue to soar. Local real estate brokers estimate that a one-bedroom apartment in Kingsbridge rents from $900 to $1,100 per month, while just north in Riverdale the same apartment can start at as much as $1,400.

Retail rents between the two communities are much more similar. Riverdale retail space averages $35 per square foot, though some locations can run as high as $70 per square foot. In Kingsbridge, rents can run around $50 per square foot, though some space at a nearby Marble Hill shopping center, where Target is the anchor tenant, has run as low as $30 per square foot.

Right now, much of the Kingsbridge shopping district is occupied by fast-food restaurants, numerous 99-cent stores and bodegas, and a handful of established mom-and-pop shops. The bigger retailers are Lot Less Closeouts and a Stop & Shop supermarket. Staples, the largest retailer in Kingsbridge, anchors one shopping center. Across the street is a fruit stand, a storefront offering low-cost legal services and quickie divorces, and a defunct hot wings franchise.

Though neither the Ceruzzi-Blumenfeld partnership nor the city will discuss prospective retail tenants in the planned shopping center, the lineup is expected to include several major national retailers, something the area currently lacks in number. At a meeting of Bronx Community Board 8 last September, Fred Ceruzzi, a principal of Ceruzzi Holdings, said the project would bring a mix of local and national retailers, a movie theater and about 300 underground parking spots. Since then, there have been reports that Bed Bath & Beyond, grocery retailer Whole Foods and national bookstore chains have expressed interest in the project.

Joan Kuzniar, a broker with Robert E. Hill Real Estate in Kingsbridge, said that the inclusion of higher-quality national retailers would usher in a retail renaissance throughout Kingsbridge.

"In the long run, as these leases run out, landlords would probably move to double or triple the rents, which would likely lead to more chain stores. And those current retailers are not going to be able to afford those rents," she said. "It may very well change the entire retail landscape, eventually."

Though small retailers might have a harder time when the new development eventually opens its doors, Kuzniar said she thinks that those mom-and-pop stores would benefit from the increased traffic the mall would bring to the area.

She notes that the Marble Hill development, which opened in August 2004, brought with it not just bigger retailers but an influx of shoppers to the area, allowing local vendors to piggyback on the major retailers' success in the area. "Target doesn't seem to affect a lot of the mom-and-pop stores, in fact it seems to bring them more customers. There could be the same spillover effect," she said.

Though they are loath to say it publicly, the grand dream of many of Riverdale's power elite is that the Kingsbridge Crossing development will kick off the gentrification of the Kingsbridge area. As the theory goes, if the 99-cent stores that litter the neighborhood were forced out of business by higher rents, their clientele would follow, and the poorer residents of Kingsbridge would be replaced by middle-class tenants. It is a possibility, said Robert Wachsman, a broker with local agent Riverdale Homes, but one that would take years to implement.

"If they bring in high-end retailers, it might change the neighborhood a bit. But that's going to take a long time," said Wachsman, who added that the stores that will reportedly be included as part of Kingsbridge Crossing -- though better than many of the neighborhood's current retail offerings -- would still not be within the upper echelon of shopping opportunities. "I don't know if that translates into improving the residential area right away."

Wachsman figures that a total overhaul of the residential stock of Kingsbridge would probably take at least 10 to 15 years. Landlords will not allow their apartments to stay vacant, said Wachsman, and that prevents any quick overhaul of the neighborhood's residential offerings. "If somebody sees the commercial space going for $50 a square foot, they might think, 'Maybe I can get more, maybe I can rent this $800 one-bedroom for $1,200,'" said Wachsman. "If you put in nicer stuff, it might be more attractive to live in Kingsbridge, especially because the subway is right there. But that is going to take some time."

Despite hopes for the project and its impact on the area, observers worry that the longer the process drags on, the less likely it is that those hopes will be realized.

"I'm very concerned that this has taken much longer than expected. I'm not blaming anyone, but I'm very concerned," said New York State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who represents the district and is a long-time advocate of retail development at the site. "We're missing the benefit this mall will bring to the community, which is not just the jobs and the economic engine, but the shopping opportunities, as well," said the assemblyman. "It just keeps dragging along, and every minute of delay costs money. It's very frustrating."

Copyright © 2003-2007 The Real Deal.

antinimby

March 16th, 2007, 04:54 PM

Ground Breaks for Mixed-Use Fordham Place Project

http://www.globest.com/newspics/nyc_fordhamplace.jpg
Fordham Place

Last updated: March 15, 2007 (http://www.globest.com/news/864_864/gsrnortheast/158927-1.html) 04:58pm

NEW YORK CITY-Ground broke this week on the mixed-use project at 400 E. Fordham Rd. and Webster Road in the Bronx. The project marks the first major development in the area for almost 20 years according to developers Acadia and P/A Associates.

“This is one of the most exciting new mixed-use projects coming on-line in the Bronx today,” says Ken Bernstein, president of Acadia, in a statement. “Fordham Place seamlessly synthesizes high design and cost-effective floor layouts with an unsurpassed location in terms of its incredible accessibility, high levels of foot traffic and excellent workforce.”

At full build out Fordham Place will encompass 160,000 sf of office and 100,000 sf of retail on the 14 floors. The project is expected to be completed sometime next year and is situated across from Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus and near the Bronx Zoo and New York Botanical Gardens.

Sears, department store, which currently has a located at the eastern part of the Fordham Road retail corridor, has signed on to anchor tenant the new development. Walgreens and a number of other local retailers have also already signed on to the project, which currently has lease agreements to about 93,000 sf of the 100,000 to be built. Acadia is handling the leasing for the project.

For the office component floor plates will vary in size from 8,000 sf to 28,000 sf. The building will also have a 24-hour concierge and turnstile security with swipe card access. GVA Williams’ Robert Freedman, Alexander Jinishian, Harry Blair and Greg Wang have been named the exclusive leasing agents for the office portion.

“This important redevelopment project will insure the continued vibrancy of this flourishing Bronx business district,” says Freedman. “Fordham Place is exquisitely positioned to provide Class A office product to areas that have been significantly underserved. We are delighted to play a major role in promoting this project.”

As reported by GlobeSt.com Acadia is also constructing a 1.6-million-sf mixed-use tower in Brooklyn. MacFarlane Partners is partnering with Acadia on that deal.

Copyright © 2007 ALM Properties, Inc.

investordude

May 10th, 2007, 01:35 AM

http://www.therealdeal.net/breaking_news/2007/05/09/1178723502.php

I think one of the problems in the Bronx is a lack of retail. This complex seems like the New Roc City complex in New Rochelle, hopefully it will help kickstart rejuvenation in that area. The current population is too elderly, and is not renewing itself with young families to survive and thrive for another generation.

Schadenfrau

May 10th, 2007, 02:12 AM

How do you suppose a shopping mall is going to "kickstart" any sort of residential activity anywhere? The Bronx has plenty of young families, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. Like every other borough, it needs more affluent unmarrieds to achieve bourgeois nirvana, if that's the goal.

investordude

May 10th, 2007, 11:33 AM

With college educated parents - it needs to become a place families with a choice live because they want,not because they have to. I don't think the Bronx should compete with Manhattan, but it should have enough retail to make life comfortable and easy for the people living there - movie theaters, super markets, etc.

Schadenfrau

May 10th, 2007, 11:59 AM

Call me crazy, but I don't think a cineplex is going to draw in these "young, affluent families" you're talking about. Maybe try some affordable housing?

ASchwarz

May 10th, 2007, 12:32 PM

Call me crazy, but I don't think a cineplex is going to draw in these "young, affluent families" you're talking about. Maybe try some affordable housing?

As a resident of the South Bronx, I'm sure you are aware that the city is partnering with developers to build quite a bit of mixed-income housing. For example, there are thousands of units of housing being built north of the Hub, in the Melrose Commons area. Just take a walk along Third Avenue or Boston Road.

Schadenfrau

May 10th, 2007, 01:29 PM

I'm not arguing that no housing is being built- just that it's more important than movie theaters and big box stores. Also, Kingsbridge isn't the South Bronx.

investordude

May 21st, 2007, 10:38 AM

It seems pretty obvious this guy is willfully distorting the landmark laws to harass the landlord: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/nyregion/21citywide.html?hp

He should sue the tenant for harassment and making false claims to the government. It's so historic they didn't know about the history until they looked it up online - sounds pretty unhistoric to me.

antinimby

July 3rd, 2007, 09:21 PM

NYC Approves 880,000-SF Village

http://www.globest.com/newspics/nyc_boricuavillage.jpg
Boricua Village

By Natalie Dolce
Last updated: July 2, 2007 (http://www.globest.com/news/940_940/gsrnortheast/161936-1.html) 06:40am

NEW YORK CITY-The city has given approval for Boricua Village, a 4.5-acre educational, commercial and residential community in the Melrose section of the Bronx. With groundbreaking expected to occur in September, the 880,000-sf development is said to be the most ambitious community revitalization initiative in recent years by parties involved in the project.

The development, slated for a 2009 completion, is jointly sponsored by locally based Atlantic Development Group LLC and Boricua College, a liberal arts school with locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

With approximately 750 residential units, 50,000 sf of retail space as well as a 14-story building that will house a new Bronx flagship location for Boricua College, the project will be part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 165,000-unit affordable housing plan.

According to the spokesperson for the project, the deal has been in the works since 2005, and though construction costs and other financial information have not yet been finalized, loose ends expect to be complete by groundbreaking.

The site, which now consists of city-owned vacant lots, will include landscaping, benches and public areas as well as its other components. The residential component’s seven buildings will range in height from six to 13 stories and will be comprised of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. A large portion of the units will be reserved for low-income residents and the rest will be rented for those of moderate income.

“Boricua Village will set a new standard for urban community life by providing Bronx residents with an exciting place to learn, to live and to shop,” says Peter Fine, principal of Atlantic Development Group.

The project is expected to encompass 878,857 gross sf of floor area, with 120,000 sf alone in the college tower. “This urban village will be a thriving bicultural community centered on the value of education,” says Dr. Victor Alicea, president and founder of Boricua College, in a statement.

Copyright © 2007 ALM Properties, Inc.

antinimby

July 3rd, 2007, 09:26 PM

This one from the Daily News...

OK seen for Boricua apts.

BY BILL EGBERT
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, June 27th 2007 (http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/bronx/2007/06/27/2007-06-27_ok_seen_for_boricua_apts.html), 4:00 AM

A new affordable Bronx housing development built around a new campus for a local college is set for likely approval today by the City Council.

The 4.5-acre Boricua Village, a joint venture of Atlantic Development Group and Boricua College, is expected to be an economic catalyst for its host community of Melrose.

With today's Council vote, the plan will then go to Mayor Bloomberg for final approval.

The project will include about 750 residential units and as many as 50,000 square feet of retail space centered around a new 14-story flagship building for Boricua College, whose present enrollment of 1,200 students now attend classes on two campuses in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The new campus is on Third Ave. between 161st and 163rd Sts.

"This urban village will be a thriving bicultural community centered on the value of education," said Dr. Victor Alicea, president and founder of Boricua College.

Citing the combination of academic center with new housing and stores, Alicea called the development "community building at its best."

The development will transform 4.5 acres of city-owned vacant lots into seven residential buildings, several retail stores and the 120,000-square-foot college tower, all surrounded by landscaping, benches and public areas.

The residential buildings will range in height from six to 13 stories, and offer studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

Three-quarters of the units will be reserved for low-income residents, and a quarter will be for moderate-income residents. Once completed in 2009, the city's Department of Housing and Urban Development will handle the applications process.

"Boricua Village will set a new standard for urban community life by providing Bronx residents with an exciting place to learn, to live and to shop," said Peter Fine, principal of Atlantic Development Group.

Based in Manhattan, Atlantic Development Group LLC is a real estate development company founded by Fine and Marc Altheim in 1995.It is one of three developers bidding on the Kingsbridge Armory project.

© Copyright 2007 NYDailyNews.com

sfenn1117

July 8th, 2007, 12:16 AM

A great dense development on vacant land. Music to my ears, good for the Bronx.

clubBR

July 9th, 2007, 05:42 AM

Whats the area of Morris Park like? Around the 5 train Pelham Parkway stop. A few blocks west of Jacobi Medical Center. Hows the crime, housing, demographics, & night life? What are the exact borders of "Indian Village"?

ASchwarz

July 9th, 2007, 11:58 AM

Morrris Park is a very good neighborhood. It is super-safe and kind of quiet. Morris Park is mostly Italian and has something of a "Little Italy" feel along Morris Park Avenue and Eastchester Road. There are also some Albanians, South Asians and a few Latinos. It has very good restaurants, especially (of course) Italian.

Morris Park is probably more appealing for families than singles. If you want to get a feel for the neighborhood, take the 5 train to Morris Park Avenue and walk downhill, or take the 5 to Pelham Parkway (the next station) and cross the Parkway. Morris Park begins south of Pelham Parkway.

antinimby

July 12th, 2007, 01:37 AM

A Bronx Retailing Hub Is Getting Offices, Too

By SANA SIWOLOP
Published: July 11, 2007 (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/realestate/commercial/11bronx.html)

As a borough without a well-defined business district like those in Manhattan or even Brooklyn or Queens, the Bronx has traditionally not experienced heavy development of Class A office space. But that is changing, with the expansion of the Hutchinson Metro Center, an office complex near a heavily traveled highway, and the conversion of a prominent site on Fordham Road used for decades almost exclusively for retailing.

The second site will cost $120 million to develop and will combine new offices with modernized store space at the corner of East Fordham Road and Webster Avenue, a well-known intersection on the popular Fordham Road shopping corridor.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/11/business/11bronx.190.1.jpg
Commercial space in an old Sears
will include a new Sears store.

The 285,000-square-foot project is called Fordham Place, and it is geared to renovating and expanding the large wedge-shaped building that has long been a fixture at the corner. It sits next to the Fordham stop for the Metro-North New Haven line and diagonally across the street from Rose Hill, the main campus of Fordham University.

Once home to the Rogers department store, the building for years housed a four-story 86,000-square-foot Sears store that sat beneath two floors of office tenants.

In 2004, the building was bought by a development partnership made up of Acadia Realty Trust of White Plains and Aaron Malinsky and Paul Slayton, who head the Manhattan-based P/A Associates.

Reports at the time emphasized the plans to upgrade the retailing at the site. But last week, Kenneth F. Bernstein, president and chief executive of Acadia Realty, said that all along his company and its partners were “cautiously optimistic” the site might also be used for offices.

The owners eventually decided to expand the scope of the project, based on both growing demand for shopping within the Bronx and interest they were seeing in a 223,000-square-foot office building that Acadia Realty bought in 2005 on East 161st Street, opposite the Bronx Courthouse complex, which had recently been completed.

At the site of the Fordham Place project, Mr. Bernstein said, “since the days of Rogers, this building has been the easternmost anchor of what is a dynamic open-air shopping mall, with tremendous sales per square foot and tremendous productivity,” referring to the entire Fordham Road shopping corridor.

He added that while his company’s building on 161st Street is fully leased, it is continuing to generate interest from potential tenants like law firms that “want all the benefits of being in New York City while still paying significantly less” than what they might pay in Manhattan.

When it is fully built out, Fordham Place will use the site of the old Sears building as well as two small parking lots that sat next door, and, according to its developers, will offer some 150,000 square feet of modern Class A office space and modern retail space elsewhere.

Plans call for reopening a Sears store and also for building a 14-story office tower immediately adjacent to it. Retailers will be in the bottom three floors of the tower building as well as on its basement concourse level. Shoppers will enter the building through a covered entrance at the corner of East Fordham Road and Webster Avenue.

Prospective office tenants, meanwhile, will have access to spaces covering as much as 36,000 square feet on either the fifth or sixth floor or 12,000 to 14,000 square feet of space on each floor in the tower.

In putting up Class A office space in the Bronx, the developers are following the example of Hutchinson Metro Center, a large office complex off the Hutchinson River Parkway in the Pelham Bay section, being built by the Simone Development Companies of New Rochelle, N.Y.

The developers of Fordham Place expect their site to prove popular with office tenants who want high-quality space in the Bronx, but who also want to provide employees with good commuting options that do not require them to drive.

“When you look at Hutchinson Metro Center, it’s truly suburban,” Mr. Malinsky said. “This project sits right on top of a Metro-North station, and we have every single bus line coming to this location, as well as two nearby subway lines.”

Still, Hutchinson Metro Center has produced strong leasing numbers lately.

Brokers at Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate services company that is the leasing agent for the center, say the first building at the complex offered 460,000 square feet of Class A office space that was fully leased in a little more than two years after construction began, and now negotiations are taking place for about 25 percent of the space at a new 260,000 square-foot tower that is under construction.

Tara I. Stacom, a Cushman & Wakefield vice chairman, estimated that about a quarter of the companies “seriously interested” in space at the new Hutchinson tower are businesses in Manhattan.

Acadia and P/A Associates, not new to urban redevelopment, are working on 10 projects in New York City and Westchester County. Mr. Malinsky was one of three partners who helped develop River Plaza, a 9.5-acre shopping complex in the Marble Hill section of the Bronx, which opened in August 2004. It is home to national retailers like Target, Marshall’s, and Starbucks.

Developers have not always had it easy luring big-box tenants to the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood that surrounds East Fordham Road, but that may be changing.

Cheryl Chase, the general counsel and executive vice president at Chase Enterprises, the longtime owners of One Fordham Plaza, a 557,000-square-foot office and retail building a block away from the old Sears Building, said her company, together with two partners, is about to upgrade 100,000 square feet of retail space at the property to meet growing interest from retailers in the area. Her company, she said, hopes to have two spaces of about 30,000 space feet on the building’s second floor for big-box tenants.

Any retail space that is scheduled to be offered at Fordham Place is already either leased or in negotiations, its developers say. According to Mr. Malinsky, tenants include Sears, which will have a 35,000-square-foot store in the basement; Walgreens, which will have an 11,000-square-foot drugstore on the ground floor; and Best Buy, which signed a lease at the end of June for 35,000 square feet on the building’s second floor. Construction is to be completed next year.

He added that negotiations are under way with three other prospective tenants: a restaurant, a bank and a health club that is interested in the entire third floor, which measures about 36,000 square feet.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Merry

August 5th, 2007, 05:55 AM

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/03/realestate/190-post.jpg
A former print shop at 305 East 140th Street, between Third and Alexander Avenues, will be turned into 11 condos.

August 5, 2007
Posting
Privately Financed Condos in Mott Haven

By C. J. HUGHES (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=C.%20J.%20HUGHES&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=C.%20J.%20HUGHES&inline=nyt-per)
MOTT HAVEN, a hard-luck neighborhood in the South Bronx, is getting its first-ever condominium project to be built with private financing, according to Wilhelm Ronda, the director of planning and development for Adolfo Carrión Jr. (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/adolfo_jr_carrion/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the Bronx (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/bronx/?inline=nyt-geo) borough president.
The project, called Bronx Bricks, is a five-story, red-brick former print shop at 305 East 140th Street, between Third and Alexander Avenues. The building will have 11 units in two sizes, 1,300 and 2,200 square feet. Each has an open floor plan and maple floors original to the 1904 building.
Prices are $395,000 to $795,000, and since sales began last month, two units have gone into contract, said Linda Cunningham, a managing partner on the development team. Like Ms. Cunningham, who made photo-transfer collages in the building, many of the team members are artists who used to have studios there.
Ms. Cunningham has been a co-owner of the building since 2000, when she bought it from Ernest Milchman, the founder of Milchman Enterprises, a developer based in New York. (Both refused to say what they had paid.)
Ms. Cunningham is taking one of the two 2,000-square-foot ground-floor commercial spaces. The other will most likely be leased to a nonprofit group or to an architect, she said.
“It was a challenge to be the first,” Ms. Cunningham said. “But now we can serve as the comparable for banks for future development.”
Financing for Bronx Bricks came from the Community Preservation Corporation, a lender that specializes in rehabilitating multifamily homes in the region.
The project bodes well for the neighborhood, which has the ingredients for a full-blown revival, said Richard Ross, the vice president for real estate development at the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, known as SoBro.
“You know the potential is here, because of the character of the buildings and the proximity to Manhattan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/manhattan/?inline=nyt-geo),” he said.
Bronx Bricks sits just outside the Mott Haven Historic District, which is lined with well-kept row houses, some graced with tall stoops and stained-glass windows. A stop for the No. 6 train is just two blocks away.
But in an impoverished area, private development can cut both ways, according to Miquela Craytor, the deputy director of Sustainable South Bronx, a land-use advocacy group. Investment in neglected buildings can improve streetscapes, she said, yet market-rate condos will be priced out of the reach of most of the neighborhood residents.
“Is it helping out the folks who have weathered the storm here?” Ms. Craytor asked. “Or is it just benefiting the new residents?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/realestate/05post.html?ref=realestate

brookline

September 28th, 2007, 03:39 PM

http://www.nychdc.com/images/spacer.gif
HPD Press Release --http://www.nychdc.com/images/spacer.gif

September 19, 2007

HDC FINANCES 452 APARTMENTS IN THE BRONX IN FINAL APPROVALS BEFORE DEPARTURE OF EMILY A. YOUSSOUF AS PRESIDENT

— APARTMENTS WILL COMPLEMENT A BIG EDUCATIONAL AND RETAIL COMPLEX — http://www.nychdc.com/images/spacer.gif

http://www.nychdc.com/images/boricua%20village%20rendering%201.JPG
Boricua Village, as seen from Third Avenue and East 163rd Streethttp://www.nychdc.com/images/spacer.gif

http://www.nychdc.com/images/boricua%20village%202.jpg
488 East 163rd Street, one of the four buildings at Boricua Village to receive HDC financing

http://www.nychdc.com/images/spacer.gifNEW YORK, N.Y., September 19, 2007 – The New York City Housing Development Corporation today approved $81 million in low-cost financing for the construction of 452 affordable apartments in the Melrose neighborhood in the South Bronx. The approval caps a remarkable four year period in which the Corporation has grown rapidly but prudently to become the largest issuer of affordable housing bonds in the nation under the leadership of Emily A. Youssouf, who is departing at the end of the month.

The apartments approved today will be located in four buildings to be built as part of a development called Boricua Village, one of the largest and most ambitious development initiatives in the South Bronx in recent years. Besides the apartments, it will include the 120,000-square-foot flagship campus of Boricua College, a private college that operates campuses in Washington Heights and Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The complex will also include 40,000 square feet of retail space and underground parking for 175 cars.

Two of the buildings that will contain the affordable apartments will be reserved for low-income families, and the other two will be reserved for middle-income families. The four buildings combined will contain 234 middle-income apartments, 214 low-income apartments and 4 apartments reserved for building superintendents. Three of the buildings will be located on East 163rd Street between Elton and Third Avenues, and one building will be located at Third Avenue and 162nd Street (although 162nd Street will be decommissioned to make way for a campus pedestrian plaza).

“I am proud to conclude my term as president of HDC with this wonderfully emblematic development,” said Emily A. Youssouf, the President of HDC, who has will be leaving her position on Oct. 1. “This complicated transaction highlighting our two core programs of LAMP and New HOP, demonstrates that innovative financial approaches can provide housing for hundreds of families, or even tens of thousands, if you look at our recent figures citywide.”

Since Ms. Youssouf was appointed to lead HDC in November 2003, HDC has financed the construction of 34,236 affordable apartments in 175 developments throughout the five boroughs. HDC has become the leading issuer of affordable housing bonds, issuing $5.6 billion in bonds and low-interest mortgages for housing in New York City.

Boricua Village is being built by the Atlantic Development Group. “I want to thank Emily Youssouf for her strong support not only for this project, but for her tireless efforts to facilitate the construction of affordable housing throughout her tenure as HDC President,” said Peter Fine, principal of Atlantic Development Group. “Boricua Village will bring a wealth of new affordable housing units as well as educational opportunity to the Melrose community and a diverse choice of modern retail options.”

