Small market-rate developers in the Bronx have slowed down their plans for new buildings since the 421-a tax abatement program expired last month. But a few risk takers are still planning projects in the borough’s more established neighborhoods, like Bedford Park. Last week, developer Arben Mitaj filed plans for an eight-story market-rate building at 3053 Villa Avenue, between Bedford Park Boulevard and East 204th Street in Bedford Park.
The New York Botanical Garden has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a mixed-use development assemblage at 2856-2870 Webster Avenue and 412 Bedford Park Boulevard, in Bedford Park. According to Curbed NY, the site could accommodate roughly 300 residential units, in addition to a 125-plus-key hotel and at least 12,000 square feet of retail. The site is located right above the Metro-North Railroad’s Botanical Garden station and currently consists of multiple low-rise commercial buildings. Proposal submissions are due on March 1, and the Garden is hoping to choose a developer before April.
Market-rate projects in the northern Bronx are generally pretty small, topping out at three or four stories and 10 or 12 units. But every once in a while, a market-rate builder snags a decent-sized lot with generous zoning in one of the neighborhoods near Bronx Park. Yesterday we spotted applications for one of these developments at 253 East 204th Street, between East Moshulu Parkway South and Grand Concourse in Bedford Park.
Nush Rudaj has filed applications for a four-story, eight-unit residential building at 192 East 205th Street, in Bedford Park, five blocks north of the B/D train’s Bedford Park Boulevard stop. The building will measure 7,000 square feet, which means units will average 875 square feet. Nassau County-based Shahriar Afshari is the applicant of record, and demolition permits were filed in June to remove the existing 2.5-story wood-framed structure, which sold for $240,000 this past May.
William Wiegand, of O’Brien and Sons, has filed applications for a five-story, 48-unit mixed-use building at the vacant lot at 244 East 198th Street, in Bedford Park, five blocks from the B/D train’s Kingsbridge Road stop. The building will measure 44,285 square feet, and include an 11,925 square-foot commercial portion on the ground floor; residential units will average a rental-sized 675 square feet each. Mount Vernon-based Mastrogicomo Engineering is the applicant of record.
