Amara Kenneh, imam of Masjid Nur Al-Islam, has filed applications to build a seven-story, seven-dwelling-unit mosque at the vacant lot of 1051 Sherman Avenue, in the Concourse, three blocks in from the Grand Concourse and six blocks from the 167th Street stop on the B/D trains. The structure will measure 24,506 square feet in total, and Nazhat Aboobaker’s Invision Engineers is the applicant of record.
Since a vast industrial swath of Mott Haven was rezoned in the South Bronx several years ago, affordable housing developers have slowly begun to build in the area, taking advantage of large vacant lots and cheap, derelict factories. One such developer has filed plans for a 12-story affordable building at 491 Gerard Avenue, a block over from the Major Deegan Expressway and a short walk from the 2, 4 and 5 trains at 149th Street-Grand Concourse.
Rezonings in the South Bronx have spurred development in Morrisania, Melrose and Mott Haven, but new construction has been slow to arrive in the neighborhoods nearby, like Crotona Park East and Longwood. However, new building applications were filed over the weekend for a seven-story apartment building at 1417 Longfellow Avenue, between Jennings and Freeman Streets in Crotona Park East.
Small-scale development is slowly returning to Wakefield and Williamsbridge, two northern Bronx neighborhoods lined with one- and two-family homes where pockets of new construction grew in the early to mid-2000s. The city downzoned Wakefield in 2007 and Williamsbridge in 2011, discouraging new construction in two of the city’s most affordable places to buy a home. Despite that, we’ve noticed a growing number of little buildings planned in the areas just beyond Bronx Park, . Today, a new building application was filed for a four-story, eight-unit building at 626 East 223rd Street, between Carpenter Avenue and White Plains Road in Wakefield.
Two weeks ago, YIMBY reported on the first permits for La Central, a sprawling affordable housing complex set to rise on a vacant lot in the Melrose section of the South Bronx. Now the city has filed more plans for the development’s two biggest residential towers at 556 and 600 Bergen Avenue, about two blocks from the 3rd Avenue-East 149th Street stop on the 2/5 trains. We’ve also got a few new renderings, including interiors for a planned YMCA.
