By David Cruz

When Jean Hill heard a developer’s plan to build their latest shelter proposal, the idea of a fact-finding visit to the developer’s other sites quickly surfaced. After all, she’s poked around other sites before.

“We do go out, ask questions of the people who live in [the developer’s] backyard. ‘Have you had any problems with them? Is everything kosher?’” said Hill, serving as Community Board 7’s Land Use/Housing committee chairwoman. 

In this case, the latest site under review is the Bowery Residents Committee (BRC), a 43-year-old homeless shelter and social service provider. The Manhattan-based group outlined its plan to build a 150,000-square-foot, $62 million affordable housing/shelter building at 233 Landing Road in University Heights, near the Fordham Hill senior housing complex. The committee heard from BRC on Nov. 18.

“We’re not proposing to do anything that we haven’t already done,” said Muzzy Rosenblatt, BRC’s executive director. Though its flagship shelter residence in the Flatiron District also holds affordable unit apartments, this is the first BRC will serve as a developer.

The proposed nine-story building will house 135 units—111 studio apartments that rent for $450 per month, and 24 one and two-bedroom affordable housing apartments marked at $1000. Homeless single men who are employed and are screened by caseworkers from the Department of Homeless Services’ central intake center will occupy the first two floors. The rest of the units will be set aside for rent-paying tenants already living in the Bronx, said Rosenblatt. Separate entrances will be installed.

The project is a rare hybrid pushed by the de Blasio administration in its continued efforts to increase its affordable housing stock to poverty-stricken New Yorkers. Over the summer, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a lofty ten-year plan to create or repair 200,000 affordable housing units. One method involves the affordable housing/homeless shelter model, such as BRC’s, which is vying for a 30-year shelter contract.

“By building a shelter with the housing we generate enough income to stay in the project but to make the housing work as well,” said Rosenblatt, adding that loans from the Housing Development Corporation, tax incentives and private monies will finance the project.

Long Term Plan
But the proposal also seems to conflict with a long-term vision for University Heights, which the Department of City Planning pegged as a frontier for economic and residential development. Its conclusion was largely due to the community’s proximity to the barren Harlem River waterfront, which could be transformed into a vibrant vista given substantial investment. The findings were released in a study compiled by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) over the summer.

Contributing to the neighborhood’s revision is the possibility of a $30 million mixed-use housing site listed by Massey Knakal, representing an anonymous owner that  purchased 320 W. Fordham Road, a large parcel abutting the University Heights Metro-North station. The BRC project would be a block away.

One source, who asked to be unnamed because they were closely tied with the Bronx Department of City Planning office, said DCP is “banging its head over” the project given the report’s conclusion. The contention reveals a disconnect between different visions for the future of University Heights.

But Rosenblatt, citing BRC’s residence in the Flatiron District, contends the shelter won’t interfere with the overall residential upgrade.

“Our project is compatible, like we are in the Bowery,” said Rosenblatt.  A Whole Foods and $20 million Avalon Bay condominium complex surround the shelter. “Our development of the site compared to the way the site is today will only enhance the attractiveness of the neighborhood.”

A Marquee Lot
Landing Road is the site where the facility would be built. The dead-end street, hugged by a nightclub, restaurant and storage facility, was written about extensively in the ULI report as a potential bridge deck. It would extend above the Major Deegan Expressway, and the Metro-North tracks, connecting to the waterfront. The bridge would be built within the 10-20 year benchmark, according to the report.

Felix Ciampo, the executive director of ULI in New York, said “we don’t think our recommendations are in conflict with this proposed site of Landing Road.”

The ramp is part of a complete neighborhood overhaul, with mixed-use housing peppering the community, though Rosenblatt and his associates were leery over whether a bridge deck was even feasible.

The meeting wrapped with Hill asking to see the Bowery site, which Rosenblatt welcomed. The visit will offer the committee a better look at how BRC operates, said Hill.

“They look friendly, but everybody always shows up looking friendly,” said Hill. “When you come to their house and look at how they live you have a better feel for it.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.