Of the HDC financing approved today, $60.3 million will come from the sale of tax-exempt and taxable, fixed- and variable-rate bonds, and $20.5 million will come in the form of low-interest loans made from HDC’s corporate reserves.

http://www.nychdc.com/pressroom/pr_091907.html

antinimby

September 28th, 2007, 08:40 PM

Very nice. Thanks for posting that brookline and welcome.

brianac

October 30th, 2007, 06:40 AM

Kingsbridge
Yet Again, a Majestic Armory Contemplates Its Future

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/28/nyregion/armor600.jpg

Librado Romero/The New York Times
The armory’s 575,000 square feet have been largely empty for years.

By GREGORY BEYER
Published: October 28, 2007

FOR about a decade, residents of Kingsbridge Heights in the Bronx have conjured up their own visions of what the Kingsbridge Armory might become. That is all they could do. The armory, which is said to be the world’s largest, with a drill floor bigger than a city block, has sat mostly idle during that time.
Now the city is poised to announce the name of the developer it has chosen for the building, which is at West Kingsbridge Road and Jerome Avenue. When the city sought proposals in September 2006, it said it hoped to get plans for retail, entertainment and recreation ventures that would provide good jobs to local residents.
The Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance, which unites local groups, labor unions and elected officials, wants the chosen developer to build four small schools, to ease overcrowding and to guarantee that residents are hired for well-paying union jobs. The alliance scheduled a rally for yesterday.
“The bottom line is, we need this economic revitalization,” said Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, a neighborhood resident who has been active in planning for the armory’s future. “There are no jobs in this community.”
Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman for the city’s Economic Development Corporation, would not say when the developer would be named.
Ms. Pilgrim-Hunter said many of the problems in Kingsbridge Heights stem from the lack of jobs; according to state figures, the Bronx had a 5.5 percent unemployment rate in 2006, compared with 4.1 percent citywide. “We’ve got kids on the street,” Ms. Pilgrim-Hunter said. “We’ve got the violence, the gangs, the drugs, the prostitution. All those things are the end result of people not being able to support themselves in the proper fashion.”

NoyokA

October 30th, 2007, 11:34 AM

Nice looking development for public housing but do they reall have to call it "Boricua" Village?

virtualchoirboy

February 22nd, 2008, 04:42 PM

Nice looking development for public housing but do they reall have to call it "Boricua" Village?

It is being built by Boricua College...I guess they do. There has been an explosion of development in the South Bronx, the Hub in particular. I went to look at a condo in the area a few weeks back. 300K for 2BD's in the South Bronx...I could never have imagined.

virtualchoirboy

February 22nd, 2008, 04:43 PM

A Bronx Retailing Hub Is Getting Offices, Too

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/11/business/11bronx.190.1.jpg
Commercial space in an old Sears
will include a new Sears store.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

This project is coming along nicely. i will post pics when I get the chance.

brianac

April 8th, 2008, 08:41 AM

City has big plans for acres at Hunts Pt.

BY DORIAN BLOCK
Tuesday, April 8th 2008, 4:00 AM

Hunts Point (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Hunts+Point+(Bronx)) could see a northern version of the South Street Seaport (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/South+Street+Seaport) under city plans to develop vacant land there.

Those plans - part of an Economic Development Corp. proposal to develop six different sites on 25 acres in Hunts Point - also envision an alternative fuel station to help reduce exhaust emissions from the hundreds of trucks entering and leaving the sprawling food market there daily.

The EDC recently presented the potential development plan to Community Board 2.

The new businesses could add several hundred new jobs to the 10,000 already in the area, along with improving the image of the neighborhood, said John Robert (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/John+Robert), the board's district manager.

"It'll solidify Hunts Point's position as a food distribution center," he said. "We would love for it to be known as the breadbasket of the nation."

Robert said the EDC reported a large number of businesses interested in moving into Hunts Point, with a number of government tax incentives available.

The EDC said it will issue a request for proposals this month for a long, narrow, 3.7-acre strip of land along Food Center Drive that the city would like to turn into a center for alternative fuel.

Kellie Terry-Sepulveda (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Kellie+Terry-Sepulveda), of The Point Community Development Corp. (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Point+Community+Development+Corp.), called the alternative fueling station crucial: "We have huge air quality issues here."

Another site in the plan is a triangular parcel that abuts the future Hunts Point Landing, next to the South Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/South+Bronx) Greenway, which the EDC said could be used for recreational purposes, such as a park or marina, a South Street Seaport-type development, a food-related use, an organics recovery facility or a freight ferry terminal to move goods in and out of the food market.

Other sites include a 3-acre fruit auction rail shed and an 8.5-acre parcel next to the proposed alternative fueling site that is slated for a "food-related" use.

In its presentation, the EDC said the overall goal of the project is for development to "simultaneously maximize new job opportunities and minimize air quality impacts."

Terry-Sepulveda has even higher expectations.

"Ideally, we're looking to find a nice balance between a working waterfront and something that is focused on economic development and something that ties into the needs of the community - a community that has access to the waterfront for recreation."

dblock@nydailynews.com

Copyright 2008 The New York Daily News.

antinimby

April 21st, 2008, 09:48 PM

MALL OF DUTY
ARMORY'S $310M RETAIL REHAB

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04212008/photos/new0x.jpg
An artist's rendering reveals what the
Kingsbridge Armory in the North Bronx
will look like after a real-estate
development firm converts it into a
shopping mall.

By TOM TOPOUSIS

April 21, 2008 (http://www.nypost.com/seven/04212008/news/regionalnews/mall_of_duty_107399.htm) -- The Kingsbridge Armory, once the world's largest military drill hall, will be turned over to a private corporation for a $310 million makeover into a massive retail center intended to jumpstart the North Bronx economy, city officials are announcing today.

Manhattan-based Related Companies won the project, ending a frustrating 12-year effort to find a new use for the historic armory, which was turned over to the city by the National Guard amid military cost-cutting and the escalating expense of repairing and maintaining the huge structure.

Under Related's plan, the 575,000-square-foot site will become home to an "anchor" department store, up to 35 smaller shops, a number of restaurants and a movie multiplex.

"It's going to be catalytic for the neighborhood," said Seth Pinsky, president of the city's Economic Development Corp.

Pinsky said Related, which built Manhattan's Time Warner Center and won the right to redevelop the Bronx Terminal Market into a retail center, plans to recruit a destination-type department store for the project.

Called "The Shops at the Armory," the development will also include an "affordable youth recreation facility." A day-care center and a "business incubator," are also in the works.

"I'm very happy this project is finally moving forward. It's been a long time coming," said Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, who said his next effort will be to ensure that a fair share of the work goes to local contractors and workers.

Councilmember Maria Baez said "the project will serve as an economic stimulus" for her district.

But she added that she would continue to push for construction of two schools adjacent to the armory.

The city dropped an earlier requirement that developers include two new schools in the project after the Department of Education determined there wasn't a need for additional schools in the district, Pinsky said.

Related was one of two bidders left in the running for the armory project. It wound up beating the Atlantic Development Group, which had proposed a retail center, movie theater, two schools and a YMCA.

Pinsky said there will be almost no change to the exterior of the building, which has soaring towers and turrets, crenellated parapets and enormous arches.

Copyright 2008 NYP Holdings, Inc.

brianac

April 22nd, 2008, 06:32 AM

From The New York Times

Article here (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/nyregion/22armory.html?ref=nyregion)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/04/22/nyregion/22armory02_650.jpg
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
The Kingsbridge Armory in the West Bronx was built between 1912 and 1917. In 1974 it was designated a city landmark.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/04/22/nyregion/22armory01_650.jpg
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
The drill hall at the Kingsbridge Armory is one of the largest in the world. Troops were trained there for many decades. Soon, shoppers will battle for bargains.

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

BrooklynLove

April 22nd, 2008, 08:50 AM

lovely building. hopefully the reno does this place justice.

NYC4Life

May 21st, 2008, 10:59 PM

I live in this area, and it can really use the space to create more jobs and opportunities. I look foward to seeing this become a reality in a few years.

antinimby

May 24th, 2008, 03:31 AM

Saxa plans first Bronx project

http://s3.amazonaws.com/trd_three/images/36226/Daren_Hornig_articlebox.jpg
Daren Hornig

By Lauren Elkies
Updated On 05/23/08 (http://ny.therealdeal.com/articles/saxa-plans-first-bronx-project) at 02:04PM

Daren Hornig, managing partner at Saxa development company and the former head of residential brokerage Dwelling Quest, is building both his first affordable housing project and his first development in the Bronx.

The residential and commercial developer has partnered with L&M Development on the project.

The $2 million purchase of 269 East Burnside Avenue, in the Tremont section of the Bronx, closed last week.

The duo is developing the site into a 100,000-square-foot, 96-unit affordable rental development.

L&M is a New York real estate development company specializing in the financing and development of affordable housing in the city.

"We found it and we were able to make it work," Hornig said.

The development will be called East Burnside Apartments and will be affordable to families with incomes at or below 60 percent of the area median income (a figure based on all New York City incomes and calculated annually by the federal Housing and Urban Development agency). For a family of four, the income limit is $76,800. The building will remain affordable for up to 30 years.

The project will have 3,000 square feet of retail, and construction is slated to be done in mid-2010.

Developers do not generally reap the financial rewards of construction of an affordable housing development until the apartments leave the affordable housing program, Hornig said.

"Affordable housing is a long-term planning play," he said.

© 2008 The Real Deal

NYC4Life

June 17th, 2008, 10:27 PM

From: New York Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2008/06/16/2008-06-16_60m_mulligan_to_build_bronx_golf_course.html

$60M mulligan to build Bronx golf course

http://www.gothamgazette.com/graphics/2008/01/ferry_point_2.jpg

BRIAN KATES
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, June 16th 2008, 10:16 PM

After throwing away $15 million on an ill-fated scheme to create a world-class golf course on a toxic Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Bronx) dump, the city plans to spend $60 million more to resurrect the duffer's dream. The Bloomberg administration announced Monday it has begun negotiations with Florida (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Florida)-based Sanford Golf Design to create a Jack Nicklaus (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Jack+Nicklaus) Signature Golf Course at Ferry Point Park under the Whitestone Bridge.

The move comes two years after the city booted the previous developer, Ferry Point Partners (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Ferry+Point+Partners), amid scathing reports of mismanagement. In 2005, a Daily News probe revealed mob-linked companies worked at the site. The cost of the course is about $60 million, according to data sent to potential developers, a source close to the project revealed. A Bloomberg spokesman would not confirm the amount.

It comes on top of at least $15 million the city has already spent, including $7 million in toxic cleanup costs that the city agreed to pay without first doing an environmental review. Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Rudolph+Giuliani) picked the first developer 10 years ago, but the 222-acre, city-owned former landfill remains little more than a heap of dirt and rubble. Unlike Ferry Point Partners, which was to design, build and run the course, Sanford (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Sanford) would only plan the links and be the construction manager. The builder and operator would get separate contracts.

Bloomberg hailed the selection as "encouraging progress" for the project, which also includes two parks, a children's play area and a pedestrian trail.

NYC4Life

June 18th, 2008, 05:23 PM

From: New York Post

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06182008/news/regionalnews/s__bronx_is_back__116049.htm

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06182008/photos/news025a.jpg

S. BRONX IS BACK!

MAYOR TRUMPETS REDEVELOP PLAN

By DAVID SEIFMAN City Hall Bureau Chief

June 18, 2008 -- Take that, Howard Cosell.

A comprehensive plan for a revitalized South Bronx was unveiled yesterday by Mayor Bloomberg (http://www.nypost.com/news/p/bloomberg_michael/bloomberg_michael.htm), who said the borough has become such a hot destination that some people don't even recall the late sportscaster's comment during a 1977 baseball broadcast that, "The Bronx is burning!"
"I don't know whether it's been eliminated," the mayor said of the stigma at a windswept press conference in front of the Bronx courthouse.
"But [this year's] All-Star Game is another opportunity for us to show that the facts are very different."

Bloomberg announced the "South Bronx Initiative," a sweeping blueprint for upgrading three neighborhoods: Melrose Com- mons/Third Avenue; Bronx Civic Center and the lower Grand Concourse. The improvements ranged from a major rezoning to encourage more high-density development to mapping a new public park along the Harlem River to developing the last city-owned sites to create more affordable housing and ground-floor retail space.

New distinctive lighting and street furniture, improved subway entrances at 149th and 138th streets on the concourse and a study of super-fast buses on Webster and Third avenues were all part of the package. "This is refurbishing the entire South Bronx, which is long overdue," said one official. The city was expected to spend $100 million to $200 million on the projects initially, not counting $174 million for the new parks and waterfront improvements around Yankee Stadium and Bronx Terminal Market.

Curiously, not a single elected official joined the mayor at the announcement, even though his press release included laudatory quotes from Borough President Adolfo Carrión and Rep. José Serrano. Despite private investment of $3 billion and near-record low unemployment, The Bronx remains the city's poorest borough. According to the city's Web site, only 14.6 percent of Bronx residents were college graduates as of the 2000 census. By comparison, 21.8 percent of Brooklyn residents had degrees then.

More than a third of the families on welfare in the city live in The Bronx. If Bloomberg is right, all that's going to change. "All of The Bronx has become a very hot place for people to live. People who are moving to New York are considering living in The Bronx," he said.

NYC4Life

June 19th, 2008, 07:21 PM

Updated On 06/19/08 at 01:13PM

Slow condo sales could hurt city pension funds

http://s3.amazonaws.com/trd_three/images/39830/arbor_articlebox.jpg (http://ny.therealdeal.com/assets/39830)
The Arbor

By Adam Pincus

A proposal to convert a condo building in the Bronx to a rental complex could be a sign that the slowing housing market will take its toll on city and state pension funds that invest in real estate, and taxpayers might be stuck shoring up those funds, experts say.

The Arbor, a 127-unit project at 3260 Henry Hudson Parkway in Riverdale, was originally planned as market-rate condos with prices starting at $400,000. The complex, developed by L&M Equity Participants and its affiliate Hudson Arlington Associates, was built on land purchased by the City Investment Fund, a Manhattan-based private equity fund. That fund is financed in part with city and state retirement fund dollars, spokesmen for the pension funds said.

Only about a dozen apartments in the development went into contract, brokers said, and Columbia University offered to buy the entire building as a rental for faculty members, graduate students and their families, the school told The Real Deal (http://ny.therealdeal.com/articles/columbia-buying-failed-riverdale-development) in May.

Although the building's sale has not been finalized, Bronx brokers said a developer would likely make less money from selling the building as a rental than from selling its units as condos. The city has seen a spate of condo developments convert to rentals (http://ny.therealdeal.com/articles/condos-turning-rental) as the market softens.

Massey Knakal's director of sales for north Bronx, Karl Brumback, would not comment on the Arbor project specifically, but said a rental conversion usually means less money for the developer.

"No, you are not going to make as much money in a rental building as in a condo building, generally, even with Riverdale rents," he said.

As the housing market's problems spread through the city's outer boroughs and fringe neighborhoods in Manhattan, experts say pension funds must adjust.

John Tepper Marlin, an adjunct professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University, said the city assumes an 8 percent growth rate for its pension funds, and if they fall short, taxpayers have to make up the difference with allocations from the city budget.

"I do not think real estate is growing at 8 percent," although some real estate investments were not made with large returns in mind, said Marlin, the former chief economist and senior policy advisor with the city's Comptroller's Office. "To the extent they fall short of 8 percent, the city taxpayers are being hit."

L&M Equity Participants and City Investment Fund did not comment.

The decline in property deals (http://ny.therealdeal.com/articles/falling-real-estate-tax-revenue-leads-mta-to-delay-improvements) has already caused cutbacks in the state, city and Metropolitan Transportation Authority budgets, which rely on real estate transfer taxes. However, the effect on the pension funds will not be known until the state and city comptrollers release their annual reports later in the year.

The New York City Employees' Retirement System was valued at $42.2 billion in June 2007, and the State's Common Retirement Fund at $154 billion.

The city pension funds have $140 million and the state has $119 million invested with the City Investment Fund, as of their latest financial statement from 2007. The spokesmen for the state and city comptrollers would not say how much pension money was allocated to the Arbor project, citing policies shared by most pension funds not to disclose information on private investments. About 4 to 5 percent of each pension fund is invested in real estate.

E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy at the Manhattan Institute, a think tank, said that although the Arbor investment amounts to only a small portion of pension funds, determining the value of private equity funds in the pensions remains difficult because many are highly leveraged.

"That is the aspect of private equity that is troubling," he said. "We don't know what exposure is there. It is very difficult to measure the extent of the exposure of private equity to the downturn in the real estate market."

brianac

June 28th, 2008, 07:33 AM

Living In | Bedford Park, the Bronx

A Friendly Bustle, With Oases Nearby

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/29/realestate/29livi-600.jpg Tina Fineberg for The New York Times
TIGHT COMMUNITY Jerome Avenue is seen at Bedford Park Boulevard, with the Grand Concourse in the distance. Typical homeowners have lived in Bedford Park a long time. “We look out for each other,” one resident said. More Photos > (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/06/29/realestate/20080629LIVINGIN_index.html)

By LAWRENCE LANAHAN
Published: June 29, 2008

IT was either the Bronx (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/bronx/?inline=nyt-geo) or Queens (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/queens/?inline=nyt-geo).

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/27/realestate/29livi_graphic_lg.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/29/realestate/20080629LIVINGIN-B.JPGSlide Show (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/06/29/realestate/20080629LIVINGIN_index.html)Living in Bedford Park (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/06/29/realestate/20080629LIVINGIN_index.html)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/27/realestate/29living_maplg.gif[/URL]

Jason Velez, 32, a financial adviser, and his girlfriend, RoseAnn Monterroso, 28, a consignment shop manager, had decided to move in together. He owned a one-bedroom in Bedford Park and worked nearby in Belmont. She owned a one-bedroom in Jackson Heights and commuted to Midtown.

They looked in Queens but decided they would get more for their money in Bedford Park — whose proximity to public transportation and major highways provides easy commuting to both Manhattan (http://javascript<b></b>:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/06/27/realestate/29living_map.html', '419_617', 'width=419,height=617,location=no,scrollbars=yes,t oolbars=no,resizable=yes')) and Westchester (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/westchester/?inline=nyt-geo). “There’s the Bronx stigma,” said Mr. Velez, who grew up in Parkchester. “I thought it would be hard to convince her, but the more she saw, she started liking it.”

She sold her place, he sold his, and they bought a two-bedroom in his co-op on East 201st Street for $178,000. They plan to redo the bath and closets with a custom job, not prefab units. “We’ll take the extra money,” Mr. Velez said, “and instead of buying something we don’t like, we’ll create something we do like.”

But Bedford Park is about more than affordability to Mr. Velez. It’s about friendliness. For instance three weeks ago his broker, David Abreu, who lives next door, visited a Manhattan comedy club to witness what Mr. Velez had billed as his first foray into stand-up. (In fact, Mr. Velez is no comedian: halfway through his “set,” he pulled Ms. Monterroso onstage, dropped to one knee and proposed. She said yes.)

Once heavily Irish and Jewish, Bedford Park in the 2000 census was 58 percent Hispanic, 17 percent white, 13 percent black and 7 percent Asian.

There is a large mix of new arrivals, among them Guyanese, Albanian and Vietnamese. A Korean commercial strip occupies a block of East 204th Street.

John Dhauraj, a Guyanese immigrant who has owned a three-bedroom house on East 203rd Street for 19 years, was chatting one recent afternoon with a neighbor, Cholelle Miranda, who grew up locally and rents a place in a six-story brick apartment house two doors down. Their block is typical: tree-lined and backing up to the woodsy Mosholu Parkway, with early 20th-century single-family and multifamily houses sandwiched in among apartment buildings.

“This block is still a community,” Ms. Miranda said, and Mr. Dhauraj added, “We look out for each other.”

Like many in this middle-class area, both feel pinched by the economy.

“Let me put it to you this way,” said Mr. Dhauraj, 63, who used to work in building maintenance. “Since I retired, I got to look at the pennies. When I was working, I never looked at pennies.”

Fortunately, Mr. Dhauraj bought before the wave of subprime lending. The Bronx is the seventh-ranked county in the nation for foreclosure-related decreases in home values, according to the Center for Responsible Lending.

But several factors insulate Bedford Park. Rental apartment buildings, which constitute a majority of housing here, are mostly immune. Typical homeowners have lived in their homes for a long time, so are less susceptible to the recent proliferation of risky loans.

Also, many buildings have gone co-op in the last 25 years, and co-ops have stringent financial requirements. “In a co-op,” said Connie Amestis, president of the board at the co-op where Mr. Velez lives, “you have to put 10 or 20 percent down, so there’s no way that a bank can say, ‘We’ll give you a mortgage with no down payment.’ ”

WHAT YOU’LL FIND
Bedford Park is bounded on the north by Mosholu Parkway, on the east by Webster Avenue and on the west by Lehman College (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/l/lehman_college/index.html?inline=nyt-org). The southern boundary may be anywhere from Bedford Park Boulevard to East 196th Street.

The neighborhood takes up less than half a square mile. In the 2000 census, it had about 26,000 residents and a median household income around $30,000. Newer residents often come from elsewhere in the Bronx or northern Manhattan, although more Brooklynites have arrived lately,

Ms. Amestis said.

Most housing consists of rent-stabilized buildings; a number have become co-ops. Many of the frame houses scattered in between have been converted to multifamilies. Tracey Towers, a 41-story pair of Mitchell-Lama rentals at the north end of the area, has provided middle-income housing for 35 years.

One can’t walk far without happening upon green space. Residents particularly love the woods surrounding Mosholu Parkway, where they jog, bike, take their children and dogs, and sunbathe. The neighborhood abuts the New York Botanical Garden (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/new_york_botanical_garden/index.html?inline=nyt-org), and the campus of Mount St. Ursula High School and Convent takes up four square blocks between Bainbridge and Marion Avenues.

Residents lament a lack of bank branches, and the area’s commercial strips do not look as though they have changed in some time. Yet there are plans for a coffee shop near Lehman College, and the city has chosen a developer to turn the colossal Kingsbridge Armory, once a women’s homeless shelter, into a mall.

WHAT YOU’LL PAY
There are about eight co-op apartments on the market in Bedford Park. Current listings and broker estimates put one-bedrooms in a range from $125,000 to $200,000, and two-bedrooms from $150,000 to $225,000. An 1,100-square-foot three-bedroom co-op on the Grand Concourse was listed at $365,000 in April and is now down to $310,000.

Multifamily homes are easier to find than single-families. Floyd Cooper of Cooper Group and Associates says houses list from $375,000 to $600,000, depending on size and location. A few on the market were built recently; most are 70 to 90 years old. “They’re fairly well kept,” Mr. Cooper said, “and many are still owned by old-timers.”

This continuity may be a reason that the area’s market hasn’t taken a harder hit, brokers say. According to Mr. Abreu, prices have more than doubled over all in the last five years, with a drop of 5 percent or so in the last two.

Vatisha Smith of Coldwell Banker Previews International says that in an under-the-radar area like Bedford Park, sellers must price aggressively.

Prices here are 20 percent lower than around Yankee Stadium, for example. “That’s the area getting the most attention,” she said. “If you don’t say ‘Yankee Stadium,’ people are like, ‘What? What?’ ”

Houses are less expensive below Bedford Park Boulevard. A single-family house in the 2700 block of Marion Avenue is listed at $249,900 — as is.

A small one-bedroom rents for $850 a month. A two-bedroom on Mosholu Parkway rents for $1,400, a three-bedroom on Decatur Avenue for $1,800.

WHAT TO DO
Bedford Park is well connected to the great outdoors. To the east are the Bronx Zoo (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/b/bronx_zoo_wildlife_conservation_park/index.html?inline=nyt-org) and the New York Botanical Garden. To the north and west are Van Cortlandt Park, Mosholu Parkway and Jerome Park Reservoir.

