Just as Chetrit Group and Somerset Partners threw a rather unfortunate party under the Third Avenue Bridge in Mott Haven to promote their two market-rate highrises in the South Bronx neighborhood, a smaller developer filed plans for a five-story mixed-use building a few blocks away at 2490 Third Avenue.
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.
Lorenzo De Vardo, operating under an LLC, has filed applications for a 10-story, 18-unit residential building at 1771 Weeks Avenue, in Mount Hope, two blocks east of the B and D trains’ stop at 175th Street and Grand Concourse. The building will measure 19,512 square feet, boasting relatively large average units of 1,084 square feet apiece. Reza Khamcy’s Great Neck-based Icon Engineering is the applicant of record, and permits were filed in July to demolish an existing two-story structure.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission has begun its public hearings for dealing with its backlog of items proposed for designation. It started on Thursday with the items in the Bronx. Among them was the Immaculate Conception Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and its convent and priests’ residence located, respectively, at 378 East 151st Street and 375-395 East 150th Street. While advocates support designating the campus as an individual landmark, the church itself says it wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Thanks to Fordham University at its northern edge and a relatively stable community of Italians, Albanians, and Puerto Ricans, Belmont remains an attractive place to develop market-rate housing in the Bronx. YIMBY has noticed a handful of new rental projects there in the last year, and now we can add another one to the list.
