The industrial area along the South Bronx waterfront is about to sprout several high-rise residential towers, but development a couple blocks inland may bring another sign of impending gentrification: new artist studios. Plans were filed last week for a three-story commercial building at 740 East 137th Street in Port Morris.
As we’ve told you in the past, the Landmarks Preservation Commission deals with projects both extremely big and very small. Such was the case last Tuesday, when it approved the expansion of a single-family home at 4520 Waldo Avenue in the Bronx’s Fieldston Historic District.
Property owners ABS Management & Development and Babad Management are now placing on the market the 3.7-acre vacant development site at 39-08 Janet Place (a.k.a 131-35 Roosevelt Avenue), in Downtown Flushing. The Real Deal reports the site currently offers 870,000 square feet of development rights. A five-tower, 450-unit mixed-use project was approved by the city before the 2008 financial crisis. It was going to be built by LEV Development Group and was designed by Ismael Leyva Architect, but it never got off the ground. Today, the plot is subject to the proposed Flushing West Rezoning, and, if established, would be located within the rezoning’s special waterfront district. That means a future development may require the construction of a waterfront promenade along Flushing Creek (although we don’t know if the rezoning means that the site would get more development rights). The site doesn’t have an asking price, although brokers expect the site to generate more than $120 million.
New building applications were originally filed back in 2013 for an eight-story, 70-key hotel at 1080 Broadway, on the edge of Bedford-Stuyvesant, located two blocks from the Kosciuszko Street stop on the J train. DNAinfo now reports construction on the hotel is nearly complete. The structure measures a total 34,365 square feet and the ground floor will host retail space. The project will also host cultural events and presentations. When it opens in 2017, the hotel will be operated by Red Lion Hotels Corporation’s Hotel RL brand. ABCNY is the developer and Salamon Engineering Group is the applicant of record.
Back in November of 2015, the two-story building at 290 Grand Street, on the Lower East Side, was being converted into 4,288 square feet of commercial space by its owner Cheuk Fan Cheung. Bowery Boogie now reports that construction has finished and scaffolding is being removed from the structure. The building is practically unrecognizable, as a completely new façade was installed as well as future storefronts and windows. The commercial space will be split between retail and office space. There will be three ground-floor retail units, and the second floor and cellar spaces will be leased to non-medical office tenants. Jianxiong Wang’s JW Engineering Consulting is the applicant of record. Opening will likely happen soon.