For arts and culture, Lehman College, Fordham University (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/fordham_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org) and Bronx Library Center are all within a half-hour’s walk. A longer walk — about 1.5 miles — ends among the Italian grocers and restaurants of Arthur Avenue.

THE COMMUTE
The D and 4 trains link the neighborhood to the East and West Sides of Manhattan and reach Midtown in just over 30 minutes. Metro-North trains run from the Botanical Garden to Grand Central in under half an hour.

For “reverse” commuters to Westchester, Mosholu Parkway connects to the Major Deegan Expressway and Saw Mill River and Bronx River Parkways.

THE SCHOOLS
Overcrowding is a major problem at Public School 8 in Bedford Park. In a recent report the city comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr. (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/william_c_jr_thompson/index.html?inline=nyt-per), found it to be 44 percent over capacity.

At the school, which teaches kindergarten through Grade 5, 50 percent of fourth graders met standards on 2008 reading tests; 77 percent did so in math.

At Junior High School 80, which covers Grades 6, 7 and 8, 23 percent of eighth graders met standards in reading and 41 percent in math.

Bedford Park’s educational crown jewel is the Bronx High School of Science, which is highly competitive and draws gifted students from all over New York City (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/manhattan/?inline=nyt-geo). DeWitt Clinton High School, on West Mosholu Parkway South, accepts students from all over the city, although Bronx residents have priority. SAT averages for 2007 at DeWitt Clinton were 434 in reading, 446 in math and 429 in writing, compared with citywide averages of 441, 462 and 433.

Walton High School, with 2007 SAT scores of 357, 356 and 348, will close for good this summer because of poor performance. Several smaller high schools will occupy the building, including Kingsbridge International High School, for students newly in the country.

THE HISTORY
Leonard Jerome, Winston Churchill (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/winston_leonard_spencer_churchill/index.html?inline=nyt-per)’s grandfather, owned much of Bedford Park in the mid-19th century. In September 1866 Mr. Jerome, a horse fancier, built a racetrack on his estate where, according to The New York Times, high society mixed with “the ‘commons’ and the bookmakers.”

At the turn of the century, the city built a reservoir on the track’s site.

The subway arrived in the late 1910s; 20 years later, Art Deco apartment buildings went up on the Grand Concourse.

[URL]http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/realestate/29livi.html?pagewanted=1&ref=realestate

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

NYC4Life

July 2nd, 2008, 02:45 AM

From: Talk Bronx

http://www.talkbx.com/2008/06/29/edgar-allen-poes-home-in-the-bronx-to-be-restored/

Edgar Allen Poe’s home in the Bronx to be restored

http://www.talkbx.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/poe-cottage.jpg (http://www.talkbx.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/poe-cottage.jpg)
Poe Cottage (http://www.talkbx.com/2008/06/29/edgar-allen-poes-home-in-the-bronx-to-be-restored//l), the Bronx home of writer Edgar Allan Poe, will close this winter for restoration

http://www.talkbx.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/poe-rendering.jpg (http://www.talkbx.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/poe-rendering.jpg)
A new, $3.2 million visitor center, seen in an artist’s conception, is slated to open in 2009.

There may not be ravens rapping at the door of Edgar Allan Poe’s final home in the Bronx.

But with a planned $250,000 fix-up and a new visitor center, thousands more tourists (http://www.talkbx.com/2008/06/29/edgar-allen-poes-home-in-the-bronx-to-be-restored//l) are expected to make the pilgrimage to Poe Cottage.
After two moves and years of being shaken by cars on the Grand Concourse and the nearby subway, the house of the famed poet and writer is in bad shape. Paint is peeling, the plaster is cracked and there are cobwebs on the rain-damaged windows.

Once restored, the house will have a fresh coat of paint, new green shutters, a ramp for the handicapped and, ideally, a projected increase of 6,000 tourists a year, said Kathleen McCauley, manager of the cottage in Poe Park, at the Concourse and Kingsbridge (http://www.talkbx.com/2008/06/29/edgar-allen-poes-home-in-the-bronx-to-be-restored//l) Road.

"It’s gone through a lot of transformations," she said. "Poe would have liked that."

The design of the new, $3.2 million, 2,000-square-foot visitor center was inspired by Poe’s poem, "The Raven."

The slate shingles are meant to look like feathers, and the roof sweeps down like bird wings. The bathroom walls will have an abstract picture of Poe’s face.

Repairs and the visitor center are being funded by a combination of federal and city dollars and from donations to the Bronx Historical Society, which operates the facility. The city Parks Department owns it.

The visitor center is due to open in August 2009, while the cottage will be closed for repairs sometime this winter and reopened in 2010.

The cottage, where Poe spent the last years of his life and wrote "Annabel Lee," "The Bells," and "Eldorado," now sees about 4,000 visitors annually.

"Sometimes they want to just sit and contemplate the aura of Poe," McCauley said.

Tourists began to visit the house in 1872, just 23 years after Poe’s death. In 1923, the cottage had 25,000 visitors.

The two-story cottage has a kitchen, parlor and bedroom downstairs and a former bedroom upstairs, now used as a visitor center, with low ceilings and narrow stairs.

For the Poe family, the cottage was a $100-a-year country retreat (http://www.talkbx.com/2008/06/29/edgar-allen-poes-home-in-the-bronx-to-be-restored//l), a place where Poe’s wife, Virginia, who suffered from tuberculosis, could enjoy the fresh air of what was then Westchester County.

She died in the cottage in 1847; Poe met his end in Baltimore (http://www.talkbx.com/2008/06/29/edgar-allen-poes-home-in-the-bronx-to-be-restored//l) two years later.

Zephyr

July 3rd, 2008, 04:38 AM

Thanks for posting this.

Not so long ago, I happened to be briefly in Richmond Virginia, looking at Civil War related sites, and discovered there was a place called the "Edgar Allan Poe Museum" which I promptly found and explored. Among other things, I heard of a place in New York where Mr. Poe had lived, but it was never pinpointed as being in the Bronx.

Although others and I will have to wait now until it is renovated, I am sure it will be well worth the visit.

Schadenfrau

July 4th, 2008, 12:52 PM

I love Poe Cottage- I'm glad to see the story, as well.

NYC4Life

July 25th, 2008, 05:59 PM

NY Daily News

Bronx' seaside: Affordability on the water in Throgs Neck

By JASON SHEFTELL
DAILY NEWS REAL ESTATE CORRESPONDENT
Thursday, July 24th 2008, 8:21 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/07/25/alg_throgs-neck.jpg

Directly across the Long Island Sound (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Long+Island+Sound) from the multimillion-dollar Mediterranean villas in Whitestone Woods (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Whitestone+Woods), the Throgs Neck (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Throgs+Neck) neighborhood in the Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Bronx) might offer the most affordable coastal living experience in the five boroughs.

At Bridgeview (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bridgeview) Estates, 21 two- and three- bedroom condominiums, some with direct waterfront access, are available starting at $475,000. Located at Schurz and Davis Aves (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Davis+Aves). in a neighborhood known for families, water proximity and the shopping stretch of E. Tremont Ave., Bridgeview Estates is a newly built gated condominium complex with views of the Throgs Neck and Whitestone (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Whitestone+(New+York)) bridges.

"At night, these two bridges light up and make this area something magical," says Robert Van Zandt (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Robert+Van+Zandt), the longtime North Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/North+Bronx) real estate developer who built the property. "We tried to make this an alternative living option to what people are paying in and around Manhattan (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Manhattan). They just have to come out here and their mind will be changed."

With beach clubs and catering halls, bungalows, condominiums and small single-family brick and wood homes a block from the water, Throgs Neck bustles with entire families taking walks together while kids ride bikes and play sports on front lawns. Up the street, the community has asked the city for a long-planned public golf course on a former landfill cornering Ferry Point Park. Recent rumors suggest it might happen, making the neighborhood more attractive to homeowners.

"This side of the bridges is more laid-back than the Queens (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Queens+County) side, with lower price points and a less suburban feel," says Maria Paleatsos (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Maria+Paleatsos), who owns MP Power Realty (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Power+Realty) in nearby Pelham Bay (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Pelham+Bay). "I'm not sure you can find anything this price on the water where families can live so well."

Completed and ready for move-in, Bridgeview Estates includes balconies for each apartment, two upscale homes for sale in the multimillion- dollar range with large decks and swimming pools and a development team that truly cares for the area. Van Zandt and colleague Richard Rodriguez (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Richard+Rodriguez) funded and coach the baseball team for Villa Maria, a local Catholic grammar school. Their own children graduated, yet they still remain as coaches. Van Zandt also funds three scholarships for students from financially saddled families.

"We grew up here," says Van Zandt, who went to elementary school with Rodriguez and works with him in the Van Zandt Agency (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Van+Zandt+Agency), a large Bronx-based tax and accounting business. "We're invested because we want the area to continue to bring in new residents and businesses. Police, firefighters and teachers can still live in this neighborhood. That's important to us."

Average home prices in the area have increased in the past several years, though, settling in around $440,000 for a small home. Bridgeview Estates offers an alternative to the larger single-family homes blocks away from the water. Some three- bedroom units offer living room and master bedroom terraces with direct water views. Waterfront units go for $725,000 or about $550 a square foot, which is half the price of some East Harlem (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Harlem) or downtown Brooklyn (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Downtown+Brooklyn) condominiums.

Non-waterfront three-bedroom unit start at $625,000. Parking is available, and the dock rights, owned by Van Zandt, will be sold to the condominium board once sales are finalized. Several buyers have already moved in.
The area draws Bronx residents moving up in the world and Westchester (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Westchester) couples looking to downsize and pay lower New York (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+York) property taxes while living close to the city atmosphere. Up the road from Bridgeview Estates, Tosca Cafe is an Italian restaurant with sidewalk tables and large open windows. Short waits for a weeknight table are normal.

Directly across the street from Tosca Cafe, the Bridges Bar and Lounge draws locals with Yankee games, darts, events and an outdoor deck that's packed on weekends. The 6 Train is a 10-minute bus ride away.

"People don't realize we're 10 minutes from City Island (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/City+Island+(New+York)) and Orchard Beach with Pelham Bay Park even closer," says Paleatsos. "When they think of the Bronx they think of affordable housing. Then they come here and see these beautiful homes with perfectly manicured lawns and the water. I enjoy watching them get excited and start thinking they can really live here."

So does Van Zandt. In addition to the bulk of two- and three- bedroom town homes, he hopes people looking in the area will upgrade to the larger homes in Bridgeview Estates. A four-story home with a two-car garage and pool has a 10-camera security system and a billiards loft. It's on the market for $2.8 million. Eight-year tax abatements apply to all the units.
Also, Van Zandt is willing to sell the entire property for around $25 million to a developer who wants to take over sales and marketing. Estimated value of the 21 units left comes to slightly more than his asking price.

"In real estate, everything is always for sale," says Van Zandt, currently putting together a plan to purchase an entire city block in a nearby area. "One closing is a lot easier than 21 closings."

NYC4Life

August 6th, 2008, 01:47 PM

New York Times

Bronx Building to Be Withdrawn From Mitchell-Lama Participation

http://s3.amazonaws.com/trd_three/images/45567/1520_Sedgwick_Avenue_midsize.jpg

By JENNIFER 8. LEE (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/jennifer_8_lee/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: August 5, 2008

The sale of a Bronx apartment building is proceeding, even though city housing officials rejected the deal just months ago.

The owners of the 100-unit building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, widely regarded as the birthplace of hip-hop, have notified the Department of Housing Preservation and Development that they intend to cancel the building’s participation in the Mitchell-Lama program by paying off the mortgage, effectively ending the city’s regulatory power over any sale.

“They have requested a payoff letter for early September,” said Seth Donlin, a spokesman for the housing department. “It means they want to pay off their mortgage and exit.”

Steven Frankel, a lawyer for 1520 Sedgwick Associates, the owner, would not comment.

A proposed sale of the building had alarmed tenants and advocates of moderate-income housing because the reported price being paid by an investment group led by Mark Karasick, a real estate developer, significantly exceeded the building’s assessed value of $7.5 million. They feared that such a high price meant that the investment group would almost certainly take the building out of the Mitchell-Lama program after the sale.

Earlier this year, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development rejected a previous sale “because the proposed purchase price is inconsistent with the use of property as a Mitchell-Lama affordable housing development.”

José M. Serrano, the state senator who represents the area, said: “A few months back, there was a lot of fanfare; it looked like we had been able to save affordability at 1520. All of that is now in jeopardy.”

Tenants had hoped to buy the building, but advocates of that plan said that the tenants’ offer fell far short of the asking price.

“This was the nuclear option,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/charles_e_schumer/index.html?inline=nyt-per), whose office has been active on the issue. “It is simply outrageous for the owners to ignore the tenants’ offer to negotiate, and instead push blindly ahead with their decision to take this building out of the Mitchell-Lama program.”

That program, established in 1955 by the State Legislature, spurred the development of about 105,000 units of housing in 269 developments by giving developers subsidies and tax breaks in exchange for rent limits for a fixed time period. Rents under the Mitchell-Lama program are generally determined by the budget of the landlord in operating the building, and are generally raised when there are substantial investments.

In recent years, the 20-year time limits on developers’ contracts expired, and buildings across the city have been taken out of the program and sold to investors, many for what tenants’ advocates call worrisomely inflated prices.

The immediate impact on the rents at 1520 Sedgwick will not be substantial, because buildings removed from the Mitchell-Lama program are generally subject to rent stabilization. A number of elected officials, however, have raised concerns that an inflated purchase price is very risky.

The officials said that the debts on some other buildings that left Mitchell-Lama were so large in relation to the rents that they might trigger foreclosure or a substantial cut in services.

The officials pointed to another Bronx building, Robert Fulton Terrace, which was sold in 2006 at what they said was an inflated price. Mr. Karasick was also involved in that sale. Michael Benjamin, a Bronx assemblyman whose district includes the building, said that his office had already received complaints about repairs and cleanliness.

Others predicted that such purchases could become the apartment-building equivalent of the mortgage crisis surrounding single-family homes.
“The bank is taking a speculative position by lending money on that property,” said Thomas J. Waters, a housing-policy analyst who has taken a look at the real estate financing. The commercial mortgages, like mortgages on single-family homes, are often packaged into securities that are sold on Wall Street — as was the case with Robert Fulton Terrace.

“The same kind of thinking went into lending $400,000 to someone who had the $50,000 income, or someone who couldn’t prove their income,” Mr. Waters said.

Dmitry Kiper contributed reporting.

brianac

August 26th, 2008, 06:46 AM

Neglected Bronx Landmark Is Getting a New Life, Again
By DAVID GONZALEZ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/david_gonzalez/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: August 26, 2008

The red-brick building with the mansard slate roof and elegant windows at 614 Courtlandt Avenue looks like a Bronx (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/bronx/?inline=nyt-geo) take on the Bates Motel. For decades, the landmark 19th-century building had been left to decay, a home only to pigeons.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/26/nyregion/26landmark3_450.jpgNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
Built in 1871, the building at 614 Courtlandt Avenue, seen in the 1960s, once housed a saloon.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/26/nyregion/26landmark_650.jpgDavid Gonzalez/The New York Times
A nonprofit housing group paid the city $1 for the building.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/26/nyregion/26landmark2_650.jpgDavid Gonzalez/The New York Times
After decades of decay, slate shingles from Vermont and custom-made windows are being used to renovate the building.

Now, this stubborn survivor, among the first buildings built during the borough’s transition to city from farmland, is being renovated and has just been put back on the market.

Even before its makeover — through city and private loans and grants — 614 Courtlandt seemed out of place among its neighbors, which were run-of-the-mill apartment buildings (those that survived the 1970s’ wave of arson) or empty lots (those that did not).

This one had character — mixing Second Empire and Italianate styles — a roof with ornamented dormers, and tall second-floor windows with fan motifs.

“This is very uncommon for the Bronx,” said Tenzing Chadotsang, of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. “This is the style that was in the Bowery in the 19th century. Every time we show pictures of this building, people say, ‘Oh, the Lower East Side,’ right away. No. It’s the Bronx.”

The mistake is understandable. According to a report prepared before the building was granted landmark status in 1987, German immigrants who were leaving the cramped confines of the Lower East Side settled Melrose South in the Bronx in the mid-1800s. They established breweries, beer gardens and other businesses. Indeed, so strong was their presence, that Courtlandt Avenue came to be known as “Dutch Broadway.”

Julius Ruppert, who had run a billiards hall and saloon on the Lower East Side, built the house with the mansard roof in 1871. He saw the migration to the Bronx and set up a saloon with meeting rooms at 614 to cater to that newly established community. Though he never lived in the house, his widow did. And after her death, their heirs kept the house until selling in 1927, and Melrose attracted newcomers from Italy and elsewhere.

Photos, most likely from the 1960s, show it housing a lunch counter on the ground floor and apartments above. The city took over the vacant building in 1997 because of a tax foreclosure, according to Seth Donlin, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The building’s third act started two years ago, when Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City, a nonprofit group, bought it from the city for $1, with the understanding that it would renovate it and sell it to a private buyer. Byron Todman, the group’s deputy director for housing development, said that during the last 15 years, the group bought and renovated 147 formerly city-owned properties.

Mr. Todman noted that this landmark had the added distinction of being among the last of another breed.

“The city’s inventory of vacant and abandoned buildings is almost exhausted,” Mr. Todman said. “In the future, the city will transfer it right away to a third party. You do not want buildings sitting vacant for years.”

Construction crews have been busy behind a scrim of netting that shrouds the building. Custom-made modern windows have been installed, new slate shingles are slowly covering the sloping roof, and chimneys have been rebuilt. Paint has been stripped off the red-brick facade, which has been repointed in parts with black mortar to match the original.

When finished, the building will house three two-bedroom apartments and a commercial space on the first floor. The top floor, with its tall, sloping walls and oval windows, is like a painter’s garret. On the first floor, original cast-iron columns lend a graceful note to the entrance. The asking price is $800,000.

The building came across Mr. Chadotsang’s radar soon after the housing group applied for permits to begin construction. He recognized it as the kind of structure that his agency could help with grants for facade restoration. Since 2005, he has awarded 49 grants totaling $1.1 million to low- and moderate-income owners of landmark properties. In recent years, more of those grants have been steered to the Bronx.

“We go by census tracts that meet income requirements,” he said. “When you take the census tracts that are eligible in the Bronx and map it with historic districts in the Bronx, you see a lot of overlap.”

Among the Bronx neighborhoods where he has awarded grants are Mott Haven, the Morris High School Historic District and a stretch of Morris Avenue near Tremont Avenue. The commission focuses on places that look like dumps, hoping the transformation will inspire other homeowners to follow suit.

“We look for the worst, most dilapidated building on the block,” Mr. Chadotsang said. “The neighbors can see how drastic changes can come from simple things like removing paint or putting a new stoop on a building.”

Though the grants are generally limited to about $15,000 per homeowner, Mr. Chadotsang has found ways to stretch them as far as he can. In the case of 614 Courtlandt, he was able to get the New York Landmarks Conservancy (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/new_york_landmarks_conservancy/index.html?inline=nyt-org) to provide a $20,000 grant.

And sometimes he finds a way to get things done relying on techniques not covered by the building code: tugging on a contractor’s heartstrings.

“We took one once to see an 80-year-old with a low income who was really frail,” he said. “We said: ‘You see, we can pay for the facade, but we don’t have enough for the stoop. And she needs the stoop. Why not do your bit for charity?’ And he did the stoop.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/nyregion/26landmark.html?ref=nyregion

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

NYC4Life

August 26th, 2008, 01:15 PM

As close as The Bates Motel can get.

brianac

August 30th, 2008, 06:19 AM

Living In | Norwood, the Bronx

Where the Spirit of Renewal Rises Again

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/31/realestate/31livi_600.jpg G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times
AMENITIES Stores line Jerome Avenue in Norwood, but the area’s sidewalks also offer shoppers much to choose from, including flip-flops, gold jewelry and coconut-flavored Italian ices. More Photos > (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/08/28/realestate/20080831LIVINGIN_index.html)

By C. J. HUGHES (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=C. J. HUGHES&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=C. J. HUGHES&inline=nyt-per)
Published: August 29, 2008

FOR most of the Revolutionary War, British soldiers had a camp in what is known today as Norwood, a half-square-mile section of the north-central Bronx (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/bronx/?inline=nyt-geo) about 12 miles from Midtown. As guests, they left much to be desired. The impact of thousands of boots marching back and forth tattered the farmland — and the seven skirmishes with the colonists didn’t improve things.
Multimedia

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/28/realestate/20080831LIVINGIN-B.JPGSlide Show (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/08/28/realestate/20080831LIVINGIN_index.html)Living in Norwood (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/08/28/realestate/20080831LIVINGIN_index.html)

Centuries later, in the 1980s and ’90s, it wasn’t redcoats but crime and neglect that ravaged Norwood’s streets. Litter and graffiti spread, and houses deteriorated, with paint peeling, porches sagging and broken windows gaping, recalled residents, shopkeepers, brokers and community leaders.

But Norwood is once again sprucing itself up, with measurable results.

Fresh vinyl siding gleams. Driveways are black with new paving. And trash seems to be contained to garbage cans.

“You clean your yard, and the next thing you know, you’ve got other neighbors doing the same,” said Allan Mohammed, who moved to Norwood from Chelsea as a child 28 years ago, to the three-family home he owns today.

So Mr. Mohammed, who works as a concierge in Brooklyn Heights, added a new roof, awning and metal fence to his detached brick house, whose windows are adorned with red flower boxes.

In 1980, the 3,000-square-foot building cost $80,000; it might get $550,000 today, based on what owners down the block are asking.

The spirit seems to be contagious. The Friends of Williamsbridge Oval Park, created decades ago in Norwood to revitalize a 20-acre open space inside a former reservoir, recently reconstituted itself after years of dormancy.

Last year, Van Cortlandt Park, at Norwood’s western edge, replaced aging jungle gyms with a $2.9 million tree-fringed playground. And the months-old renovation of the No. 4 subway train’s Mosholu Parkway stop, which contributed sparkling fused-glass murals, embodies the new look.

Residents hope the improvements aren’t temporary.

The 52nd precinct, which includes Norwood, reports five homicides since August 2007. Though that was down from nine a year earlier, the number is higher than in many comparable residential areas.

“There are still blocks where you don’t feel comfortable walking at night,” said Tofael Chowdhury, a waiter at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/manhattan/?inline=nyt-geo), who owns a two-family 1920s Italianate home and rents out the upstairs unit.

The house cost $400,000 in 2004 and has had $50,000 in renovations, including a new front wall, appliances and bathroom fixtures, said Mr. Chowdhury, who chose Norwood over Kingsbridge and Bedford Park when moving from Parkchester, partly because homes here are such promising investments.

“It’s really nice to watch this work in progress,” he said.

WHAT YOU’LL FIND
Norwood, which has about 40,000 people, is shaped like a wedge and almost entirely bounded by greenery.

In addition to Van Cortlandt Park, there’s the ribbon of grass that lines the Mosholu Parkway, and there’s Woodlawn Cemetery, whose more than 400 acres roll north of East 211th Street.

In between run roads whose steep grades and closely packed wood-frame houses, with jutting bay windows and stoops, almost recall San Francisco’s. On their second stories, porch roofs double as terraces, stacked with barbecue grills, folding chairs and the occasional satellite dish.

These multifamilies are sandwiched in among century-old Tudor-style apartment houses, approached through courtyards with dry stone fountains.

Among the more desirable streets are Perry, Hull and Decatur, which are not the only ones honoring heroes from the War of 1812. Such names were popular when Norwood was developed in the late 19th century, explained Lloyd Ultan, the Bronx borough historian, because nationalism was running high after the 1876 centennial.

The reservoir, then newly built, did not allow for a neat grid pattern of streets — which is why many intersections are quirkily angular and have tapered Flatiron Building-style structures. One is where Reservoir Place meets East Gun Hill Road, another where East Mosholu Parkway North hits Steuben Avenue.

