As South Bronx groups wrangle with developers and politicians over the future of a neighborhood that’s made a comeback, a real estate tracking group is chronicling the neighborhoods’ rise in its skyline.

It’s done so via RENTCafé, an apartment listing website that offers before and after slider windows of eleven plots of land, once either barren or housing a one-story property, now occupied by high-rise residential spaces. RENTCafé allows users to view a listing of available apartments across the country, including the Bronx, via property managers. It’s affiliated with Property Shark, a heavily used New York-based real estate website that profiles residential and commercial properties, offering users nitty-gritty details of a building, including property value, deed transactions and tenant listing.

The list of buildings dates back to 2008, a time when major real estate transactions had been finalized. Users can see prior images of what now stands the Roscoe C. Brown, Jr. Apartments in Claremont Village, and Walton Henwood Apartments in Mount Hope. One of the more eye-catching changes can be found at Courtlandt Corners I and II in Melrose, buildings that turned an underutilized stretch on 161st Street in affordable luxury apartments. Each profiled building is presented through a slider that comes with a by-the-numbers description.

Since 2007, 81 new buildings with over 10,000 square feet of space have been built, with 2008 seeing the most number of new developments built at 29, according to figures compiled by Property Shark.

“Infrastructure is one of the main factors for growth in the South Bronx, which along with the improved crime rate, has brought big changes to the real estate scene,” said Camelia Bulea, a spokesperson for RENTCafé.

The South Bronx has attracted the attention of Keith Rubenstein, one of the founders of Somerset Partners L.L.C., a real estate firm that, along with the Chetrit Group, recently announced construction of a $400 million residential/retail complex along the Harlem River waterfront. The development is perceived as the lynchpin to South Bronx gentrification many activists are looking to reverse. Resistance towards any gentrification increased following a rebranding campaign by Somerset Partners that sought to nickname the South Bronx, particularly its Port Morris section, the Piano District.

Opposition reached another level recently after a swanky art show hosted by Somerset Partners and the Chetrit Group, highlighting the South Bronx’s years of blight, was met with criticism by activists who felt the show was insensitive to the area’s worried past.

The South Bronx waterfront is being viewed as a benchmark to increased development in the area, which could be chronicled on RENTCafé.

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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.