On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the design of a new four-story, single-family home to be constructed at 108 West 123rd Street in Manhattan. That’s on the south side of the block between Lenox Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard.
The city and a group of developers broke ground Monday on an 11-story affordable and supportive housing development in the University Heights section of the Bronx.
The Furman Center’s newest State of the City report declared that Fordham and University Heights, in the northwestern Bronx, are “non-gentrifying.” Both neighborhoods are working class and largely Latino and black. While rents have risen there over the last decade, the cost of living hasn’t increased quite as dramatically as it has in “gentrifying” South Bronx neighborhoods, like Mott Haven and Port Morris.
As we have reported, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is in the process of dealing with the backlog of 95 items that have been on its calendar since before 2010, some for decades. That process took a big step forward Tuesday, with 30 sites remaining on the calendar as priorities for designation vote by the end of 2016. Five sites were removed from the calendar for lack of merit.
Property owner Gjek Popaj has filed applications for two four-story, nine-unit residential buildings at 1643-1645 Popham Avenue, in Morris Heights, located a number of blocks away from the neighborhood’s Metro-North Railroad station. Each building would measure 5,944 square feet in total, which means the units will likely be rentals, averaging just 660 square feet apiece. Pelham, N.Y.-based Fred Geremia Architects & Planners is the applicant of record. Demolition commenced earlier this week on the existing two-story, two-unit brick building.