A huge swath of Norwood is occupied by a campus of the Montefiore Medical Center (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/montefiore_medical_center/index.html?inline=nyt-org), which owns 25 buildings, from modernistic high-rises to low-profile former homes that are now doctors’ offices. As a major landlord, the hospital has taken an unusually active role in aiding the community through its Mosholu Preservation Corporation, which was founded in 1981 when “there was fear among our employees,” said Dart Westphal, its president.

The corporation still leases five apartment buildings near Wayne Avenue that it rescued from foreclosure or abandonment in the early 1980s.

In 1996, the group started a business improvement district focused on Jerome Avenue and East Gun Hill Road, Norwood’s two main commercial districts. Today, 210 members pay about $30 per foot of storefront, each year, to have streets swept and to take part in an annual street fair.

The challenge going forward, Mr. Westphal said, is to interest the neighborhood’s constantly fluctuating pool of new immigrants in caring for the area. A third of Norwood’s population registered as foreign-born in the 2000 census — with Dominicans the largest group, followed distantly by Jamaicans, Bangladeshis, Guyanese and Ecuadoreans.

WHAT YOU’LL PAY
For years there was not much inventory of single- and multifamily homes, which make up 30 percent of Norwood’s housing stock, because families stuck around for multiple generations. These days, however, there is movement in the market — propelled by a slight increase in foreclosures.
In the past year, 23 houses were sold, according to data compiled by Jilal Ahmed, an associate broker with Century 21 Sheik’s Realty. Single-families sold for an average of $380,000; multifamilies, which usually legally house three families, went for $490,000.

Sales of co-ops — about 10 percent of the stock — have also been active, in both pre- and postwar buildings. In the last year, 33 have sold, Mr. Jilal said, for an average price of $139,000. That buys a one-bedroom one-bath unit with 750 square feet.

But rentals make up most of Norwood’s housing, whether inside large-scale apartment buildings or private homes. For a one-bedroom in, say, a six-story 1930s brick building, some of which have sunken living rooms, rents can start at $1,200 a month. A two-bedroom one-bath second-story unit in a house, with possible use of a driveway, can cost $1,400, brokers said.

THE SCHOOLS
Most Norwood students attend Public School 280 on Steuben Avenue, which offers prekindergarten through eighth grade. On this year’s state proficiency exams, 70 percent of fourth graders met standards in English, and 87 percent did so in math. For eighth graders, the numbers were 51 percent in English and 71 percent in math.

High schools in the area have been hit-or-miss, residents said. Just beyond the boundary, Evander Childs has been plagued by graduation rates in the 30 percent range, according to Andy Jacob, an Education Department spokesman. Its final class graduated in June; it will be replaced by several small specialty public schools in the same building.

DeWitt Clinton, however, on West Mosholu Parkway South, remains a popular option, with an enrollment last year of 4,054. (It accepts students from all over the city, though Bronx applicants have priority.) On the 2007 SAT, Clinton students scored 434 in reading, 446 in math and 429 in writing, versus 486, 503 and 475 in public schools statewide.

Among other options are Catholic schools like St. Brendan’s, on Perry Avenue, which teaches kindergarten through eighth grade.

WHAT TO DO
Stores and restaurants offer diversions in Norwood, but in the warmer months, most activity is on the sidewalks. In a few-block stretch around Jerome Avenue and East 208th Street, shoppers can pick up flip-flops, homemade CDs, gold jewelry, coconut-flavored Italian ice, books and chunky necklaces, all without stepping inside. At a fruit stand on 208th Street, guavas cost $2.50 a pop.

THE COMMUTE
Both the No. 4 train and the D serve Norwood; the latter stops at East 205th Street. The trip to Midtown takes about half an hour.

Full-time bus service includes the Bronx 10, 16, 28, 30, 34 and 41, and two express lines, BXM4A and BXM4B. Most stop at the centrally situated Williamsbridge Oval.

THE HISTORY
In the 1890s, after Columbia University (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/columbia_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org) moved to Morningside Heights but before it built Baker Field in northern Manhattan, football was played in Norwood, near the street now named Kings College Place (after Columbia’s original name).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/realestate/31livi.html?pagewanted=1&ref=realestate

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

NYC4Life

September 3rd, 2008, 04:09 PM

NY Daily News

Frustrated residents sue owners

BY TANYANIKA SAMUELS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, September 2nd 2008, 6:50 PM

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/09/03/amd__d-rodriguez.jpg
Showalter for News Tenant Dionisia Rodriguez contends with violations in her bathroom.

Collapsed ceilings, water leaks and moldy walls seem to be the norm at one East Tremont (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/East+Tremont) building, and fed-up residents said they've had enough.
Two dozen tenants at 806 E. 175th St. filed suit Tuesday in Bronx Housing Court (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bronx+Housing+Court) against the building's owners, OCG VII LLC (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/OCG+VII+LLC), alleging deplorable and unsafe living conditions.

"The building conditions are some of the worst I've seen," said the tenants' attorney Garrett Wright (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Garrett+Wright), of the Urban Justice Center (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Urban+Justice+Center).

The city Department of Housing Preservation and Development lists 902 open violations for the building, including 265 Class C violations, which are deemed "immediately hazardous."

At a news conference, residents of the 43-unit, five-story walkup complained of blocked sewage lines, vermin infestations, cracked floor tiles and no hot water.

"I haven't been able to flush my toilet for seven years," said Dionisia Rodriguez (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Dionisia+Rodriguez), who's had to pour water into the bowl to get it to drain.
Grisella Ortiz (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Grisella+Ortiz), 28, was four months pregnant when parts of her bathroom ceiling crashed down on her head. It has not been repaired and now she worries about the lead paint and the mold on her walls.

"Hopefully the baby will come out healthy," said Ortiz, who is due to give birth this week.

"It gives me worries because I'm cleaning things I'm not supposed to."
Attorneys for the tenants are invoking a state law that will allow a housing court judge to appoint an independent administrator to take over the property and make the necessary repairs before turning the building back over to the landlord.

Wright pointed out that Ocelot Properties Management, which manages the building, has a history of neglect with three other Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Bronx) properties cited in the Department of Housing Preservation and Development's Alternative Enforcement Program - a list of the city's 200 worst buildings.

Conditions at 806 E. 175th St. continue to decline, so residents had no choice but to fight back, said Gladys Archer (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Gladys+Archer), who heads the tenants association.

"Our landlord has ignored repeated requests to make repairs," Archer said, "and enough is enough."

Andrew Schwab (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Andrew+Schwab), attorney for the building's owners, said his clients have been and will continue to make repairs.

"Any claim that they're [complaints] being ignored is materially false," he said.

Both sides are due in Bronx Housing Court on Sept. 24 for a hearing.

NYC4Life

September 4th, 2008, 10:00 PM

South Bronx buzz fizzles

Gentrification on hold

http://s3.amazonaws.com/trd_three/images/47965/south_bronx_gentrification_articlebox.jpg (http://ny.therealdeal.com/assets/47965) A property at 265 Alexander Avenue is for sale on one of the few townhouse-lined streets in the Bronx.

By Christopher Faherty

For years there was a buzz about the potential of a residential boom in the South Bronx, but with the credit crunch making it nearly impossible for small-scale investors to obtain financing in the area, any sort of explosion appears to be on hold.

Local brokers said that while calls from potential homebuyers have increased exponentially over the last few years, the neighborhood they've dubbed SoBro still lacks an inventory of renovated properties appealing to buyers seeking deals on the fringe. Now that financing for small investors is scarce and pricey, a buildup is unlikely.

Properties in the shadow of the New Yankee Stadium have long been targets of bold buyers and pioneer investors who epitomized the early stages of the building boom in neighborhoods like Harlem and the edges of Prospect Heights. The end of cheap financing means — at least for now — they've largely missed the bus on the much-hyped southern portion of SoBro.

Still, local brokers and investors said that SoBro's disproportionately low prices, proximity to Manhattan, and classic architecture offer solid opportunities for flexible investors who are able to wait out a dry spell.

Seeking potential

Closer to Midtown than most of Harlem, the South Bronx bursts at the seams with warehouses reminiscent of Williamsburg and Red Hook. It's dotted with landmark-designated blocks throughout the neighborhoods that make up the southern tip of SoBro — Mott Haven, Port Morris and parts of the Grand Concourse. Public officials love to talk up the area's potential, but even as the city has spurred some commercial and residential building, the small-scale residential development that pulls buyers from outside the area remains scarce.

It wasn't until this year that construction finished on what officials called the first privately financed condominium ever built in Mott Haven, a five-story converted print shop of 11 loft spaces called the Bronx Bricks.

"In the five years I've been in Mott Haven the most calls I've gotten have been from people looking to buy lofts," the owner of Key Real Estate Services, Allison Jaffe, said. "But there are just not that many here."

The Bronx Bricks lofts were put on the market at the end of July 2007, and all of the units have been sold except for one. Prices — from $395,000 for a second-floor, roughly 1,200-square-foot loft to $795,000 for a top-floor loft nearly twice the size — were previously inconceivable in the neighborhood.

The Bronx Bricks success story has prompted other investors to follow suit. Alexis McSween, a graduate student at New York University's Schack Institute of Real Estate, was first drawn to SoBro while completing a market feasibility report on a building in the area. She recently went into contract to buy a warehouse space on Bruckner Boulevard in Port Morris, just to the east of Mott Haven, for $867,000. McSween and her partner, a retired Bronx detective, Curtis Whitehead, plan to convert it into 13 loft units, with a laundry room, storage space and a private gym.

McSween said she tried to attract big money to the project, but in the end partnered with investors familiar with the gentrification of the neighborhood. While confident the project will come to fruition, she said it's difficult to nail down the financing needed to convert the warehouse. She said some banks require that she pre-sell 50 percent of the units, and others will only underwrite the loan if the project is presented as a rental, with an option to convert to condos in the future.

"I really like the neighborhood, and the numbers will work with renting anyway," she said.

Buzz on Alexander Avenue

Investors and homeowners living on or near Alexander Avenue in Mott Haven, one of the few townhouse-lined streets in all of the Bronx, are abuzz over eight new properties that recently hit the market.

The properties, which make up about half of the homes in a three-block corridor, were recently put on the market after local landlord John Carney died earlier this year, listing agent Adrian Thompkins said. While Thompkins, of Corcoran, described Carney as a wonderful man, he said the properties had fallen into disrepair, and said locals are excited about the prospect of new buyers and renovations.

Since the Carney properties, which are selling for between $499,000 and $569,000, are highly sought after, the highest bids have come from buyers interested in the homes as residences and not investments, a common thread among available townhouses on or near Alexander Avenue. While long-term investments, such as apartment buildings with rent-controlled tenants, have been widely available, Thompkins said few people had looked to flip properties.

But leading up to the credit crisis, brokers said an increasing number of investors had shown interest in flipping homes near Alexander Avenue. One such flipper got flopped.

Inna Sobel, an investor whose portfolio is largely comprised of rental properties in West Harlem, paid $400,000 for a run-down but federally landmarked two-family townhouse on Alexander Avenue just over two years ago. She learned quickly that the property was in bad shape and needed major renovations. Sobel and her husband decided to build two condos, a duplex and a triplex on the site rather than renovate the property and rent it out, she said.

Sobel sat on the properties, while she and her husband concentrated on other projects. Now, unable to borrow from cautious banks, Sobel, who said she will still turn a profit on the investment, is selling a number of her Harlem properties to finance a $300,000 renovation of the Alexander Avenue location.

"It's very difficult to borrow money right now," she said. "You have to sell some properties in order to sell other properties. We'll sell the ones in Harlem that are maxed out."

Home flipping didn't skip over SoBro during the building boom, brokers said. But compared to other fringe neighborhoods across the city, it contributed less to gentrification.

Much of SoBro's residential housing is made up of row houses originally constructed as low-income housing. During the boom, investors bought up these properties, performed what Jaffe describes as "shoddy" renovations, and then resold them as investment opportunities.

Since the credit crisis hit, brokers say these types of investments have stopped dead in their tracks, and local families who had bought the properties are stuck with mortgages they can't afford.

Lourdes Cartagena, a broker at Fillmore Real Estate, said that while many of these buyers are seeing foreclosure on their mortgages, others are turning to city programs for assistance.

Other SoBro properties, such as the spacious, high-ceilinged apartments along the Grand Concourse in the western section of the neighborhood, present another issue that has kept investors away.

While the properties can be found at comparative steals compared to other fringe neighborhoods — Cartagena said a 1,600-square-foot apartment sells for between $250,000 and $300,000 — almost all are condominiums that require buyers to also be residents. In addition, most home buyers are looking for newly renovated apartments — which most along the Grand Concourse are not.

Also in the area, since many co-ops have rules prohibitive to investors looking to renovate and flip units, many of these investments remain untapped.

BrooklynLove

September 5th, 2008, 08:43 AM

Not such a bad thing that at least one area with strong potential remains reasonably priced to present conditions for a few years. Crown Heights is behaving somewhat similarly right now, but more deflationary due to the last ditch spike from flips and straws in early 2007.

antinimby

September 16th, 2008, 11:50 PM

Bad sentiment rising over skyscraper plan at Hutch Metro Center

BY BILL EGBERT
Monday, September 15th 2008 (http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2008/09/15/2008-09-15_bad_sentiment_rising_over_skyscraper_pla.html), 4:20 PM

A skyscraper that would loom over an east Bronx neighborhood - and make an easy target for terrorists, some people fear - is getting a big thumbs down from the local community board.

But there's little it can do to stop city plans for a 374-foot-high backup 911 call center the city wants to build at the Hutch Metro Center in Morris Park.

The building would rise just south of Pelham Parkway, with 800 employees and a 500-car parking lot.

The backup call center would be the second-tallest building in the Bronx, behind only Tracey Towers on Mosholu Parkway.

After a joint FDNY/NYPD presentation to the Land Use Committee of Community Board 11 last Thursday, the committee voted overwhelmingly against the project, with the full board voting next month.

"When they first met with us, it was going to be seven stories," said the board's district manager, John Fratta. "The next time, it was going to be 17 stories. This thing just grew."

The community recently downzoned to prevent new oversized apartment buildings. "This is going to cast a big shadow over our community," Fratta said of the 37-story building.

CB11 Land Use Chairman Joseph McManus called the project "a monster of a building."

McManus also predicted a traffic nightmare: "You're going to need a helicopter to get across Pelham Parkway."

He also told an NYPD representative a number of community residents fear the building will be a standing target for terrorists.

Fratta and McManus said the city shot down a series of suggestions from committee members to make the project more palatable to the community - such as turning the planned adjacent 500-car parking lot into a garage and spreading the building's footprint over the entire parcel, or adding access to the Hutchinson River Parkway to reduce the traffic burden on Pelham Parkway.

The NYPD pointed to Department of Homeland Security regulations requiring wide setbacks from the street for making the facility tall enough to fit on the lot.

As for access to the Hutch, Fratta said the city told them simply that they looked into it and decided "that can't happen."

The FDNY press office did not respond to requests for comments by press time.

Fratta stressed the board understands the need for a facility to back up the main 911 call center at Metrotech in Brooklyn. It just wants the city to make some adjustments to reduce the negative impacts.

"We want to help the city," said Fratta, "but the city isn't cooperating."

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com

Antares41

September 17th, 2008, 11:38 AM

The tallest of the Tracey Towers is 400 ft which make it the second tallest bldg in the Bronx behind the Harlem River(Plaza?) along the Major Deegan which at 44 stories is 428 ft. I think this bldgs get over look because they sit on bank of the Harlem River, thus most of the bldg is obscured by the hills of the west Bronx.

NYC4Life

September 25th, 2008, 09:36 PM

am New York

Pelham Bay, Bronx: City Living among family

By Joe Filippazzo | Special to amNewYork
September 25, 2008
http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2008-09/42547833.jpg
A house along Stillwell Ave. (Dennis W. Ho / September 24, 2008)

Most New Yorkers are familiar with the unpredictable housing market and the neighborhood gentrification raging across the city. But as tumultuous as those changes have gotten, a small area in the Northeast Bronx has managed to weather the worst of it so far.

Pelham Bay, the veritable picture of residential stability, has a character and appearance that has remained relatively unchanged for the last 40 years. And while the recipe for such coveted equilibrium is rarely reproduced in surrounding neighborhoods, those who live here simply chalk it up to family.

"It's all middle-class families here," said Michelangelo Cipollone, 60, who was spending the afternoon in Pelham Bay Park with two of his neighbors. "And if a family moves out, their kids or their cousins or somebody they know moves right in."

In fact, it's such a family affair in Pelham Bay that residents looking to sell their homes usually ask around the neighborhood before putting the property on the open market, Cipollone said. The unwritten rule is that families get dibs.

With plenty of homegrown shops and restaurants along major commercial roads like Westchester Avenue and East Tremont Avenue, Pelham Bay acts as a sort of self-sustaining mini city with little reliance on big box stores and strip malls, though some of those exist.

"There's a little bit of everything and it's all right here," Cipollone said. "I can't complain and no one that lives here really does. If they don't like it, they can go, in other words."

This is not to say that the area is completely stagnant however. Change just happens more slowly and in particular places -- making it predictable and traceable. With such stability at a premium, property values tend to stay high and any open space that does become available is eaten up as soon as it's put on the market.

"Whenever there's a big empty piece of land, a year later there's a house there," said resident Anthony Villani, 22. His case in point was a development called the Waterbury Estates at the corner of Jarvis Avenue and the Bruckner Expressway., a farm of two-family homes built on the site of the former Smithsonian Museum.

"It would have been nice to see something for kids go there," he said. "There's definitely a lack of afterschool activities for teenagers, so they end up out in the streets at night."

To be sure, Villani, an Iona College student, said he enjoyed growing up in the neighborhood with access to the city and a close-knit community to fall back on, but he recognizes the slow shift in his hometown and he actually plans to leave once he finishes school.

And with a median age of 45, according to census data, and smaller families than these houses are used to seeing, maybe Pelham Bay's not immune to the changing cityscape after all.

Find it:
Pelham Bay is bounded by Pelham Parkway to the north, the Bruckner Expressway to the east and south and the Hutchinson River Parkway to the west.

The basics:
Transportation:– There are plenty of public transportation options in Pelham Bay, though it's especially easy to get to by car since it's bounded by several major thoroughfares. If highways are arteries, then Pelham Bay is the heart of the Bronx with the Bruckner Expressway, the Hutchinson River Parkway, the Throgs Neck Expressway and the Bronx and Pelham parkways providing access to the neighborhood. Nondrivers can also take the No. 6 train to one of the last three stops on the line or hop on a number of buses, including the Bx5, 8, 14, 40 and 42, plus the BxM7 and the QBx1.

Police station: The 45th Precinct covers the neighborhoods of Pelham Bay, Country Club, Co-op City and City Island, an area that includes more than 6 square miles of parkland and about 10 miles of waterfront in the Northeast Bronx.

Crime Stats: In 2007, there were six murders, 12 rapes, 253 burglaries, 194 felony assaults and 447 grand larcenies in the 45th Precinct.

Highlight
Pelham Bay Park -- Covering 2,700 acres of beautiful Bronx real estate, Pelham Bay Park is by far the city's largest park. While it's almost three times bigger (and ten times quieter) than Central Park (http://www.amny.com/topic/travel/tourism-leisure/gardens-parks/central-park-PLTRA0000101.topic), the majority of the land lies just northeast of Pelham Bay's residential concentration. At almost any time of the day, big groups of people can be found biking the flat, winding paths, playing a fierce game of bocce ball or barbecuing with friends. It is also host to a variety of wildlife habitats, nature trails and both public and private beaches, which make the park both a recreational and environmental oasis.

To eat
The food in Pelham Bay is reliably good according to most residents, but the majority of favorite eateries lie just outside the primarily residential neighborhood's borders. There isn't an overwhelming presence of fast food chains, a fact the locals tend to like, and family-run delis and grocery stores are on almost every block of the main commercial strips, especially along the No. 6 train that runs up Westchester Avenue.

Pelham Bay Diner -- "It's just diner food," the well-dressed man behind the counter said when asked about his menu. Well, the locals seem to disagree. The Pelham Bay Diner comes as one the most highly recommended places to eat in the area with fresh food, a spacious and inviting interior and a particularly humble staff. 1920 E. Gun Hill Rd., (718) 379-4130 (livecall:(718)379-4130)

Yvonne's Southern Cuisine Restaurant -- A taste of the South is only a 10-minute drive north. BBQ ribs, smothered pork chops and fried catfish are a few of the favorite entrees, all served with two sides -- such deliciously ubiquitous options such as fried plantains and black eyed peas -- plus a golden piece of cornbread. They do catering and private parties as well. Fifth Ave., (914) 738-2005 (livecall:(914)738-2005)

Frankie and Johnny's Pine Tavern Restaurant -- Just west of the Hutchinson River Parkway. is one of the Bronx's most famous Italian restaurants. With big portions of classic dishes, some highly recommended entrees include the eggplant rollatini, baked clams and filet mignon. 1913 Bronxdale Ave., (718) 792-5956 (livecall:(718)792-5956)

Honey's Thai Pavilion -- Mere feet from the No. 6 train, Honey's is evidence of the area's cultural diversification in recent years. They offer an assortment of noodles, salads and curries but the special dishes are where this restaurant shines. Grilled lemongrass chicken, Thai style grilled pork chops and Honey's special lamb are worth checking out. 3036 Westchester Ave., (718) 792-2803 (livecall:(718)792-2803)

The Black Whale -- Just across the water, smack dab in the middle of City Island is this charming and romantic hot spot for American cuisine. Though the menu is not incredibly lengthy, they offer a good selection of dishes from land, sea and air and wherever pasta roams. 279 City Island Ave., (718) 885-3657 (livecall:(718)885-3657)

Pelham Bay Bake Shop and Cafe -- There's no way around it: Don't come to this bakery unless you're prepared to eat half a dozen amazing pastries. The Pelham Bay Bake Shop and Cafe makes great pies like apple, pumpkin and lemon meringue, some top-notch Italian pastries and fresh-bakes doughnuts and cakes. Also noteworthy are the reasonable prices for almost everything in the shop. 1650 Crosby Ave., (718) 822-7537 (livecall:(718)822-7537)

To shop:
The shopping in Pelham Bay is pretty standard for the Bronx. The neighborhood has a few streets that are block after block of small, family-run stores and every so often a strip mall or shopping center pops up, usually by the highways. Big box stores exist, but they tend to be off the more residential roads due primarily to space requirements. What Pelham Bay ends up with is a modest commercial presence run mostly by local families.

Bay Plaza Shopping Center -- At the intersection of I-95 and Hutchinson River Parkway is the area's largest shopping center with almost every amenity imaginable. There are stores for electronics, furniture and clothes plus a number of restaurants and fast food joints and even some grocers. Its convenient location makes it a popular weekend destination for the younger residents of Pelham Bay and the Bronx proper. Exit 4N off the Hutchinson River Parkway.

Pelham Bay Toy Shop -- From the Buhre Avenue stop on the No. 6 train, you can pop in tothis cute family-run shop for all the typical toys tots enjoy. Games, figurines and video games are just some of the items on sale. The prices here are typically a bit higher than you would find at a place like Toys R Us, but they tend to have big-sellers in stock long after the chains have sold out. 2940 Westchester Ave., (718) 822-5333 (livecall:(718)822-5333)

Unique to Antique -- Though small, cramped and a little dusty, Unique to Antique has an amazing selection of collectibles like flatware, statuettes and vases. They also have some small antique furniture and a variety of adorable trinkets that refuse to be classified. 3000 Middletown Rd., (718) 829-8807 (livecall:(718)829-8807)

To do:
If you're an active New Yorker, there's plenty to do in Pelham Bay during the day. With Pelham Bay Park and the waterfront a few minutes' walk away, most activities tend to be relaxing, outdoors affairs, though the area has a few bars and lounges that are worth visiting. Let's just say that Pelham Bay isn't known for it's thriving nightlife.

Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum -- This is a New York City landmark and just an all-around beautiful place to visit in Pelham Bay. On the edge of Pelham Bay Park, the picturesque 170-year-old mansion stands as an elegant postcard from the Civil War era. The city offers seasonal tours and educational programs, though the grounds are open daily. 895 Shore Rd., (718) 885-1461 (livecall:(718)885-1461)

Bronx Equestrian Center -- Believe it or not, horses for all occasions and levels of experience can be found in this small corner of the Bronx. Open year round, the Equestrian Center offers trail riding, pony rides and both Western and English style riding lessons. They also rent horse drawn carriages and, if a particular animal strikes your fancy, you can take one home for a modest price! 9 Shore Rd., (718) 885-0551 (livecall:(718)885-0551)

Pelham/Split Rock Golf Course -- Originally opened in 1901, this Scottish links style course has been a golfing hot spot for decades. The par 71 public course offers vast fairways, gorgeous vistas and a number of tricky putting greens to keep it all interesting. 870 Shore Rd., (718) 885-1258 (livecall:(718)885-1258)

Q & A
Like many Pelham Bay residents, George Trovato, 52, has lived in this part of the Bronx his entire life. It's a safe, green and friendly neighborhood where his family and friends live -- and he has no intention of leaving anytime soon.

Q: What has kept you here all these years?
A: Definitely the family dynamic and the sense of community have kept me here. It's a clean neighborhood, the schools are good, taxes are reasonable, crime is low… what else? There's one of the nicest public parks right here but you still have the option of privacy since all your neighbors are pretty considerate and friendly. Why would I leave?

: What's the real estate situation like?
A: Well, it's very stable actually since they ran out of places to build. What you see is what you got and it's kind of nice that way. Most homes are single or double families -- almost entirely middle-class families -- and you'll see if you go down any of the streets that there's not a ton of construction.

Q: Who lives in Pelham Bay?
A: It's predominantly Italian but there has been a growing number of other groups moving into the area, which has been really nice. In the last 10 years or so, the Hispanic population especially has jumped but there's all different kinds of people from all over. The change has been quicker on the west side of the Bruckner Expressway since that's where most of the apartments are.

Q: What kind of effect has that had on the area?
A: Some of the restaurants have changed, which has been interesting, but now it's just a more diverse middle-class [area] than it was years ago. Since most families stay here for generations, the change has been slow so you might not realize it right away, but it's there. Different cultures and customs definitely make it more interesting, and I think it's been for the better.

Q: What are the drawbacks?
A: I can't really think of anything particularly negative except that there's not much parking space. But that's just New York, right? You're not going to say it's luxurious, but it's convenient. Everything you need here is at your fingertips.

Real estate:
Most of Pelham Bay is single- and two-family homes of various styles, though semi-attached brick and pre-war designs tend to dominate the short, quiet streets. There are some apartment buildings and co-ops as well, though they are typically relegated to neighboring Co-op City and Throgs Neck.

"There's just about a 50-50 split of renters and home owners," said Cathy Tonti, an agent with Coldwell Banker Gumbo, the company's only Bronx office. "Pelham Bay's a pretty big area so it includes some very different parts. But if a house is on sale, it usually sells pretty quickly."

"I think it's because people want to be close to the transportation since it's not far from the city here with the No. 6 train and the express buses," Tonti said. "Plus they love the park, the taxes are low and it's a middle-class area that's considered one of the nicest parts of the Bronx."

To Buy:
-2013 Colonial Ave. -- Part of an 11-unit condo, newly built, one bedroom, one bathroom with 9-foot ceilings, granite counter tops, access to a fitness center and rooftop terrace: $399,000

-1730 Edison Ave. -- A three bedroom, one and a half bathroom home for one family built in 1935 with a backyard patio and a driveway: $439,000

-1627 Pilgrim Ave. -- A three bedroom, one bathroom single-family colonial with a living room, formal dining room, covered patio and a backyard with a swimming pool: $460,000

Recently sold:
-1927 Edison Ave. -- A single family colonial built in 1940 with 2-stories, a spacious backyard and a driveway: $350,000

-1737 Hobart Ave. -- Multi-family brick building with five bedrooms and two bathrooms on a quiet one-way street: $625,000

-1725 Edison Ave. -- A one bedroom, one bathroom 490 square foot condo built in 1965: $85,000

To rent:
-A three-story walk up minutes from the park and five blocks from the 6 train, utilities included but no laundry facilities: $825/mo.

A one bedroom, one bathroom five-story walk up with hardwood floors, laundry facilities and heat, water and internet included: $1,100/mo.

Less than five blocks from the park, the train and the buses, a two bedroom, one bathroom walk up of three stories: $1,250/mo.

Contact: Cathy Tonti of Coldwell Banker Gumbo, 917-579-4979 (livecall:917-579-4979)

NYC4Life

September 26th, 2008, 10:47 PM

Updated On 09/26/08 at 05:58PM

Class A office tower opens in Bronx

http://s3.amazonaws.com/trd_three/images/51252/hutch_towerone_may08_articlebox.jpg (http://ny.therealdeal.com/assets/51252)
Hutchinson Metro Center Tower One

The first of two Class A office towers planned for the 42-acre Hutchinson Metro Center complex in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx officially opened yesterday. The 13-story, 280,000-square-foot Tower One at 1250 Waters Place is nearly 45 percent leased, said Joseph Simone, president of the New Rochelle-based Simone Development Companies, which is developing the office project. A second tower with an additional 280,000 square feet is planned next door. Newman Design Group, based in Huntington, Long Island, is the architect for the office project. The complex is already home to a 460,000-square-foot office building, opened in 2003. It was the first Class A office building in the Bronx in more than 10 years. TRD

Merry

September 27th, 2008, 01:14 AM

September 28, 2008
Morris Park

A Forthcoming 911 Center Finds Few Local Friends

By KATHERINE BINDLEY

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/28/nyregion/28parkinglot.span.jpg
“Oh, boy, it sure did grow,” Vincent Prezioso, vice chairman of the local community board, said of the plan for the center.

AT the end of the long road through the Hutchinson Metro Center in the Bronx neighborhood of Morris Park, past the shiny white office buildings, there are a parking lot, a set of train tracks and a faded sign declaring a small field the Home of Astor Little League. From the looks of the field, no one has played baseball there in years, and maybe no one ever will. If the city has its way, the nine-acre site will soon become the home of a 911 emergency call center.

The proposed building would work in tandem with MetroTech Center in Brooklyn and split the estimated 33,000 emergency calls that come into the city each day. But Vincent Prezioso, Community Board 11’s vice chairman, said the new center would strain the resources of this modest neighborhood of one- and two-family homes.

“It was proposed to us a while back as a much smaller version,” Mr. Prezioso said. “They told us it was going to be a 17-story building, which we said we had no problem with.” At subsequent meetings, though, police officials called for the current size, 37 stories. “ ‘Oh, boy, it sure did grow,’ ” Mr. Prezioso recalled saying when he heard of the change.
“They say it’s a manufacturing zone, but just a stone’s throw away is all private houses,” Mr. Prezioso said. As for traffic, he added, even without the planned 911 center, “you cannot move in this community.”

Joseph McManus, the chairman of the community board’s land-use committee, said the height of the building, which would be open around the clock with 350 employees working each shift, was almost beside the point. “The pollution, the traffic, inundating the public transportation system,” Mr. McManus said, “that’s going to happen if the building is one story high.”

Anthony Tria, a police inspector, defended the project, saying that the new call center was critical for the citywide emergency-response system. “The problem is there is no redundancy,” said Inspector Tria, who promised that the city would consider local concerns as the center was designed. “If there’s a power failure or something like that, there is no backup site. The idea is this fills that void.”

Not surprisingly, given local sentiment, the board voted unanimously on Thursday against the plan, with two abstentions. But the vote, which was advisory, was seen as more symbolic than meaningful, with residents convinced that the high-priority, $1 billion project will proceed.

“My gut impression,” said John Fratta, the board’s district manager, “is this is probably going to happen regardless of what we do.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/nyregion/thecity/28back.html?ref=thecity

antinimby

September 27th, 2008, 01:52 AM

NYC4Life

September 29th, 2008, 03:59 PM

Updated On 09/29/08 at 12:33PM
Bronx green school under construction

http://s3.amazonaws.com/trd_three/images/51316/ecc_front_elevation_copy_articlebox.jpg (http://ny.therealdeal.com/assets/51316) Early childhood center at 3530 Kings College Place

By Sara Polsky

A $34 million early childhood center now under construction in the Bronx will be one of the first green schools in New York City.

It was designed in compliance with the NYC Green Schools Guide and Rating System, which helps schools follow the city's green building law. The law requires all new schools with construction budgets over $2 million to lower energy costs and use green materials, including plumbing that will reduce water usage.

The center, which will have space for 515 pre-K through third grade students, is scheduled for completion in late 2009, and will share an 80,000-square-foot site with PS 94X at 3530 Kings College Place, which is already at the site.

The center was designed by Gran Kriegel Associates. The design draws on the area's existing architecture, including the tan-colored PS 94X and the red brick buildings that surround it.

NYC4Life

October 1st, 2008, 09:27 PM

NY Daily News

Pelham Bay project heralds office space boom

BY BILL EGBERT
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, September 29th 2008, 6:19 PM

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/09/30/amd_physical-therapy.jpg
Mendez for News
Patients get in the swim of things at Westchester Square Physical Therapy, a tenant at Hutchinson Metro Center.

While downtown Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Bronx) is getting a lot of attention for all the major development projects underway there, a corner of the East Bronx is booming as well, even as it's Wall Street (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Wall+Street)'s turn to burn.

Hutchinson Metro Center (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Hutchinson+Metro+Center), a 42-acre office park in Pelham Bay (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Pelham+Bay), officially opened Tower One last week - the first of two planned office blocks, with 280,000 square feet of Class A space each.

According to the developer, Joseph Simone (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Joseph+Simone), 45% of Tower One's 10 floors of office space is already leased, with several more deals near conclusion.
The completion of Tower One is the second phase of the office park development, on the site of the old Bronx Psychiatric Hospital (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bronx+Psychiatric+Hospital), just west of the Hutchinson River Parkway.

The first phase, a low-rise building with 460,000 square feet of space, was fully leased less than two years after it opened. Major tenants include Mercy College (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Mercy+College), Visiting Nurse Service of New York (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Visiting+Nurse+Associations+of+America), University Diagnostic Medical Imaging and the New York City Housing Authority (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+York+City+Housing+Authority).

"We're very bullish on the Bronx economy," said Simone. "This borough has everything you need to succeed in business - an excellent highway system, convenient access to public transportation and a large and skilled labor pool."

In addition, the area near the office park is set to get its own skyscraper as well - a controversial 37-story glass tower the city hopes to build nearby to house a backup 911 call center.

One factor contributing to Hutchinson Metro Center's success is the recent downzoning of adjacent Morris Park (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Morris+Park), which restricts the scale of new construction for commercial space, forcing some expanding businesses to decamp to the new office park.

The busiest development area at the moment is the lower Grand Concourse area, with the new Yankee Stadium (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Yankee+Stadium), the Gateway Center Mall and rezoning of a 34-block largely industrial area for commercial development.

But commercial real estate is booming across the borough, from Hutchinson Metro Center to Fordham Plaza.

"Office space in the Bronx is cheaper than Manhattan (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Manhattan)," said real estate broker Kathy Zamachansky (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Kathy+Zamachansky). "Fordham Plaza, Fordham Place and Metro Center are doing very well."

While it's "too early to tell" whether the woes on Wall Street will drive more commercial tenants from pricey Manhattan to the Bronx, Zamachansky said that the borough's proximity to Westchester (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Westchester) County makes the Bronx a particularly attractive location for back-office functions.

"There's definitely an opportunity for office real estate in the Bronx," she said.

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com. All rights reserved.

NYC4Life

October 1st, 2008, 09:30 PM

NY Daily News

Lehman Science Center a big plus for the environment

BY TANYANIKA SAMUELS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, September 30th 2008, 8:56 AM

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/09/30/amd_lehman.jpg
The $68.5 million science building at Lehman College is meant both to show the possibilities for buildings in the future and to tempt students to go there.

LEHMAN COLLEGE is going green - in a big way.

City University of New York officials broke ground last week on a $68.5 million science building, the first step in a triple-phased effort to create a "campus within a campus" dedicated to the sciences.

"The subsequent research that is conducted will open the door to discoveries ... that we can only imagine right now," said Lehman President Ricardo Fernández.

Construction on this initial phase is expected to be completed by 2011.
The 69,000-square-foot building is CUNY's first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified project.

The facility will include radiant floor heating, a rooftop greenhouse for teaching and research, solar hot water panels and storm water management systems.

Also, existing trees uprooted during construction will be reused in the college's rock garden.

CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein hailed the groundbreaking as the first major step in "CUNY's Decade of the Sciences," in which more than $1 billion is expected to be invested in modernizing science facilities.

"The integrated research network that will result [from this effort] will play a leading role in ... expanding our region's sciencerelated industries and opportunities," Goldstein said.

Designed by the Perkins+Will firm, the new science building will feature state-of-the-art laboratories, as well as a conference center and office space.

It's designed to showcase Lehman's strengths in plant-science teaching and research.

The central courtyard will feature an enclosed wetland of native grasses with naturally occurring microbes to clean storm water, which can then be recycled for use in the building's plumbing facilities.

Faculty and students will be able to collect samples of plants, soil and water to understand natural processes, as well as how contaminants in the water affect the ecosystem.

The building also will display real-time information about itself, such as the amount of energy saved by the solar hot water panels.

"This new facility will allow Lehman's science programs, especially on the graduate level, to attract a new generation of students and scholars," Fernández said.

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com. All rights reserved.

Antares41

October 2nd, 2008, 09:04 PM

What's with all these suburban type of office parks in the Bronx?

Doesn't this city recognize that the suburban model of development is now outdated and not sustainable?

Are they still living in 1950's? How out-of-touch can they get before they finally "get it?"

I guess their trying to keep businesses in the city by offering these "surburban style" settings at much reduce cost relative to pricy Manhattan. Not what I like to see in the Bronx, but, if it sells???

antinimby

October 2nd, 2008, 09:28 PM

Couldn't a more urban-style development (i.e. streetwall, mixed-use such as retail on the ground floor and most importantly, no massive parking lot) achieved the same thing?

The Bronx is part of a city and is urban and to now develop it in such a suburban manner is retarded given how much we now know about the advantages of urban development.

There are suburbs all over the country that have realized their mistake and are trying to build in a more dense and more walkable, mixed use manner. Meanwhile, this dumb city is doing just the opposite.

Antares41

October 3rd, 2008, 06:17 PM

I think if this development were slated for Fordham Road, 161st street, or other area west and south of the proposed location the more urban-style design you are advocating would have been a no-brainer. But, the eastern Bronx in particular is interlaced with a very extensive highway system. Thus, it better servred by automobile, with great connections to Westchester, Queens etc.

My recollections is that the pedestrian traffic and even public transportation in the area is rather sparse compared to the rest of the Bronx. MTA really should have extended the Pelham (No.6) line to Co-op City, but, that a topic for another time.

Its, for lack of a better word, perhaps "antiquated thinking" to not find a way to exploit public transport and bring more pedestrian trafffic to the area. But, then again with the current credit crunch the lowest risk option is the one likely to get the financial backing to proceed. And, given we are talking about the Bronx, here, which was all but written off when I was growing-up, any development is welcomed.

NYC4Life

October 3rd, 2008, 09:50 PM

NY1

10/03/2008 07:04 PM
Tenants Lose Battle To Preserve Morris Heights Housing Complex

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8669/24246662lu6.jpg

The long battle to save a Bronx building known as the birthplace of hip-hop ended this week.

A new owner took over the affordable-housing complex at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in Morris Heights.

The building is where hip-hop music was introduced in the early 1970s.

Some tenants tried to purchase the 100-unit building and preserve its history. However, they were outbid by developer Mark Karasick, who closed the deal on Monday.

Tenants say that their fight is not over.

"We wanted them to sell it to us, but they wanted more money," said tenant Geraldine Davis. "Everybody's living on one income and we don't have that type of money. We've been fighting a long time to stay here. Where else are we going to go?"

"How are we to fight this," said fellow tenant Andre Lovell. "Who's helping us? This same thing we tried to fight this guy from doing, he's doing it – in front of our faces. And no one is doing anything to stop it."

Residents fear Karasick will raise rents. Officials say that although the previous owner took the building out of the Mitchell Lama affordable housing program, apartments will still remain subsidized, meaning rents can only go up in connection with rent-stabilization guidelines.

In a statement, a lawyer for Karasick says the developer, "takes his responsibilities seriously and does not shirk from his obligations."

Schadenfrau

October 4th, 2008, 08:32 PM

The Bronx is part of a city and is urban and to now develop it in such a suburban manner is retarded given how much we now know about the advantages of urban development.

There are suburbs all over the country that have realized their mistake and are trying to build in a more dense and more walkable, mixed use manner. Meanwhile, this dumb city is doing just the opposite.

Are you familiar with the northern Bronx at all? It's not just that the area is being developed like this now- it has been developed like this for ages. Just read the directions of how to access the Hutchinson Metro Center:

http://www.hutchmetrocenter.com/06/directions.html

Huge swaths of the northern Bronx are completely inaccessible by public transportation or foot, as evidenced by the lack of sidewalks in many areas no less than five blocks away from a subway.

Antares41 is correct in his or her assessments of the area. If the northern Bronx actually wants to be part of the city, they need to start following the more pedestrian and transport friendly habits of the south Bronx.

NYC4Life

October 6th, 2008, 04:49 PM

Updated On 10/06/08 at 01:42PM
Bronx's "birthplace of hip-hop" sold

The affordable housing complex and the "birthplace of hip-hop," 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, was sold last week to developer Mark Karasick and taken out of the Mitchell-Lama program. Removing the South Bronx building from the Mitchell-Lama program puts it under the city's rent stabilization laws (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904EED91039F935A1575AC0A9629C8B 63&fta=y). Residents of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, between Cedar Avenue and the Major Deegan Expressway, had been trying to buy the building to prevent its sale and won a temporary restraining order by filing a lawsuit (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/judge-rules-sale-of-bronx-hip-hop-building-can-proceed/?scp=1&sq=sedgwick%20avenue&st=cse) with the State Supreme Court. The building is considered the "birthplace of hip hop (http://www.1520sedgwick.com/)" because DJ Kool Herc, one of the founders of hip-hop, lived in the complex in the 1970s. TRD

http://s3.amazonaws.com/trd_three/images/52426/1520_sedgwick_ave_articlebox.jpg (http://ny.therealdeal.com/assets/52426) 1520 Sedgwick Avenue

NYC4Life

October 8th, 2008, 02:27 PM

The Riverdale Press

Neighbors who want park locked meet resistance

By Megan James

To lock or not to lock the gates at Fort Independence Park, that is the question.

Members of the Fort Independence Park Neighborhood Association and residents of 3850 Sedgwick Ave., many of whose windows abut the park’s basketball courts, are inching closer to a compromise on whether or not to close the park at night.

Residents of the Sedgwick Avenue building contend that rowdy basketball games and other noisy behavior in the park keep them up well into wee hours of the night, and that violent crime has increased in the area since the city Department of Parks and Recreation stopped locking the gates at night one year ago, at the request of the community board.

FIPNA members, who originally requested the park be left open, say that Fort Independence Park is the centerpiece of their Kingsbridge Heights neighborhood and that it should be open to community members in the evening. Locking the park, they add, makes it more difficult for police officers to patrol the park at night.

Representatives from both sides brought their concerns to Community Board 8’s parks committee meeting on Sept. 24, and made some progress toward reaching an agreement.

“The two sides understand that safety and quality of life is paramount,” said Bob Bender, the committee’s chairman. “Both sides agreed to continue talking after the meeting.”

But it appears there is still much to hammer out.

For Nat Solomon, who lives in the Sedgwick Avenue building, the biggest concern is preventing crime, which he contends has increased since the park has been open all night. He reminded people at the meeting that in June, an 18-year-old woman was sexually assaulted as she made her way through the park at around 10 p.m., and last month a teenager was robbed and beaten up there at around 8 p.m.

“Closing the gates might have prevented the assault,” he said.

But FIPNA members maintain that people will find a way into the park regardless of whether the gates are locked. One of them, Margaret Groarke, pointed out that the fence on the park’s Giles Place side is only about four-feet high, and that on the Sedgwick Avenue side, a two-foot stone wall is all that stands in the way.

“You can climb right into the park,” she said. “I’ve done it with a stroller, and I’m not the most athletic person.”

At the same time, locked gates would make it more difficult for police officers to respond to incidents in the park, she said. While the 50th Precinct has decided to stay out of this decision, Community Affairs Det. Luis Rodriguez acknowledged that if officers have to unlock the gates each time they need to get in, their response time could be delayed.

Before last October, parks maintenance and operations staff would lock the gates in the evening, sometimes so early that community members couldn’t use the park when they got home from work, Ms. Groarke said.

According a parks department spokesperson, locking city parks, and especially playgrounds, at night to prevent noise and vandalism is the norm, but parks operation staff can only lock parks during their work hours, which usually end around 5 p.m.

One compromise floated at the parks committee meeting would see the park open until 9 or 10 p.m., and require a resident from the Sedgwick Avenue building to lock up for the night. But some park neighbors don’t feel comfortable with that idea.

“We would not feel safe doing that because of the incidents that are occurring with increasing frequency in the neighborhood,” Mr. Solomon said. “What we have there is a pot that’s boiling over.”

The two groups have agreed to meet again to reach a compromise, something they all said was within reach.

“I do feel hopeful,” Ms. Groarke said.

© 2008. All Rights Reserved.

antinimby

October 14th, 2008, 04:31 PM

New development to give Melrose a much-needed boost

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/10/14/alg_melrose-map.gif

BY BILL EGBERT Monday, October 13th 2008 (http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2008/10/13/2008-10-13_new_development_to_give_melrose_a_muchne.html), 4:15 PM

Once abandoned by the city to arsonists and slumlords, a South Bronx neighborhood is getting a second chance, with the city now looking for developers to build new housing on a trio of long-abandoned lots.

The three sites are the last city-owned parcels in the Melrose Commons neighborhood, and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development's proposals envision mixed-income housing as well as ground-floor retail space.

"This represents one of the last pieces in the revitalization of Melrose Commons," said Borough President Adolfo Carrión. "The success of this neighborhood shows that community-based planning partnerships can create viable and safe urban communities."

The sites being opened for development encompass 51/2 acres in the northern section of Melrose Commons.

- Site A - between E. 162nd and E. 163rd Sts. and Courtlandt and Melrose Aves. - will include an Administration for Children's Services child-care facility and offer commercial space.

- Site B is also bounded by those streets, but on Melrose and Elton Aves. It will contain commercial space along Elton Ave., with the potential extra commercial space on E. 163rd St.

- Site C is south of Site B, between Melrose and Elton Aves. but bounded by E. 161st and E. 162nd Sts. Site C will include a commercial corridor along E. 161st St. and Elton Ave.

At least 50% of all residential units will have to be affordable to households at or below 60% of Department of Housing and Urban Development income limits, as adjusted by household size - that is, $46,100 for a family of four or $32,300 for an individual.

The city wants all proposals to reflect green-building practices.

Over the past few years, the South Bronx neighborhoods of Melrose, The Hub and Mott Haven have received a surge of city attention to bring a boom to a once-blighted area.

The Hub has benefitted from relocating city agencies and offices to the bustling shopping district, along with traffic improvements.

Mott Haven was rezoned to allow loft conversions and is now enjoying new cachet among artists priced out of lofts in the East Village and Williamsburg.

Melrose is getting a new park, an upgrade for its iconic Roberto Clemente Plaza and traffic improvements.

Also, Atlantic Development Group is creating a new Melrose campus for Boricua College. The 14-story building, due for completion in late 2009, will be next to Boricua Village, a mixed-income development that includes 50,000 square feet of retail space.

