New construction doesn’t happen often in Hunts Point, a peninsula in the southeastern corner of the Bronx that’s starved for retail and neighborhood services. But YIMBY noticed that excavation and foundation work had started at 925 Hunts Point Avenue, a 40,000-square-foot mall planned across from the Bruckner Expressway and next to the Hunts Point Avenue 6 train stop.
Over the last few months, the Department of City Planning has lost the PR battle over the proposed Jerome Avenue rezoning. Residents and activists accused the city of trying to create a new neighborhood called “Cromwell-Jerome,” a reference to DCP’s initial plans for a zoning study, and in response, officials dropped “Cromwell” from the title. In reality, planning officials hope to revitalize a narrow, 73-block stretch around Jerome, from 167th Street to just south of Fordham Road. They want to improve parks, the streetscape, retail, community services, schools, and economic growth, instead of simply pushing through more housing development.
Mott Haven is slowly growing new market-rate apartments, but most construction in the South Bronx neighborhood is still supportive or affordable housing. Now one supportive housing builder has filed plans for two developments at 275 East 138th Street and 2550 Third Avenue, on a lot bordered by East 139th Street and Alexander Avenue.
Preservationists spent years decrying the state of the decrepit, city-owned school at 425 Grand Concourse in the South Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven, until the city announced that it would demolish the landmarked Gothic building, formerly P.S. 31, in April. Now the Department of Housing Preservation and Development has released an RFP (request for proposals) to redevelop the property into affordable housing.
Earlier this year, Chetrit Group and Somerset Partners purchased two Bronx waterfront development sites at 2401 3rd Avenue and 101 Lincoln Avenue, in Port Morris, surrounding both sides of the Third Avenue Bridge, and now Curbed has the details for their project. The developers plan two 25-story towers totaling 1,600 residential units, across 1.3 million square feet, and retail space will span the first two floors. The site is currently occupied by warehouses.
