The empty lot at 3067 Perry Avenue has been vacant for over a decade, taking up 2,500 square feet of the Norwood neighborhood. At a time when developers have swept into Norwood and its adjacent neighborhoods, building at a rapid clip during this construction boom, the demand for space is critical. 

The owner, Joe Quintessenza, purchased the lot with a plan to construct a seven-story apartment building with 32 units and a parking garage on the ground floor. But when zoning laws downsized the area, Quintessenza’s plans fell through. 

“We were planning on building 32 units eleven, ten years ago, and then out of nowhere they changed the zoning laws on us from R-7 to R-6. And that took easily a million dollars out of my pocket because the value went down. The plans that we paid $150,000 for were worthless,” Quintessenza told the Norwood News in a phone interview. “Money just evaporated into the air because they didn’t want a big building.”

Despite the property being vacant for so long, Quintessenza did not consider selling.  

“When they downzone a property, it loses value. We paid top dollar for the R-7 zoning. When they go down to R-6, I would owe more money on the property than I could get,” Quintessenza said. 

In the meantime, Quintessenza will continue working with CGM Management to construct the residence. The new plans call for a four-story building with 20 units, according to building records. The project, he said, is set to be completed within the next year. 

There are several stop work orders issued on 3067 Perry Ave., with $1,000 in fees being owed, that could slow down the process even more. The property has also received just shy of 30 complaints from residents. 

The Department of Buildings (DOB) said that no permits have been issued to begin work on the four-story building. In order to obtain permits, the fees for violating the stop work order must be paid. 

Residents of the area are curious why nothing has been done with the lot over the last decade. 

“It’s been here for quite some time now, like nine or ten years,” said Felix, a longtime resident standing at the medical center beside the lot. “I grew up around here. There was a house there. They tore it down. Now it’s just on construction for years now.” 

Quintessenza has had similar issues constructing buildings in the past. At 1604 Williamsbridge Rd. in Morris Park, he owned a property and wrote “I’m working on a dream” on the wall around the lot. It was going to be “The Joseph Nicholas Quintessenza Medical Arts Center,” named after his autistic son who died of leukemia. But because of similar issues with zoning laws, the center was never built and Quintessenza eventually sold the property.  

Despite construction being stalled for a decade and stop work orders being placed on the property, Quintessenza is determined to build his apartments at 3067 Perry Ave. 

“So now after ten years, we’re getting our resources together and hopefully we will take out permits soon to do a smaller development,” Quintessenza said. 

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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.