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com

NYC4Life

October 22nd, 2008, 09:51 PM

GlobeSt.com (http://www.globest.com/)

Last updated: October 22, 2008 11:31am
Four Affordable Builds To Bring $29M in Revenue

By Natalie Dolce (http://www.globest.com/cgi-bin/udt/im.author.contact.view?client_id=globest&story_id=174668&title=Four%20Affordable%20Builds%20To%20Bring%20%2 429M%20in%20Revenue&author=Natalie%20Dolce&address=http%3A//www.globest.com/news/1271%5F1271/newyork/174668%2D1.html&summary=BRONX%2C%20NY%2DThe%20City%20picks%20five% 20teams%20to%20develop%20four%20affordable%20housi ng%20sites%20here%2C%20bringing%20the%20City%20clo ser%20to%20the%20realization%20of%20Mayor%20Bloomb erg%27s%20%247.5%2Dbillion%20affordable%20plan.)

BRONX, NY-More than 1,000 units of affordable housing will be developed on four New York City Housing Authority sites in the South Bronx by five teams, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development commissioner Shaun Donovan and NYCHA chairman Tino Hernandez revealed Tuesday. The sites will bring in an estimated $29 million in revenue to the Housing Authority, "a critical component in preserving public housing in a time of diminishing Federal spending," according to a statement.

Blue Sea Development was selected as the lead developer of a 101-unit building on the grounds of the NYCHA-owned Forest Houses; Dunn Development Corp. was selected as the lead developer of 220 units on the grounds of Highbridge Gardens; the TNS Development/CPC Resources/Lemle & Wolff team was revealed as the lead developer of 236 units of new housing on the grounds of Soundview Houses; the Arista team was selected as the lead developer of a 290-unit renovation of six NYCHA-owned buildings in the University Heights area; and Bronx Pro was selected as the lead developer of a 173-unit renovation of four more NYCHA-owned buildings in the University Heights area.

In selecting the development teams for the South Bronx sites, "preference was given to developers who proposed a range of affordability with competitive acquisition prices and the least amount of City subsidies, while maintaining the highest standards in sustainable design and quality of construction," according to a prepared release. "As the City’s population grows and the need for affordable housing increases, one thing that remains fixed is the supply of available land," says HPD commissioner Shaun Donovan, in the release. "This is why it is so important that we make full use of underutilized properties owned by city and state agencies. These new sites will provide affordable units for hard working low- and moderate-income-families."

Chairman Hernandez adds that "NYCHA's collaboration with HPD is generating creative solutions for expanding affordable housing in the City.

At the same time, the Bronx sites will provide $29 million in critically needed revenue to help the Housing Authority preserve the homes of current and future generations of public housing residents." All of the rental units throughout the four sites will be affordable to families of four earning $69,100 or less or to single households earning $48,300 or less.

The townhouses and co-ops will be affordable to families of four earning $99,800 or less or to single households earning $69,800 or less.
The affordable housing units will help bring the City closer to the realization of Mayor Michael Bloomberg $7.5 billion New Housing Marketplace Plan (http://www.globest.com/news/801_801/newyork/151373-1.html) to provide affordable housing for 500,000 New Yorkers.

Over the past five years, the City has funded more than 82,500 of the 165,000 affordable units to be built and preserved through the plan.

The development at Forest Houses will consist of one six-story building containing 100 affordable units available to households making 80% or less of HUD Income Limits--$61,450 for a family of four or $43,000 for an individual. The building will also contain a superintendent’s unit and will include landscaped open space as well as 38 underground parking spaces; and will include energy saving design features. The current site, which contains walkways, benches, and barbecue grills, will be relocated to another part of the Forest Houses complex at the developer’s expense.

The development at Highbridge Gardens will consist of one or two buildings, yielding 219 units affordable to households making 90% or less of HUD Income Limits--$69,100 for a family of four or $48,400 for an individual--plus one super’s unit. In addition, the development will provide 66 surface parking spaces and a community room and other tenant facilities. The development site overlooks the Harlem River.

The development at Soundview Houses will consist of two eight-story rental buildings--one for families--121 units--and one for seniors--79 units--and 18 two-family townhouses for homeownership. The senior units will be affordable to households making 60% or less of HUD Income Limits--$36,900 for a couple or $32,300 for an individual--while the other rental units will be affordable for households making 80% or less of HUD Income Limits. Twelve of the townhouses will be affordable to households making 130% or less of HUD Income Limits--$99,800 for a family of four or $69,800 for an individual--and the other six townhouses will be affordable to households making 80% or less of HUD Income Limits. At the developer’s expense, the existing parking lot and barbecue area will be relocated.

University Ave. Consolidated consists of 10 scattered multi-family buildings all located within the University Heights neighborhood. The development will be completed in two simultaneous phases by two developers. Phase I entails the renovation of six buildings. Five of the buildings will provide a total of 221 units of rental housing affordable to households making 80% or less of HUD Income Limits, while the sixth building will provide 69 co-op units affordable to households making 90% or less of HUD Income Limits. Phase II entails the renovation of the final four buildings and will provide 173 rental units affordable to households making 80% or less of HUD Income Limits.

Copyright 2008 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.

NYC4Life

October 24th, 2008, 07:19 PM

NY Times

October 24, 2008, 3:15 pm

The South Bronx, and Proudly So

By David Gonzalez (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/david-gonzalez/)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/24/nyregion/Hub2.190.jpg
The Hub — the commercial strip around Third Avenue and 149th Street — is among the parts of the South Bronx that some boosters are trying to rebrand as the “Downtown Bronx.” (Photos: David Gonzalez/The New York Times)

City and Bronx officials this week trumpeted a major pedestrian and traffic redesign (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot//html/pr2008/pr08_044.shtml) of the Hub, the commercial strip around Third Avenue and East 149th Street. Perhaps it will be more successful than a previous makeover, which tried to rebrand the area as the “Downtown Bronx.”

Fluttering above the heads of officials — and sometimes above the consciousness of local residents — were banners affixed several years ago to lampposts promoting the “Downtown Bronx Shopping District.”

Never mind that the term is nothing less than a geographical impossibility to anyone who actually grew up in the Bronx, where “downtown” pretty much meant any place below 125th Street in Manhattan.

This attempt at rebranding stumps many people who walk past those banners daily (as they go to take the subway downtown, of course).

Some thought it meant you could catch Manhattan-bound buses. Others said Downtown Bronx was all the way south, up against the river in Port Morris. Few knew they were smack dab in the thick of it.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/24/nyregion/24hub.190.jpg
Banners in the Hub commercial district in the South Bronx calls the area the “Downtown Bronx.”

Jonathan Sanchez, a security guard on his way to work, had no clue where it was. “This is the South Bronx right here,” he said, oblivious to the banner on a nearby lamppost. “Downtown is more like, Manhattan.

The South Bronx is, you know, this area. It seems very good. It’s not like it used to be.”

That physical transformation appears to have been lost among those who have tried to get the new name into everyday use, including business and civic leaders who said they wanted to purge from the collective psyche (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E7DD143FF930A15754C0A9659C8B 63&sec=&spon=) memories of fires, gangs and crime conjured up by the mere mention of the South Bronx. (Funny how these civic minded folks don’t associate the South Bronx with some of the cultural and commercial juggernauts born there — from mambo to hip-hop (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6109914).)

The nebulous neighborhood name has had a booster in recent years in the Bronx borough president, Adolfo Carrión Jr. (http://bronxboropres.nyc.gov/), who has referred to the Downtown Bronx (http://bronxboropres.nyc.gov/en/gv/president/stateofborough.htm)as stretching from the Bronx Museum of the Arts to the Hub shopping district, and from Yankee Stadium to Melrose.

But that term will not roll trippingly off the lips of Represenative José E. Serrano (http://serrano.house.gov/), who has built his political career on representing the people of the South Bronx. Those who want to popularize Downtown Bronx, he said, are usually more concerned about a quick marketing fix and not a long term solution.

“The South Bronx to me is above all a symbol of never giving up (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/the-bronx-transformed-through-one-artists-lens/), of never quitting,” he said. “So what do they want to do now, change the name and think you can sell somebody the idea the neighborhood is different? It is the same neighborhood with some great solutions that have taken place.”

And as far as he’s concerned, SoBro (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/nyregion/24bronx.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=SoBro&st=cse&oref=slogin) is a NoGo.

“I know the South Bronx was once a bad word,” he said. “But it changed. Imagine you have a guy who ran into trouble when he was young but he straightened his life out. Would you change his name — unless he was in the witness protection program? So why change the name of the neighborhood?”

Some people who adopted the new moniker have had mixed results, business-wise. The Downtown Bronx Bar and Cafe, around the corner from Hostos Community College closed down this year, replaced by the New News Room Bar.

Downtown Bronx Medical Associates, which provides doctors to Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center a few blocks away, fared better. It may be a nonprofit corporation, but that doesn’t mean it scrapes by. According to its 2007 federal tax return (http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2007/061/578/2007-061578286-04156031-9.pdf) [pdf], its five highest paid employees — none of whom lived in the city, never mind any part of the Bronx — together earned more than $2.3 million.

Yet every now and then comes a reminder that no matter what you call it, some people will never let the borough live down its worst era. Recently, Le Monde asked if a particularly violent neighborhood had become “the Bronx of Paris.”

Not the South Bronx of Paris. Not the Downtown Bronx of Paris. The Bronx.

(Worse yet, an Agence France Presse report (http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hAwkhPIeAS7uQmRCTSfR2eBKWMFQ)noted how Paris’s Boogie Down doppelganger was — unlike its namesake — never a “no-go zone” and that it was home to “affluent people” and attractions like gardens and museums. So much for Riverdale, Wave Hill, the Bronx Zoo, Poe Cottage or the Bronx Museum of the Arts.)

In recent months, some residents of the borough’s southwest corner have been fighting a move they think would set back their community, which is just south of Yankee Stadium. Alarmed by the city’s plan to put up a seven-story intake center for the homeless, a group of homeowners and renters have banded together to challenge the city to rethink its plans. They call themselves the South Bronx Community Association, embracing the very term that others once wielded like a bludgeon.

“Even with the gentrification, people have an affinity for the term South Bronx,” said Bree Smith, a business consultant who owns a brick town house on Walton Avenue and is the group’s treasurer. “Downtown Bronx may catch on, but we already got South Bronx.”

Around the corner, however, Gar Paige took the long view. He could afford to – a retired police officer who has seen it all, he has lived a good part of his 96 years in the South Bronx.

“They can call it whatever they want,” he said. “It’s not going to change my life.”

So, what does he call it?

“Home,” he said. “Have a good day. Let me know what they call the place.”

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

Antares41

October 25th, 2008, 12:16 AM

Long live the "South Bronx". It is what it is. Serrano has it right it just a marketing gimmick to make the area more "palatable" to the investors.

The real story is a great one, despite adverse publicity the Bronx has received over the past 40 years, it still remains a vibrant part of NYC. Besides "the Hub" is a rather cool name.

Schadenfrau

October 29th, 2008, 07:49 PM

Amen, Antares41. I've lived in various neighborhoods in this city, but I've chosen to make the South Bronx my home for the past eight plus years. Those who get that "it is what it is" love it exactly for what it is. Those who don't can live somewhere else.

NYC4Life

November 7th, 2008, 05:14 PM

NY Daily News

Bronx 911 call center on hold after cost hits $957M

BY ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
Friday, November 7th 2008, 1:03 AM

A proposed 911 call center that would have put a 37-story building in a Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Bronx) flood plain is going back to the drawing board after the cost shot up to almost $1 billion.

The city had for two years estimated the cost of the 400,000-square-foot building at $670 million, but that jumped to $957 million when a proposed contract with Tishman Technologies (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Tishman+Technologies) was published last month.

"We are scaling back the project in order to maintain the essential elements, but at a lower cost," said Matthew Monahan (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Matthew+Monahan), spokesman for the Department of Design and Construction. "The early projected numbers were at another time in the city's economic history."

The NYPD (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+York+City+Police+Department) says the center is a critical relief valve for the city's 1 million 911 calls each month, which are all routed to MetroTech Center (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/MetroTech+Center) in Brooklyn (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brooklyn).

The Bronx center would take half those calls when finished, but could handle all the calls in an emergency - and would be built to withstand an earthquake, a hurricane, a flood or a terrorist bomb.

Design documents say 750 people would work at the 911 center, requiring a 500-car garage. The city had hoped to finish the building by the end of next year.

Neighbors in Morris Park (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Morris+Park) hated the idea of a 363-foot tower on a 9-acre office park site, as well as all those cars coursing through neighborhood streets, said City Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx) (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/James+Vacca), who represents the area.

"The numbers for this building are astronomical," said Vacca, who blamed floodproofing in part for driving up the cost. "We can accomplish the goal of having a 911 center without the height or the cost."

The higher figure includes design costs, an access road and years of rising costs for labor and materials, city officials said.

A Tishman spokesman declined to comment.

The city faces a $4 billion budget hole next year, prompting a fresh look at spending across city agencies. Already, the city has cut its major construction spending 20% by spreading four years of work over the next five years.

"It's a lot more than was originally estimated, so they're working on containing it," said Andrew Brent (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Andrew+Brent), a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Michael+Bloomberg).

"They're going to come back and see what they can do."

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com.

NYC4Life

November 18th, 2008, 03:00 PM

NY Daily News

Building a mess of trouble Yelps of anger for animal shelter

BY FLORA FAIR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, November 17th 2008, 9:55 PM

The fur is flying over the future of the old Fordham Library.

The city-owned building recently was transferred to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for use as an animal shelter - with the local community board and others charging the city pulled a fast one.

Many people feel the Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Bronx) is overdue for a full-service animal shelter, but residents and local leaders argue the building, on Bainbridge Ave., just north of Fordham Road, is desperately needed as a community center.

"We were reaching out, we were laying out our case, and the city just decided they were going to do this without consulting anyone," said Greg Faulkner (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Greg+Faulkner), chairman of Community Board 7.

The city was required by law to have a licensed, full-service animal shelter in each borough by 2006, but the Bronx has none.

But the latest plan for a shelter, to be run by Animal Care and Control, could be put on hold for at least two years as budget cuts squeeze its resources.

"We spoke to the mayor's office and said we would like to put forward a proposal," said Faulkner. "I was told, 'Before anything is done with the building, we will talk to you.'"

Faulkner said an official from Mayor Bloomberg (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Michael+Bloomberg)'s office told him just a few weeks ago that they would arrange a meeting but, by then, the building had already been transferred.

Then, on Nov. 5, Community Board members met with the Health Department to discuss the issue, and even suggested using the old Department of Environmental Protection building on Webster Ave. as a shelter instead. Faulkner said board members were under the impression that the Health Department was only trying to gain support for the plan, and were unaware that the transfer had already occurred.

How the Health Department would fund the shelter is still a question. The city budgets about $8 million annually for the nonprofit ACC. But more than $400,000 will be cut from its budget next year.

"We have a young population that has many social issues, like gangs," Faulkner said. "This was a real opportunity to provide meaningful recreation to the kids."

Fernando Cabrera (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Fernando+Cabrera), senior pastor at New Life Bronx, agreed, noting that he and other community leaders have been trying to convince the city for over a year to convert the space into a youth center.

"It is inconceivable," Cabrera said, "that the message we will be sending our youth is that they are worth less than animals."

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com. All rights reserved.

NYC4Life

November 18th, 2008, 03:03 PM

NY Daily News

Just a toxic mixup - city Schools site 'violated' state law

BY BILL EGBERT

Tuesday, November 18th 2008, 4:00 AM

City lawyers are now calling it all a big misunderstanding after a judge ruled the city violated state law by building schools on a toxic South Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/South+Bronx) site.

Acting Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Bronx) state Supreme Court Justice Patricia Anne Williams (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Patricia+Anne+Williams) ruled last month that the School Construction Authority (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/SCA) violated the State Environmental Quality (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Environmental+Quality+Company) Review Act by approving the contaminated Mott Haven (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Mott+Haven) Schools Complex at Concourse Village (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Concourse+Village) West between 153rd St. and 157th St. without first detailing a long-term plan to protect students and faculty from remaining toxins.

But the city said it followed a different state law for cleaning up brownfield sites.

"There's a bit of a disconnect," said city lawyer Carrie Noteboom (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Carrie+Noteboom), "between the state environmental review process and the brownfield cleanup regulations."

The 6.6-acre tract was home to a railyard and machine shops for 73 years, and contains harmful chemicals including mercury, lead, benzene and tetrachloroethylene.

The $230 million campus, still under construction, will be shared by two high schools, a combination high school/intermediate school, and a charter school for grades five through eight.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation's rules for cleaning up brownfields allow for long-term monitoring plans to be submitted for review after work is underway, Noteboom said, while the SEQRA process requires that all of the environmental evaluation, including maintenance plans, be completed and reviewed before any work begins.

"The SCA was always planning to do a long-term maintenance plan for the site," she said, with the only issue the timing.

But the timing is crucial, argued Dawn Philip of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, which filed suit in April 2007 on behalf of the Bronx Committee for Toxic Free Schools (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bronx+Committee+for+Toxic+Free+Schools).

Requiring the SCA to produce a detailed, long-term monitoring plan for a toxic site in the initial phase forces the city to take those costs into account before it approves the site for a school.

"How the SCA plans to monitor their controls over the long term will impact the viability of the site and whether they should put a school there in the first place," said Philip (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Dawn+Philip).

Regardless of the ruling's future impact, it came too late to affect three schools the SCA announced last May that it plans to build on contaminated sites in Queens (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Queens+County), ranging from an old auto storage lot to a former dry cleaner.

"I don't think this ruling provides a basis to revisit past decisions," Noteboom said of the other sites.

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com. All rights reserved.

NYC4Life

December 2nd, 2008, 05:22 AM

NY Daily News

Bronx filter plant cost awash in overruns

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, November 30th 2008, 10:05 PM

Rising construction prices, design changes and a dearth of bidders have more than doubled the cost of a gigantic water filtration plant being built 10 stories beneath a Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Bronx) golf driving range.

The plant deep below Van Cortlandt Park is now expected to cost nearly $3.1 billion, up from $1.3 billion in 2003. Early estimates from the 1990s put it at $660 million.

The skyrocketing price tag has been one of several areas of concern on the part of critics, who say the plant has been horribly mismanaged by the city.

Officials counter that the project, which federal officials ordered the city to build, is making good progress after a slow start.

The plant, due to be completed in 2012, is designed to filter up to a quarter of the city's water supply, or about 300 million gallons a day. The project will be New York City (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+York+City)'s first drinking water filtration facility and is believed to be the first subterranean water plant in the nation.

Opponents say city Independent Budget Office (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Independent+Budget+Office) findings show the city Department of Environmental Protection has dramatically underestimated the project's cost.

"We all felt that building such a large facility in a hole would be more costly," said Anne Marie Garti (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Anne+Marie+Garti), a community leader and longtime critic of the project.

The budget agency's tally also includes more than $100 million for repairing a 110-year-old aqueduct - which the DEP considers a separate project - and $106 million in security features, a chemical storage facility and a clubhouse and other work to enhance the golf course above the plant.

That's on top of more than $200 million in Bronx parks upgrades to compensate for disrupting the driving range.

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com. All rights reserved.

NYC4Life

December 2nd, 2008, 05:32 AM

Metro NY

City blocks: Viele Avenue between Tiffany and Casanova streets

by patrick arden / metro new york
DEC 1, 2008

New York isn’t just a city of neighborhoods — it’s a city of blocks. Each week, Metro tosses a dart at a map of Gotham and gives readers a snapshot of what we’ve found.
http://www.metro.us/metroimages/16057.jpg
The five-acre Barretto Point Park had been an illegal dump. (Photo: aharon rothschild/metro)

Hunts Point. A rainy Sunday is a quiet time to visit this block at the tip of the South Bronx. But in yesterday’s mist a visitor could imagine the estates that occupied Hunts Point until the 1900s.

The city opened the $7.2 million Barretto Point Park here in 2006. A five-acre green refuge nestled between a fertilizer factory and a sewage treatment plant, the park was the product of years of community effort to put a patch of green on an industrial brownfield.

A popular fishing spot, the neighboring Tiffany Pier refers to the famous jewelry family. A sign on the pier still warns about eating the fish caught there.

Rows of one-story brick factories line the surrounding streets. Leaving work at a laundry, Hector Diaz, 41, walks down the empty sidewalk to his bus stop. “When they brought the floating swimming pool here, lots of people came,” Diaz said.

The pool returns next summer, but its seasonal shuttle bus is one of the MTA’s proposed service cuts.

--

Five reasons to live here, visit or stay away

1 Jobs, jobs, jobs. The auto body shops, factories and scrap yards may be unsightly, “but it’s a good place to find work,” Diaz says.

2 Recent years have also brought the new Hunts Point Riverside Park and a recreation center, as well as launches for canoes and kayaks.

3 Opened in 1915, Drake Park has a tiny cemetery. It’s named for Joseph Rodman Drake, whose poetry praised Bronx beauty.

4 Plagued by high asthma rates, Hunts Point was visited last week by Gov. Paterson, who vowed to crack down on idling diesel trucks.

5 Even on slow days, Sugar Ray’s Cafe on Food Center Drive is bustling with deliveries to workers at the Bain Center, an 800-bed prison barge.

© 2008 Metro. All Rights Reserved.

Pinkie

December 4th, 2008, 11:27 AM

^^^ That was bleak. Couldn't their pin have dropped on Parkchester, or Pelham Parkway :rolleyes:

NYC4Life

December 9th, 2008, 07:06 AM

NY Daily News

Banking on it: Will a giant South Bronx building change a neighborhood?

BY JASON SHEFTELL
DAILY NEWS REAL ESTATE CORRESPONDENT
Friday, December 5th 2008, 10:41 AM

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/12/06/amd_bronx_home.jpg
Mendez for News
Hunts Point Neighborhood in the Bronx, New York.

For $32 million, about the price of a four-bedroom in Manhattan (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Manhattan)’s most expensive apartment building, Taconic Investment Partners (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Taconic+Investment+Partners+LLC) and the Denham Wolf Real Estate (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Denham+Wolf+Real+Estate) Services partnered to buy a mammoth, 405,000-square-foot landmark in Hunts Point (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Hunts+Point+(Bronx)) that could become another economic engine for the South Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/South+Bronx)’s fastest-emerging neighborhood.

Originally built in 1911 as the American Bank (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/American+Bank+Inc.) Note Company (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Note+Company) Building, the three-structure fortress off the Bruckner Expressway once printed foreign currency and stock certificates. Today, it’s an architectural wonderland boasting sawtoothed roofs, a vacant 80,000-square-foot central floor flooded with light, artist work lofts, an internationally acclaimed dance company and two charter schools.

“This building is a city unto itself,” says architect Neil P. Kittredge (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Neil+Kittredge), a partner in Beyer Blinder Belle who is overseeing the $25 million renovation for the developers. “It was originally designed around the process of printing money and to give abundant light to the people who worked there. The fortress look was meant to convey a secure appearance. It’s one of New York (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+York)’s true treasures.”

There is no building like this in the five boroughs. One could easily get lost inside — and be happy about it. The size of an armory, with a castle turret overlooking an operational 19th-century stone monastery, the building sits atop one of the highest points in all the city. It has views of the Hunts Point industrial zone that stretch all the way to the Manhattan skyline. Some rooms are as large as indoor stadiums.

With plans to make a creative commercial center for companies looking for exceptional spaces at low prices, the Bank Note could alter the residential and retail fabric of Hunts Point, a neighborhood that’s been striving for revival and respect.

After word came in the early 1900s that the Bank Note complex would be built, turn-of-the-century developers put up high-end townhouses on Manida St., directly behind the structure, hoping to lure employees relocating from the company’s original home, behind Manhattan’s Trinity Church.

“The power of the Bank Note building is clear,” says Kellie Terry-Sepulveda (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Kellie+Terry-Sepulveda), executive managing director of the Point, a community center literally in the shadow of the commercial building. “The main issue now, with the new owners, is their intent versus what is actually happening.”

