A slew of affordable housing projects are headed for an industrial slice of the central Bronx sandwiched between the Cross Bronx Expressway and the elevated subway tracks. The latest development to join the list is a 10-story affordable residential building at 1880 Boston Road, in a long-neglected neglected neighborhood known as West Farms.
The Arker Companies and the Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development Corporation have acquired, for $19 million, the site of the former Peninsula Hospital Center, located at 51-15 Beach Channel Drive in Edgemere, along the Rockaways in Queens. The developers plan to build a multi-building residential and commercial complex, according to DNAinfo. It’s unclear how large the project will be, but plans will be going through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which indicates an individual rezoning is in the works. That means at least 30 percent of the residential units will have to be affordable. A four-story nursing home on site is currently occupied and will remain, but the four-story, 173-bed hospital building will be demolished. The hospital has been closed since 2012. The site – bound by Beach 50th Street, Rockaway Beach Boulevard, Beach 53rd Street, and Beach Channel Drive – is five blocks from the Beach 60th Street stop on the A train.
Construction has been completed and occupancy is underway at the 12-story, 154-unit affordable-supporting housing project at 1191 Boston Road, in the Bronx’s Morrisania section. Photos of the new building can be seen in a Curbed NY report. Dubbed Boston Road, the building encompasses 94,000 square feet and rises 119 feet above street level. It’s variety of affordable and supportive apartments, which are rentals, should average 315 square feet apiece. They are being leased at below-market rates to formerly homeless people, seniors, Medicaid users, and those living with HIV/AIDS. Amenities include a fitness center, a roof terrace, a garden, a computer lab, and storage for eight bikes. Breaking Ground is the developer and Alexander Gorlin Architects is behind the architecture.
The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) have launched a request for expressions of interest (RFEI) for the 158,000-square-foot development site at 65 East 149th Street, located in the South Bronx’s Lower Concourse section. The hope is for a development team to propose a mixed-use building with an assortment of affordable residential units, commercial space, and community facilities, DNAinfo reported. In addition, there will have to be public open space, which will hopefully be in the form of a waterfront esplanade (the site fronts the Harlem River). Infrastructure upgrades are also part of the project. The vacant site is located five blocks from the 149th Street-Grand Concourse stop on the 2 and 5 trains. Responses are due by October 11.
Since last fall, when façade work was wrapping up, construction on the 11-story, 106-unit residential building at 456 Washington Street, located on the corner of Watts Street in TriBeCa, has finished. The new building encompasses 186,054 square feet and is home to 106 luxury rental apartments, 22 of which will rent at below-market rates through the housing lottery. The apartments, averaging 1,330 square feet apiece, range from studios to five-bedrooms.