Terry-Sepulveda and other locals are concerned the project represents gentrification that could displace residents who can’t afford rent increases. They don’t want any disruption in the artistic backbone and working-class ethic that have created a safer, vibrant arts area.

“Taconic and Denham Wolf investing so much money in our neighborhood is great news,” says Terry-Sepulveda. “We should not be fearful of what is to come. We want them to make a concentrated effort to keep the artist spaces at a price point where the people who gave this building life continue to enjoy their life here.”

Rents in the artist spaces of the building, most of which range from 500 to 1,000 square feet, have reportedly gone from $1,000 in some cases to $1,800. A homeless shelter will relocate down the street to make way for a new lobby. Some longstanding businesses, including a recording studio, have elected to move while construction projects link the three structures, named Lafayette (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Lafayette), Garrison and Barretto, after the streets.

After phoning tenants to renegotiate leases, Paul Wolf (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Paul+Wolf), a principal of Taconic’s partner, Denham Wolf, recently reached out and met with a group of artists to incrementally raise rents, which gives tenants time to deal with the new prices.

“I’m much more optimistic now than when they took over,” says Carey Clark (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Carey+Clark), a member of the American Bank Note Artist Coalition and a painter.

Clark’s rent on a studio earlier had been set to go from $575 to $1,500.

“We know we’ve been paying below market value, but we want to stay, too, and there are less expensive places in this neighborhood and others nearby.”

Charles R. Bendit (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Charles+Bendit), co-CEO of Taconic, which in 1998 bought the 3 million-square-foot 111 Eighth Ave. in an emerging Chelsea, has experience rehabbing neglected commercial and residential properties and spotting properties with potential but which need repair. Taconic also owns Meadowwood at Gateway in East New York (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/East+New+York) in Brooklyn (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brooklyn) and Eastchester (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Eastchester+(Bronx)) Heights in the central Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Bronx). He sees the Bank Note as adding something Hunts Point has never had — a thriving office park.

“When this building gets filled, there will be up to 500 to 1,000 new people in the neighborhood every day,” says Bendit, whose company also owns the Apple Store (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Apple+Inc.) building on 14th St. “This is not your typical office building. It’s in the center of the neighborhood’s residential corridor.

People who work in the building will decide to live close to the building.

People who live there now will have job opportunities in the building. More people mean good things start to happen, like safety, investment, better retail and stronger restaurants.”

Taconic and Denham Wolf have spent millions on windows and mechanical systems for a lobby space and a potential food court. Possible tenants could include a museum, a major sports team, a renowned architect and fashion, graphic design or new-media companies.

Current tenants include the Wine Cellarage, a wine storage firm; the Sustainable South Bronx, which seeks green roofs and environmental programs for the area; the Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre; the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bronx+Academy+of+Arts+and+Dance) (BAAD), and the LightBox photo studio.

On a recent Friday, Italian Vogue (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Italian+Vogue) shot a photo spread at the building. A movie titled “13,” starring 50 Cent (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/50+Cent), Jason Statham (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Jason+Statham) and Mickey Rourke (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Mickey+Rourke), filmed scenes in the Barretto building.

“The neighborhood had to be stable enough for us to make this investment,” says Bendit, crediting the area’s residents and community groups for rebuilding Hunts Point after the urban blight of the early 1970s and crack epidemic of the 1980s. “I like to use the word ‘transform,’ not ‘gentrify.’ We believe that by transforming the building, making it appealing to companies looking for spaces at low prices, that we can create a better lifestyle for the people currently living there.”

Local leaders see the building as a major plus. “The best city neighborhoods have mixed-income residents and an array of business activities going on around the clock,” says Peter Cantillo (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Peter+Cantillo), president of SEBCO Development, a group that has been building affordable housing in the neighborhood since 1968. “The Bank Note is exactly the kind of upscale draw this neighborhood has worked toward.”

If the building were an upscale loft building bringing high-income residents, then rapid gentrification might be a larger issue.

“A commercial building guarantees people working in the building come from different socio-economic backgrounds,” says architect Kittredge.

“That does a lot more than some new luxury condominium that immediately creates wealth disparity.”

Still, a major commercial tenant has yet to sign a lease at the Bank Note.

“People’s jaws drop when they see the building, and they can’t believe it’s 20 minutes from Grand Central Station (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Grand+Central+Terminal),” says commercial agent and building co-owner Paul Wolf. “But Hunts Point isn’t on the radar yet, like Long Island City (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Long+Island+City) or parts of Brooklyn. This building could change that.”

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com.

Pinkie

December 9th, 2008, 01:27 PM

Now that's exciting!!!

Here are some pictures that I got online:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2091/2102462866_ce43b9cc2d.jpg?v=0

http://www.bronxcb2.org/img/building.gif

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/124/391599019_fca95321cb.jpg?v=0

http://www.taconicinvestments.com/portfolio/images/banknote.png

There really is endless potential in a space this large!

ToastyPotato

December 27th, 2008, 10:43 PM

The Concourse Plaza mall recently put up some banners previewing a new 5 story office tour to be built somewhere on the premises. The problem I'm having is that the diagram they provide doesn't see to make sense to me. I can't place WHERE this building is actually going. I also could find no information online. Any one have any information about this?

New development to give Melrose a much-needed boost

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/10/14/alg_melrose-map.gif

The sites being opened for development encompass 51/2 acres in the northern section of Melrose Commons.

- Site A - between E. 162nd and E. 163rd Sts. and Courtlandt and Melrose Aves. - will include an Administration for Children's Services child-care facility and offer commercial space.

- Site B is also bounded by those streets, but on Melrose and Elton Aves. It will contain commercial space along Elton Ave., with the potential extra commercial space on E. 163rd St.

- Site C is south of Site B, between Melrose and Elton Aves. but bounded by E. 161st and E. 162nd Sts. Site C will include a commercial corridor along E. 161st St. and Elton Ave.

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com

Site A currently has an abandoned Glass factory, a recently renovated, apartment building, two houses, and some empty spaces. I would hope the commercial space would be on Melrose.

Site B has a house, two very small apartment buildings, and an industrial(?) business called Blasco I think. I don't know if they are still open. That being said, commercial space along 163 would be hilariously misguided, as the space would be narrow and one 163 is a very tiny one way street with a very active cement mixing facility on the other side. Unless the mean the tip of the block that also touches Brook Ave. In which case it would work out just fine as it would be facing the current strip mall and Boricua Village.

Site C has very little empty space on it. It contains a handful of recently renovated 6 story apartment buildings, a church on the Melrose/161 corner, a house/dry cleaner, and a decent sized empty space on the slant into Elton. So I'm not sure, short of knocking things down, what they plan on doing.

All this being said. There IS three almost completely empty spots just one street over. Between Courtlandt and Melrose and 161 and 162, they have cleared nearly the ENTIRE block ,save for a single house and apartment building. Gone are a factory/warehouse, a gas station, two community gardens, and a long abandoned multifamily house.

Directly across 161 is the lots made available by the abandoning of the used car lot and gas station.

Directly across Courtlandt from that lot is the long vacant lot that once held an indoor and outdoor parking lot and supermarket.

The first two sites have recently seen the construction walls go up, with signs by Chase and NYC Affordable housing going up. The former parking lot/supermarket lot has seen no activity for years, aside from the parking of 2 large construction vehicles that haven't moved in over a year. It briefly held a sign heralding office/commercial space and a 100+ car parking lot. But that sign has long since deteriorated and for sale signs have returned.

Derek2k3

January 17th, 2009, 04:49 AM

antinimby

January 17th, 2009, 11:24 AM

Looks like a giant gravestone. Instead of fighting for a better looking design, the neighborhood NIMBYs were only worried about the height. They deserve it.

BrooklynLove

January 17th, 2009, 12:47 PM

Tunnel ventilators look nicer than this thing. Strange.

TheInterloafer

February 21st, 2009, 04:52 PM

TheInterloafer

February 21st, 2009, 05:19 PM

Boricua Village construction is well underway. This is a massive development in Melrose, at 161st Street & Third Avenue. It looks like the main college building has topped out at 14 stories. Two of the NYC HDC-financed affordable housing buildings are nearing their maximum heights and two are still low. Here are a bunch of photos from today, Saturday, February 21, 2009.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/3298535056_b21894d186_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3297707735_5e134b11c8_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3471/3297707659_e89c272272_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3299/3297707785_5ecf9f2e5d_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/3298534816_4a3d354b5a_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3357/3297707529_1c68e0d669_o.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31789321@N03/3298535056/sizes/m/

sfenn1117

February 22nd, 2009, 05:51 PM

Thanks for the pics, what a great urban, dense development. Keep us posted.

antinimby

February 22nd, 2009, 07:20 PM

Here's another look at what the finished product should look like:

http://www.nychdc.com/images/boricua%20village%20rendering%201.JPG

http://www.nychdc.com/images/boricua%20village%202.jpg

BrooklynRider

February 23rd, 2009, 01:21 AM

It's nice to see investment in the Bronx.

TheInterloafer

March 21st, 2009, 08:25 PM

There are quite a number of large and small projects under construction here in the South Bronx. I'm going to try to do a bunch of posts with photos of their progress. Here's the first one: The Gateway Center at the Bronx Terminal Market (http://www.plannyc.org/taxonomy/term/686), a big box mall under construction by Related that should open this year just south of the new Yankee Stadium.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3555/3373342185_d1cb68b5f7_o.jpg

As you can see from the above photo, this is supposed to have an Applebee's, Babies R Us, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Marshalls, Staples, Target, Toys R Us. There is another sign around the corner that also includes BJ's and Home Depot. This will have 2,600 parking spaces, is adjacent to the Deegan, and also to the new Metro-North station at Yankee Stadium, which I'll try to do in a future update. The EIS is online (http://www.nyc.gov/html/oec/html/ceqr/a.shtml), which is where I found the following rendering.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3614/3374198228_a126e410fc_o.jpg

avngingandbright

March 22nd, 2009, 03:35 PM

What's up with developers pushing for "suburban" style developments in the densest city in America? Even after suburbia has been proven a failure in many cases, why build "suburban-style" in the BX and East Harlem? seems silly to me.

antinimby

March 22nd, 2009, 09:06 PM

Blame zoning, which in many cases are pushed by community groups.

My guess is that many of these sites used to be industrial that are no longer used for that purpose. When it's time to rezone for other uses, community groups don't want to have residential/mixed use so it becomes strictly commercial with low FARs.

Under that circumstance, the developers have no choice but to build these type of strip malls with parking lots surrounding the one story big box stores.

TheInterloafer

March 22nd, 2009, 10:27 PM

[T]he developers have no choice but to build these type of strip malls with parking lots surrounding the one story big box stores.

I'll be the first to excoriate parking lots and one-story strip malls. But at risk of defending a banal collection of national big box and chain stores, I want to point out that this particular development is slightly better than most. The parking is in a five-story garage, eating up less land than if it were surface parking. The same goes for the stores, which are 3 or 4 stories. It's also somewhat transit-oriented in that it is adjacent to the new Metro-North train station, which may be a bigger benefit for employees than for shoppers.

The project also includes the restoration of the historic 1935 Bronx Terminal Market building at 149th St. & the Deegan.

antinimby

March 22nd, 2009, 11:56 PM

Just because they're not single story structures don't make them any "better" or less suburban.

The misconception with most people is that the definition of suburbs is the number of stories of buildings. That is false.

There are plenty of "high rises" in the suburbs. They range from office buildings to hotels to condos.

http://i44.tinypic.com/jfw2t2.jpg

In other words, tall buildings don't make suburbs urban and short buildings don't make urban areas suburban.

Make all the buildings in Paramus NJ 30 stories tall and it wouldn't be any more urban. It would just be a very dense suburb.

Likewise, make all the buildings in Manhattan all 3-story tall and it wouldn't be any less urban.

Can you see it now?

avngingandbright

March 23rd, 2009, 12:53 PM

How utterly irritating. While cities like London build great hubs outside the central city, like Canary Wharf, we insist on building suburbs where there should be density. Do we never, ever, ever learn?

antinimby

March 23rd, 2009, 01:28 PM

Well, it all comes back down to NIMBYism again. Propose dense developments anywhere in this city and you're going to have people coming out against it.

Eastside Con Ed site, Atlantic Yards, Fordham University, Extell's Riverside South and on and on.

TheInterloafer

March 23rd, 2009, 08:40 PM

In other words, tall buildings don't make suburbs urban and short buildings don't make urban areas suburban.

Sure, I am with you. . . .

Just trying to find a bright side here.

TheInterloafer

March 25th, 2009, 09:32 PM

Here's one everyone should like a bit more. It is much more urban and appropriate for the high-density South Bronx. Courtlandt Corners, a 323-unit mixed-income housing development with ground-floor retail space. This is under construction at E. 161st St. & Courtlandt Av., one block west of Boricua Village and catty corner to the Melrose Metro-North train station.

First, the rendering, per Dattner Architects.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3458/3385625929_b86b5c2cf5_o.jpg

And construction has gotten underway this month. Here is the status of the site as of Saturday, March 21, 2009. Note Boricua Village rising in the background, and the recently completed Parkview Commons apartment buildings in the background. All praise to Nos Quedamos / We Stay and Magnussen Architects for spearheading the rebuilding of Melrose (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/realestate/06living.html?scp=8&sq=nos%20quedamos%20urban%20renewal&st=cse), and HPD and HDC for funding it.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3641/3386438568_9b6226576d_o.jpg

antinimby

March 25th, 2009, 09:51 PM

What was on the site before?

TheInterloafer

March 25th, 2009, 10:32 PM

avngingandbright

March 26th, 2009, 03:23 PM

Looks superb. This area needs A LOT of work, but looks like its getting there. I've never seen that many empty lots outside of East New York, BK. Great news!

I wonder how much empty lots go for up there...

ToastyPotato

March 28th, 2009, 03:05 PM

Per local.live.com (http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=qt3pv98v6d2d&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=1588427&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1):

two gas stations,
a parking lot,
five or six lots that look vacant but one or more may have been community gardens,
four three-story buildings, one of which I would have saved if cost were no object, and
a business of some type that involved storing in the open air what looks like cinder blocks and other building materials.

The parking lot was actually a used car sales place.

Of the four apartment buildings, only two stood were standing in the last decade. The other two were conjoined and burned down in the late eighties. It held a fairly popular neighborhood bar. There was an attempt to salvage the wreckage in the nineties, but weeks into the process, the site burned down again! They simply cleared the lot after that.

Of the two that were left standing, one was long abandoned. It was attached to the concrete block business, which also has a storage facility that was located directly across the street (where the construction company for the current project is using as an office I guess.) Anyway, this building was abandoned for many years and used to hold a Vet clinic.

I hope the retail space that's being planned underneath the buildings is better than the ones that have gone up in the area recently. The stores are so SMALL. It would be nice if the new spots were big enough for some resturants because the neighborhood has very few places to eat outside of fast food.

Additionally, even though the Metro North stop did receive SOME renovation, it still seems kind of... unwelcoming? It would be nice if the entrance were on 161 instead of 161, but I suppose this development will make that part of 161 a bit less dreary. Slightly.

Is there any news of what is going to happen with the lot between Courtlandt and Park on 161st? They demolished a large parking lot and supermarket and threw up signs announcing a new parking lot and commercial/office space. They even moved in two large construction vehicles and some steel beams, but they've been sitting there unused and rusting for over a year now. Just the other day they finally removed one of the construction machines.

NoyokA

March 28th, 2009, 05:01 PM

Any activity at Via Verde?

ToastyPotato

March 28th, 2009, 05:35 PM

Any activity at Via Verde?

Wow, I haven't heard about this until now. Pretty ambitious, but am I right in understanding that this is essentially being built in that large strip of unused land behind Third Ave? That's... a weird place kind of. Being behind a bunch of stores with absolutely nothing but loading areas on the other side of the street.

antinimby

March 28th, 2009, 07:55 PM

I hope the retail space that's being planned underneath the buildings is better than the ones that have gone up in the area recently. The stores are so SMALL. It would be nice if the new spots were big enough for some resturants because the neighborhood has very few places to eat outside of fast food.Small spaces is good. It allows for more and diverse retail.

The problem you cited: no quality, sit-down restaurants are driven by other factors such as the neighborhood's income level (poor neighborhoods usually have fastfood places), asking rents, enough demand/ population to support such restaurants, etc. and not the size of spaces.

Many new Manhattan condo buildings with large spaces are often taken up by bank branches and national chains, not sit down restaurants. The latter is often found in the smaller spaces on the ground floor of walkups.

ToastyPotato

March 28th, 2009, 08:51 PM

Small spaces is good. It allows for more and diverse retail.

The problem you cited: no quality, sit-down restaurants are driven by other factors such as the neighborhood's income level (poor neighborhoods usually have fastfood places), asking rents, enough demand/ population to support such restaurants, etc. and not the size of spaces.

Many new Manhattan condo buildings with large spaces are often taken up by bank branches and national chains, not sit down restaurants. The latter is often found in the smaller spaces on the ground floor of walkups.

Hmm. I guess I understand that point, but I was just concerned with how small these spaces actually are. The ones I've seen so far range from a typical corner grocery size, to not much bigger than a master bedroom. I figured with sizes so small, it pretty much strangles what can be placed there.

In the spots that have businesses in them, I've only noted a small discount store, a deli/grocery, a barbershop, a salon (completely separate) an office of some kind, a very small video shop, and a TINY clothing store. The video and clothing stores are the only real "new" businesses to the street, where as everything else has direct competition either across the street or just down the block.

That being said, the spaces provided in the large apartment building by the new Mott Haven school campuses has much, much more spacious offerings, though I imagine the location is poor (almost zero foot traffic at the moment, and the schools are on the opposite side of the train tracks.)

My concern is with all these empty lots being built up with these very tiny commercial spaces in them, especially along 161st, which has very decent traffic already, the area will lose any potential prime commercial space for things like restaurants. Especially given the development of Boricua Village and the plans to build another smaller office building near the Concourse Plaza. (Not to mention the recently opened courthouse.)

antinimby

March 28th, 2009, 09:07 PM

Spaces can always combined or divided whichever the case maybe, but you're not getting the point. The sizes of the spaces is not the determining factor in what type of retail that comes around.

If there is a market for sit down restaurants, then they will show up, regardless of the size of the spaces. They will find a way to combine smaller spaces. That's never the problem or cause of the lack of those restaurants.

In a way, you've already stated and know what drives retail by saying how very little foot traffic there are in some stretches there. No one is going to open up a sit down restaurant there even if the spaces there are perfect for restaurants. You need the right conditions for that to happen. The size of the spaces is hardly the reason.

TheInterloafer

March 28th, 2009, 10:34 PM

The retail spaces at Courtlandt Corners should be nice and huge (and of course open to subdivision for smaller spots as well). Here's the ground-level floorplan included in Chapter 1 of the 2007 Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Area EIS (http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/developers/melrose_commons_urban_renewal_amend.shtml). (Also note that in the time since this EIS came out, the lot on the west side of Melrose Avenue between 160th & 161st that is shown as empty now has a six- or seven-story apartment building on it.)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3541/3393185667_412c50c3b5_o.jpg

antinimby

March 28th, 2009, 10:56 PM

What's with the parking lot in the center there? All parking should go underground.

Dumb zoning --> dumb design.

NoyokA

March 28th, 2009, 11:03 PM

Wow, I haven't heard about this until now. Pretty ambitious, but am I right in understanding that this is essentially being built in that large strip of unused land behind Third Ave? That's... a weird place kind of. Being behind a bunch of stores with absolutely nothing but loading areas on the other side of the street.

I just learned about it recently after meeting with people at Phipps. Yea the site is away from the hub and is oddly situated and shaped, its an abandoned rail spur.

Its going to cost double per unit what they usually build per unit and thats after already making major cutbacks ie. removing half the roof gardens, removing balconies, cutting down on material costs, etc. Right now they're doing alot of proforma financial modeling and already have more funding sources that their typical projects but they just can't make it work. People here love to villify developers without a clue of the real costs involved.

I really hope they can make it work because its a great project.

http://www.brightpower.biz/files/u13/viaverde.jpg

antinimby

March 28th, 2009, 11:25 PM

Wow that looks great (for the Bronx anyway). I agree, would love to see that come to fruition.

NoyokA

March 28th, 2009, 11:47 PM

ToastyPotato

March 29th, 2009, 03:18 AM

It's a shame they are cutting off some of the more ambitious aspects of it's design.

zinka

March 29th, 2009, 01:20 PM

This project was the result of an architectural competition held by HPD, this was the first they ever held and they haven't held one since.

Didn't they also hold one for the BAM Cultural District?

http://www.fullspectrumny.com/press/hpdBAM.pdf

TheInterloafer

March 30th, 2009, 09:24 PM

I will try to get a photo or two of the Via Verde site to show progress, although it sounds like it will look like an empty lot. Best of luck to all involved in that great project.

Meanwhile, here's an update on the construction of the at times controversial Mott Haven School Campus (http://www.plannyc.org/taxonomy/term/757). These four schools, will create 2,215 new seats to help alleviate overcrowding. There will be two high schools, one intermediate school and one charter school. This time the controversy wasn't nimbyism. It was over environmental cleanup at the site. (More on that below.)

In terms of urban development, these schools represent the fourth wave of development on or over the New York Central Railroad's former rail yard stretching from 153rd Street up to 161st Street, east of Sheridan Avenue now also known as Concourse Village West. (Note the sturdy beige brick Melrose Central Building at the northeast corner of this site [SW corner of 161st & Morris] as probably the only remnant from the rail days.)

Here's a vague and foggy timeline as I understand it, based in large part on the architectural styles of the various buildings.

Mid 20th century: Rail yard is decommissioned.

1960s: Concourse Village, a towers-in-the-parking-lot, six-tower co-op, is built on a deck over the yards. Look under the podium from Concourse Village West. There's still a long abandoned building under there!

1970s or maybe early 1980s: Two brown brick low-rise schools are built south of, and across 156th Street from, Concourse Village. These are P.S. 156 and I.S. 151.

1990: (http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/04/business/real-estate-south-bronx-will-revive-builder-says.html) Concourse Plaza strip mall-style shopping center is built with frontage (and a big suburban style parking lot) facing 161st St. This has a much-needed supermarket, a 10-screen multiplex, 258 surface parking spaces and 942 underground spaces.

c. 1996: 10-story office tower is added to Concourse Plaza shopping center at 198 E. 161st St.

Today: Four new schools are under construction on a brownfield that required a $30 million remediation to remove benzene, lead and mercury.

c. 2010: As noted upthread, the Feil Organization says it will build a second, five-story office "tower" adjacent to the Shopping Center and behind the 10-story building.

Back to the present: Here is a view of back of the campus, a view that is familiar to all those who look out the window while traveling on Metro-North's Harlem and New Haven Lines.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/3400251544_2fb36e739a_o.jpg

And here is a photograph of a rendering by Perkins Eastman that is posted on site by the New York City School Construction Authority:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3635/3399443239_778581cf45_o.jpg

And finally, a view of the front of the building, facing Sheridan Avenue / Concourse Village West:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3443/3399443303_b574755bb2_o.jpg

sfenn1117

March 30th, 2009, 09:49 PM

^ http://perkinseastman.com/projectDetails.cfm?p=L2C178K95539

Thanks for these Bronx updates.

Derek2k3

March 30th, 2009, 10:46 PM

From that Perkins Eastman link you can see the current taller design of Hotel Eventi.

TheInterloafer

April 4th, 2009, 07:37 PM

Thanks for the link sfenn. Lots of good images there.

Now that all the focus is on the first two exhibition games at Yankee Stadium, let's have a look at what I think is one of the best aspects of the new Yankee Stadium project: The new Metro-North station!

This new train station is supposed to be completed on May 23. This is how it looked on March 21.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3596/3413045998_95eb024c8a_o.jpg

This new station will reduce game day traffic congestion by allowing 10,000 people a day to get to Yankee games. And maybe even better, it will do two other things. First, it will allow South Bronx residents to "reverse commute" up to Yonkers, Poughkeepsie, and everywhere in between. Second, it will allow suburban and Morris Heights / University Heights / Marble Hill / Riverdale residents to get to jobs in the civic center of the Bronx - all the nearby courthouses, law offices, and the aforementioned and adjacent Bronx Terminal Market big box mall. For Bronx residents who commute to Manhattan, the adjacent B, D and 4 subway station will still offer more frequent and less expensive travel to more Manhattan destinations. But this new station will hopefully reduce game day rush hour crowding on the No. 4 train.

antinimby

April 4th, 2009, 08:04 PM

It's not looking that good though, especially that gray mostly windowless box.

TheInterloafer

April 4th, 2009, 09:11 PM

Not sure what that's for. Maybe janitorial closets.

ToastyPotato

April 7th, 2009, 04:25 PM

They recently "upgraded" the stop at the other Metro North station on 161/Park. But the entrance is still on a dreary street. It's also not a permanent stop. (Only works during rush hours.) It would be nice if something more could be done with it.

TheInterloafer

April 8th, 2009, 12:25 AM

That station, Melrose, actually is served on middays, evenings and weekends. But the schedule is one train every two hours instead of one train every hour, which is the standard off-peak schedule at most Metro-North stations.

TheInterloafer

April 8th, 2009, 12:45 AM

Last but not least in my round of South Bronx construction updates are these photos of a new family intake center being built at the corner of Walton Av. & E. 151st St. This is a locally controversial building on the site of the former and infamous one-story Emergency Assistance Unit, the place where you went with your children if your family found itself homeless. The project is being built by the New York City Department of Design & Construction and will be operated by the New York City Department of Homeless Services. First, a photo of the rendering posted at the site, by Polshek Partnership. Following that, two construction photos showing progress as of March 21.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3397/3423183724_d73a7721b2_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3629/3422376973_25ac64296f_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3600/3423183886_f1389a923a_o.jpg

ToastyPotato

April 8th, 2009, 03:41 PM

TheInterloafer

April 19th, 2009, 03:35 PM

Toasty, to your point about sizes of retail space in new buildings, here are two examples from recently opened buildings. Both are NYCHDC-financed affordable housing/mixed-use buildings that opened c. 2006-2007 with large open retail spaces on the ground floor. The first is Peter Cintron Apartments on Melrose Avenue between 157th & 158th Streets.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3597/3456636240_1ffc62f295_o.jpg

Here, the retail spaces have been subdivided into small spaces and all are occupied. We have Dhaka discount (3 windows), a video store (1 window), a beauty salon (1 window), the building lobby/entrance (3 windows), a barber shop (1 window), and a deli (3 windows).

The next building is a few blocks away. 675 Morris Avenue at 153rd Street.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3594/3456636348_9b96cba3c2_o.jpg

Here, the retail space has remained undivided and vacant. It is unclear if the landlord is willing to subdivide the space. The landlord may be holding out for a supermarket or a pharmacy chain. Maybe he/she is willing to subdivide but there are no takers. The only clear thing is that the space is vacant.

There are a lot of characteristics in play in both locations, such as foot traffic and asking rents per square foot. I have no idea what they are in each spot. I am not sure what the take-away of this exercise is, other than that retail tenants seem to be asking for small spaces, and successful Bronx landlords are those that are willing to create them. Vacant spaces invite vandalism, so one hopes that the space at Morris Avenue will be filled soon.

ToastyPotato

April 27th, 2009, 03:52 PM

The second building is the one we mentioned that is essentially in a extremely low foot traffic area. Adjacent to it are some Projects, a practically barricaded high school track and field, a small empty field, train tracks, and a run down car shop/garage thing that used to be a small gas station.

Kind of a bad deal at the moment. Even a supermarket would be a tough sell. There is already a supermarket one block down behind the projects and another down the block from the new schools, not counting the large supermarket in the Concourse Plaza. There is also no shortage or Pharmacies in the area, unless they go for chain like Duane Reade of Rite Aid.

antinimby

April 27th, 2009, 05:53 PM

What was there before?

ToastyPotato

April 27th, 2009, 08:01 PM

I couldn't remember, but luckily, googlemaps was only semi-updated (read: half transparent :eek:) for the area, so my original suspicions were confirmed. Aside from the church that they literally wrapped the new building around, there was nothing but two largish empty lots and the gas station/car shop.

antinimby

April 28th, 2009, 01:20 PM

MSN maps is also good, too. Their 'birds eye' view gives you an angled overhead view of the lots/sites.

I love it when they build on vacant/fallow/eyesore lots. They're like open wounds to the city. The developments are like the healing.

ToastyPotato

April 28th, 2009, 01:28 PM

I wish I could find an overhead map of the South Bronx from 10 years ago. There must have been at least 20 or more empty lots in just a few square miles. It's an amazing transformation. It just needs an economic boost now.

BrooklynRider

May 4th, 2009, 07:32 PM

Good stuff, Toasty! Thanks for keeping us up to date on the Bronx!

ToastyPotato

May 8th, 2009, 01:07 PM

My mother had a bunch of pictures from a few years ago, so I had her try to match the shots to provide a before and after view. These are the results! Apologies for the quality, these are all scans :(

Here is an overall view of the area before and after:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/KarnX/Temp/Largeview.jpg

In the rear you can see the progress of Boricua Village. In the foreground you can see some of the progress of Courtlandt Corners.

Up next is some pictures of Boricua Village before construction began.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/KarnX/Temp/BeforeBoricuaVillage.jpg

And here is a closer shot of where it is at now:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/KarnX/Temp/BoricuaVillageConstruction.jpg

Southern side of Courtlandt Corners project, before and after!:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/KarnX/Temp/FormerGas.jpg

Northern side (apologies for the snow! This was the only picture she had of the block from this angle.):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/KarnX/Temp/Awholeblock.jpg

Upon further inspection, the picture quality seems lower than I had anticipated. I can try rescanning at a higher quality if you guys want. I also have video from the fall of 06, as well as some video from the start of construction I believe but I need time to get that onto my PC.

avngingandbright

May 8th, 2009, 02:02 PM

I hope the best for this project!

NoyokA

May 8th, 2009, 02:46 PM

SoBro is looking good.

Schadenfrau

May 13th, 2009, 11:22 PM

It certainly was- until you called it Sobro, NoyokA.

Also, I'd like to give a welcome to my Bronx neighbors. It's good to see you guys on this forum.

TheInterloafer

May 15th, 2009, 07:25 PM

Toasty, those great photos. Thanks!

TheInterloafer

May 15th, 2009, 08:16 PM

By the way, Toasty, did you ever see my info (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=275313&postcount=158) on the Concourse Plaza office "tower"?

Here's the sign you mentioned:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2420/3534822090_1d920a31ba_o.jpg

Here's the lot it refers to as of April 12. Nothing doing. Same is true today.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/3534004947_a4f9e0d2db_o.jpg

ToastyPotato

May 16th, 2009, 12:00 AM

Yeah. I swear they goofed on that banner at first because the original banner had an area marked that didn't make sense to me at all. But perhaps I could have just not been paying proper attention when I glanced at it.

Here is another spot where absolutely nothing is happening. I think I mentioned it before:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/KarnX/Temp/161ParkSupermarketPart1.jpg

You can see the supermarket that once stood on the spot, as well as the large public parking lot adjacent to it with dirt mounds piled inside.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/KarnX/Temp/161ParkSupermarketPart2.jpg

Three years since it's demolition nothing has been done. 2 machines WERE parked there for over a year, before being removed a few weeks ago, along with a pile of steel beams. Ever since their removal the gate to this lot has just been left open. The sign that once stood over the lot, heralding new office and retail space as well as a new parking lot has been torn down as well.

ToastyPotato

May 30th, 2009, 02:56 PM

The spot I posted about above was cleared of vegetation last week. This might just be a health thing to deal with rodents though because the Courtlandt Corner development was similarly cleared more than a year before any construction took place.

TheInterloafer

June 1st, 2009, 10:25 PM

Hopefully that's a sign they're finally building on that site.

TheInterloafer

June 1st, 2009, 10:34 PM

Here are two of the many apartment buildings recently built or nearing completion in Melrose.

The Eltona, 429 East 156th Street
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2455/3587704372_c295b11b19_o.jpg
This 63-unit apartment building is built on the site of a former parking lot. Behind the building is the Palacio Del Sol apartment building, with 110 apartments, completed in 2006 at 760 Melrose Avenue.

The Dorado, 3055 Third Avenue
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2471/3586895109_bbfd461970_o.jpg
This 48-unit apartment building is nearing completion on what I think was an empty lot. It is a nice counterpoint to the building of similar size directly across the avenue that is also nearly finished. (I couldn't get a good photo of that one because the sun was behind it.)

BrooklynRider

June 5th, 2009, 01:02 PM

Excellent coverage of development. I don't the Bronx very well and this is giving me a more up-to-date idea of what's going on.

ToastyPotato

June 16th, 2009, 09:03 PM

Progress seems on Boricua Village (161st-163rd and Third Ave) APPEARS to have stagnated over the last few weeks. Iit looks almost exactly the same from my perspective as it did in the photo from the 7th of May. Which is quite noticeable considering the fast pace they were working at before.

TheInterloafer

June 30th, 2009, 10:40 PM

Who would have thought that in the middle of a real-estate fueled economic recession, one of the areas that would still be booming would be ... Charlotte Street?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3640/3676407283_23b4bece3d_o.jpg

I am sure everyone on this board knows the history of Charlotte Street's prosperity turned poster-child for 1970s urban decay turned suburbanization-of-the-city experiment. Now is the happy chapter where the urban fabric starts to get restored!

Actually, this is not the first (http://www.startsandfits.com/2006/04/bronxs-green-housing-boom.html) 2000's-era apartment building (http://www.startsandfits.com/2006/06/new-hope-in-bronx.html) to loom over Ed Logue's 1980s ranches.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2597/3677222260_cb405ba98b_o.jpg

Antares41

July 1st, 2009, 12:16 AM

I am old enough to remember what Charlotte Street use to look like back in the 60's and 70's. So much housing stock (apartment buildings) has destroyed in those decades. It good to see some construction that at least resembles what use to be there in that section of the Bronx.

NoyokA

July 1st, 2009, 12:29 AM

It should be fairly easily to buy those single family homes in the future and replace them with multifamily housing.

TheInterloafer

July 3rd, 2009, 10:58 PM

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2512/3685343385_f350045ac9_o.jpg

Here is an interesting one. This is Cedars, a 93-unit HDC-financed (http://www.nychdc.com/pressroom/pr_board%20meeting%209-25-06.html)apartment building on East 156th Street between Fox Street and Beck Street. The development built around, restored and is reusing the Denison-White Mansion, built c. 1850. Below is a bird's eye shot from bing.com of the mansion in a state of disrepair prior to the rehabbing. The site is adjacent to the Beck Street historic district, made up of beautiful 19th century row-houses. The mansion is at a weird angle relative to the rest of the urban fabric because it predates everything, including the historic district's buildings and even the street grid.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2435/3686159910_34a27181db_o.jpg

krulltime

July 4th, 2009, 02:59 PM

Thanks for these update TheInterloafer. :)

Merry

July 5th, 2009, 12:53 AM

^ I second that. Very interesting and informative. I've always been especially captivated by Charlotte Street.

sfenn1117

July 5th, 2009, 11:10 PM

Good stuff, it's much appreciated.

zinka

July 9th, 2009, 09:18 PM

It should be fairly easily to buy those single family homes in the future and replace them with multifamily housing.

It would have to be re-rezoned for multifamily though.

Merry

July 11th, 2009, 01:24 AM

For Seniors, Children Welcome

By AMY ROWLAND

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/07/12/realestate/12post-650.jpg

CROTONA Senior Apartments, a new 96-unit rental housing development in the Bronx, is not as senior as it sounds. The building allows live-in children and grandchildren, as long as one household member is 62 or older.

The Atlantic Development Group was a partner with the Highbridge Community Development Corporation on the project. Highbridge, a nonprofit corporation with a mission to create homes for families and people with special needs, was founded by Msgr. Donald Sakano, the pastor of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in Manhattan’s Little Italy neighborhood. It has built many such projects in the Highbridge section of the Bronx.

“I come from a social service background,” said Peter Fine, a principal at Atlantic Development, “so I am familiar with the fact that there’s a whole jigsaw puzzle out there of nontraditional families that have various housing needs.”

Monsignor Sakano said that he and Mr. Fine had a discussion and “kind of married our interests.”

In New York, age eligibility for senior housing may apply to all members of the family or just the head of the household, depending on what the development is and whether it is privately financed or government subsidized.

At 1926 Crotona Parkway, the apartments — studios and one- and two-bedroom units — will rent for $638, $683 and $823 a month. Income eligibility requirements range from $23,520 to $47,520. Occupancy is capped, by law, at two people per bedroom.

The building has received 1,100 applications; potential residents are first selected by lottery and then winnowed by eligibility.

Monsignor Sakano, the president of Highbridge, said that he had noticed that grandparents are increasingly taking over parenting duties. An AARP study bears him out, finding that the number of multigenerational households nationwide increased from 5 million (4.8 percent of all households) in 2000 to 6.2 million (5.3 percent of all households) in 2008.

Monsignor Sakano called this situation “both disconcerting and welcoming.”

“The welcoming part is that we are preventing children from entering the foster care system and stabilizing children with a person who is caring and loving,” he said. “I’ve always been a believer that a child’s environment sends the first message and it should be one of a positive nature and architecture design can do that.”

He added, “The key to housing is a combination of design and management.”

The eight-story building, designed by Stanley Lee, a principal at Atelier 22 Architects, is made of finished brick and cast stone. Mr. Lee said the major challenge was to make an interesting building on a limited budget. He said he chose a flat base topped by vertical piers to create shadow and volume and to vary the depth of the building along the sidewalk.

The apartments are similar in size to more expensive developments, with studios averaging 490 square feet, one-bedrooms 610 square feet and two-bedrooms 890 square feet. Hallways are wide enough to allow wheelchairs to make full turns without bumping the walls. The apartments have fully equipped Pullman-style kitchens.

To accommodate the younger set, Mr. Lee said that the larger units have “a little bit more closet or storage space than is required for growing families to put stuff away.” There are also additional closets in the hallways off the two-bedroom apartments.

Highbridge, Monsignor Sakano said, doesn’t “do just brick and mortar; we build families, neighborhoods and communities, too.” At the Crotona Senior Apartments, a social worker will provide on-site programs that may include classes on nutrition and computer skills, book clubs and dancing lessons.
“Our goal is that people are living better today than they were yesterday, better tomorrow than they are today,” Monsignor Sakano said.

The ground floor has 4,000 square feet of retail space. Mr. Fine said there had been interest in the space, though a lease has not been signed.

Monsignor Sakano said that the drawing is conducted by a blindfolded person. Not everyone selected meets the building’s eligibility requirements. For instance, if the chosen applicant has 10 children or is over the income limit, it’s on to the next. But, he said, the drawing creates “a data bank of need.”

The $27.2 million building received financing through the Low-Income Affordable Marketplace Program of the New York City Housing Development Corporation and the 421-a Affordable Housing Program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/realestate/12posting.html?_r=1&ref=realestate

TheInterloafer

July 19th, 2009, 08:52 PM

Earth moving equipment is at work excavating dirt and leveling rock at the northeast corner of St. Ann's Avenue and E. 156th Street. This has the look of the early stages of a BIG project. Does anyone know what's going on here?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3517/3737206526_b14ee7db04_o.jpg

sfenn1117

July 19th, 2009, 10:55 PM

Look at that topography! This might be it, I noticed it on Hugo Subotovsky's website not too long ago:

http://www.hugosuboarchitects.com/

Go to on the boards --> st anns terrace (third one). It is a big project (600+ apartments).

TheInterloafer

July 19th, 2009, 11:10 PM

I think you're right. Good find. That is a huge project. The renderings look pretty good to me.

The hill going up to Eagle Avenue from St. Ann's is really steep, especially considering it is only one short block. It looks like this project will take the full block, fronting on both avenues.

TheInterloafer

July 20th, 2009, 08:34 PM

Ah-HA! Here's the NYC HDC press release (http://www.nychdc.com/pressroom/pr_4-21-2009.html) from April. They put in $79 million. Phase 1 will have 480 apartments for a mixture of low- and middle-income households.

In addition to the residential portion, the development is expected to contain approximately 50,000-square-feet of ground floor retail space in the residential buildings and underground parking with 176 spaces available. The second phase of construction envisions two additional buildings with about 140 residential units, both rental and ownership, and 224 parking spaces.

sfenn1117

July 21st, 2009, 01:31 AM

^From that press release I went onto the developer's website

http://www.jacksondevelopment.com/

Pesky flash, otherwise I'd post the images. But under portfolio --> pre-development projects --> st. anns, you can see similar renderings with a breakdown of the different components.

ToastyPotato

July 22nd, 2009, 08:20 PM

Grimshaw is the architect. There's more than the immediate reason to want this to come to fruition. This project was the result of an architectural competition held by HPD, this was the first they ever held and they haven't held one since. If this project is successful it will most likely lead to others, if it is not, I wouldn't count on it. Quality architecture in general costs considerably more, when you're dealing with affordable housing you cannot charge higher rents because of it. Right now Phipps can't seem to get it to work which is really unfortunate because if affordable housing with environmental and architectural qualities can be built it'll have a major sociological benefit for both tenants and the general public at large.

Any new developments on this project? I haven't been down there recently enough to see for myself.

Isn't 149th supposed to be getting a cinema? What project would that be apart of? Also, while traveling up 149, I noticed a TON of road work past the Concourse going toward Manhattan, right around Hostos College. Looks like they added an island to the center of the street? What's with all the road changes along 149 and the Hub lately?

And speaking of Hostos, they've had signs about a future expansion behind the current campus for a long time and I have never noticed any progress there.

porteño

July 24th, 2009, 06:26 PM

this is one of the proposed renderings for this project

Merry

July 25th, 2009, 01:21 AM

Modern Bronx: Amazing architecture in community service buildings

BY Alexander Gorlin

July 24th 2009

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/07/24/alg_architecture.jpg
Bronx Library Center

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/07/24/gal_architecture_08.jpg
Jacobi Medical Center Building 8, designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/07/24/gal_architecture_06.jpg
Bronx Museum of the Arts

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/07/24/gal_architecture_03.jpg
Bronx Charter School for the Arts, located at 950 Longfellow Avenue
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/07/24/gal_architecture_09.jpg
Bronx County Hall of Justice located on East 161st Street

The Bronx is a tough place for modern architecture. One of its most distinguished pieces of design, the Bronx Developmental Center, a home for 750 mentally and physically disabled children by the world-famous New York architect Richard Meier, was mutilated beyond recognition by its owner, who ripped off the facade in 2002 without any protest from the architectural community.

A recent building, Yankee Stadium, home of the best baseball team in the universe, is a copy of the old one pumped up on steroids. To me the crime of abandoning the original place of baseball’s greatest moments had already been committed. Can you imagine moving St. Peter’s in Rome, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the Kaaba in Mecca?

That is why it is important to build modern architecture today. It’s fine in the privacy of your own home to have a few cornice moldings and classical columns, but out in the public space of the city, modern architecture symbolizes the hope and optimism of the Bronx and its people. New spaces, shapes and materials allow us to experience the present with fresh intensity and creativity, to see things in a new way. Modern architecture is also more fun, characterized by color, inventive and unusual forms, the transparency and light that glass allows, and exciting new structures.

Partly because of the recession and partly because the Bronx has never become a hot residential area, there are no such homes being built. So where is modern architecture being built in the borough? It’s coming to neighborhoods near you in the forms of services and institutions — the schools, community centers, libraries, museums, courthouses and schools.

One of the best examples of new contemporary architecture is the Bronx County Hall of Justice (formerly Bronx Criminal Courthouse) by Rafael Viñoly Architects. Glassy and glamorous are not words that come to mind for a courthouse, unless it’s straight out of “CSI: Miami,” like this one.

Light-years apart from the adjacent, boring stone courthouse that symbolized the Bronx for decades, its shimmering, folded glass-and-aluminum facade wraps around the corner of 161st St. and Morris Ave. Inside is a court of green glass with dramatic diagonal stairs cascading down to the plaza below. When it’s open, the building makes an inviting, light-filled public space.

The Bronx Museum of Art addition by the Miami-based firm Arquitectonica is, surprisingly, another example of a folded glass-and-metal *facade.

Located nearby on the Grand Concourse, this festive entrance enlivens the street and creates a new landmark for the neighborhood. Inside, there is expansive exhibition space to spotlight the borough’s artistic accomplishments. It was a necessary addition to celebrating Bronx culture. The site of art, music and other cultural events, the newly revitalized Bronx Museum promises to be the anchor of the heart of the borough.

Crowning the hill of E. Kingsbridge Road is the Bronx Library Center by Dattner Architects. A glass box with a curiously curving, horn-like roof, the building is memorable from the outside and filled with light inside. Books are visible from the street; it is an inviting building that breaks open the traditional library of classical columns guarded by sculptures of lions. It is also the first officially green building in the New York Public Library system, with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification. Not only is it a delight to look at, it’s a perfect place to curl up (like the building) and read a book.

I bet not many people knew that one of the world’s most famous architectural firms designed a building in the Bronx. Led by Ian Bader, I.M. Pei’s firm’s 2008 design of Jacobi Medical Center’s Ambulatory Care Pavilion on Pelham Parkway makes going to the hospital the comforting experience that it should be but rarely is. In a park-like setting, its elegant, curving glass facade creates an understated entry to the hospital complex. A long open porch is a humane place for people to wait or be dropped off. Inside, a soaring, curving glass-and-white-steel atrium filled with light greets visitors and patients. It feels more like a visit to an art gallery, not unexpected from the firm that designed portions of the National Gallery in Washington and the Louvre in Paris. More than anything, this building says, “Welcome to the new Bronx!”

The Bronx Charter School for the Arts by Weisz Yoes Architects is located in an industrial corridor in Hunts Point. Its bright, vertically striped facade of multicolored tiles is like finding a fresh bouquet of flowers in what was once a garbage dump. This adaptive reuse of an old factory as an elementary school proves that good architecture can miraculously transform space from one use to another. On the inside, the architects carefully renovated the former wreck into classrooms that are bright and airy through the use of large north- facing skylights. For the children who attend the school, it is a perfect place for creating art.

My own personal interest in the Bronx stems from the five projects my office (Alexander Gorlin Architects) has built or has planned for this great borough: a library at PS 92, a community center at McKinley Houses, the 40th Precinct police station (with Karlsberger Architects), housing for Common Ground and the master plan and schools at Mott Haven (with Perkins Eastman Architects).

Under construction is our Common Ground supportive housing for the formerly homeless, on Brook Ave. near the Hub. It fills out the site with two wings of dark-gray brick with a light surface sheen that intersect at the corner in a cube of bright aluminum and red panels. This creates a landmark for the neighborhood and symbolizes the program of social services that helps give the homeless another chance at life.

The Mott Haven Schools at 153rd St. and Grand Concourse East is the largest school project ever undertaken by the School Construction Authority. It is a remarkable community initiative by the South Bronx churches and the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation.

Astride the Metro-North tracks, these four individual schools are organized in a monumental complex around a great courtyard that opens up to a large playing field and the tracks below. The schools, of 500 students each, share facilities on a giant base or plinth of gymnasiums and cafeterias. At the center is the sculptural shape of the auditorium and performing-arts center. This, as well as the gyms and the field, will be open at times to the neighboring community. We hope this becomes a new center of the Mott Haven area.

In the end, there is great hope for modern architecture in the Bronx. A masterpiece is still awaited, but at least there are many contenders, and all of them will help improve the lives and neighborhoods in this deserving and always improving borough.

http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2009/07/24/2009-07-24_modern_bronx_amazing_architecture_in_community_ service_buildings.html