Photo by Adi Talwar
Along the neighborhoods of Norwood and Bedford Park, jackhammers can be heard repeatedly jutting concrete. It’s the sound many have heard before, though in the last few months, as warmer temperatures climb, it’s become the norm. Yes, Norwood and Bedford Park are undergoing another wave of construction.
And it’s not just multi-story projects that have swept the neighborhoods, but smaller-scale projects that have either knocked out spots, forced residents to walk in the street, or pose the question, “What is happening?”
The projects add to the 1,020 residential construction or infrastructure projects changing the overall landscape of Norwood and Bedford Park since 2000, according to a Norwood News analysis using data from the city Department of Buildings. It also follows the overall trend in residential construction citywide, which saw $14 billion in spending in 2018, up from $13.2 billion in 2017.
“You gonna take small and quiet neighborhoods and 10 years from now it’s going to look like Harlem,” said Anthony Rivieccio, a Bedford Park resident and activist, who seeks to keep the neighborhoods what they are.
Bedford Park is arguably the epicenter of construction, with developers building multi-story properties in the neighborhood. Among them is the Mosholu Grand, a 13-story residence that’s midway through construction. It rests across from the Pickwick Arms, a 100-year complex at the tip of Mosholu Parkway South. The new building is being built on property that was once a gas station.
On East 204th Street by Villa Avenue, crews are building another affordable housing property, this one dubbed Villa Gardens, while down at East 204th Street and Valentine Avenue, an eight-story building is primed for occupancy soon.
Victor Milian, a resident of Bedford Park, has noticed the construction and is still reserving judgment over whether the new housing is good for the neighborhood. “It all depends on what it’s going to be for. If we are talking about housing, there is always a need for housing. In the community there should be a balance between the quality of living,” said Milian.
At Mosholu Parkway, Brooklyn-based developer CAMBA is in the early stages of constructing two buildings on land where two- to four-family homes stood. It’s an effort that’s not wholly embraced by Community Board 7, which typically hears what new projects are making their way to the neighborhood. CB7 chair Jean Hill, who once served as chair to the board’s Land Use, Zoning, & Housing Committee—the body that first learns about new construction projects—said interest in Bedford Park keeps coming. And speculators are eyeing the existing, though slowly dwindling, stock of single-family homes.
2. MTA work on ventilation gratings near the East 205th Street/Norwood D subway station.
3. Ongoing construction on Jerome Avenue, beginning at the tip of the Major Deegan Expressway down to Bainbridge Avenue and East Gun Hill Road.
4. Queens-based Propco Holdings is planning a seven-story, 98-unit residence on Webster Avenue near Parkside Place.
5. CAMBA looks to build a pair of affordable housing buildings near Mosholu Parkway between East 202nd and East 203rd streets.
6. Crews with Con Edison rip up concrete by East 204th Street and Bainbridge Avenue.
“They are enticing homeowners to sell their houses so we are losing the housing stock and people who make investments so now we are becoming a neighborhood of renters only. You have a lot of good renters but they don’t have the same investments that a homeowner does and we need that combination as well,” said Hill.
But Hill, or CB7, hasn’t heard all of the projects. At a barren hill of bedrock on Webster Avenue, with Parkside Place hovering just above it, crews have blasted portions of the tract, smoothing it out as it preps it for construction. City records show Queens-based Propco Holdings is planning a seven-story, 98-unit residence the realty firm is pegging as “an unforgettable experience to its residents.” A review of the website shows amenities will include upscale finishes and a dedicated parking garage. Meantime, another property on Parkside Place just by East 207th Street is slated to be open.
Such a property like one Propco Holdings is building would align with what Community Board 7 envisioned in 2009 when it approved an 88-block rezoning of Webster Avenue, which would usher in properties for families.
Builders are also constructing on existing property. At the corner of East 204th Street and Webster Avenue, just across 3100 Webster Ave.—a supportive/affordable housing that opened nearly a year ago—a two-story property that housed La Estrella Restaurant has been converted to a six-story residence. The construction was too much for homeowner Darrell Burgess. Last year, Burgess moved out.
“That’s like the worst building in the world,” said Betty Diana Arce, a longtime Norwood resident and current Community Board 7 member, speaking of the add-ons to the corner building. “And right across the street they opened up a building right in 3100 Webster Ave., the Doe [Fund] building; and one block south is the Stagg Building on 203rd [Street].”
Coupled with construction are the ongoing street projects where crews have ripped up concrete for a variety of reasons, temporarily taking out parking with it. At the tip of Jerome Avenue by the Major Deegan Expressway, crews have spent nearly three years excavating the curb cuts along the avenue, extending toward Bainbridge Avenue and East Gun Hill Road. It’s all part of a massive sewer pipe replacement project linked to the Croton Water Filtration Plant.
A mile down Bainbridge Avenue, residents have spotted orange-vested crews with the MTA upgrading ventilator gratings and walls by the East 205th/Norwood B/D station at East 206th Street. The project, lumped with a similar project at the East 143rd Street-St. Mary’s number 6 subway station, has gone over budget.
On the northeast and southeast corners of Webster Avenue and East 204th Street, just near La Estrella restaurant, orange cones can be spotted protecting recently upgraded curb cuts. The projects are part of a massive MTA project on Webster Avenue between East 165th Street and East Gun Hill Road for improvements to the Bx41 bus line that runs through the corridor. The Webster Avenue and Bainbridge Avenue projects are overseen by the city Department of Design and Construction.
Jeannet Rodriguez, a Norwood resident walking along East 204th Street at Webster Avenue, thinks that work is at least going at a relatively fast pace. “From what I see, it is good. The construction is good. I don’t think it will affect anything,” she said.
But not everyone believes the multiple construction projects in Norwood is a good thing. “These constructions are really bad for the community because there are too many things going on. Sometimes you can’t even cross through certain areas at all,” said Mares Cobo.
Juan Solano, a local resident who is unsure of what is going on in the neighborhood said he believes the outcome will be positive. “It is a good thing because it is going to bring more people into the neighborhood it is going to make it more crowded. There is going to be more buildings and more stores. It will make the neighborhood more popular,” said Solano.
Popularity in a neighborhood can serve as a cautionary tale–though it’s what CB7 members had asked for back in 2009, construction has not been in lockstep to resources.
They are overbuilding the neighborhood. I mean, they are really stressing out our neighborhood,” said Hill. “They are overcrowding our infrastructure because where is the extra help with the schools and the police department and the sanitation department and everything? We know that it is really making the area overcongested.”
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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.
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With all new construction in these small neighborhoods, will these new structures provide parking spaces for new residents? Already a difficult situation, it soon will be an impossible one. This neck of the woods, Mosholu Parkway north & south, need more parking spots not more people.
My concern is the over building of residential apartments is the quality of tenants that will be living in them. The last thing Norwood and Bedford Park needs is the riff-raff types from less desirable parts of the Bronx, Harlem and other parts of the city moving in and bring their social-behaviorial baggage with them that creates a less desirable environment, changes the neighborhood culture and lowers the quality of life of the area.
These new developments need to cater to more middle income folks than to low income. Norwood and Bedford Park already has more than enough low income people. We need to balance the scale and build housing for middle class folks earning 80K+ a year. Preferably build coops instead of rentals to encourage home ownership over renting. It’s a known fact that owners take better care of their property than renters.
Whenever a residential apartment building is proposed to be built in Norwood or Bedford Park, always ask yourself what type of housing will it be and will it attract good or bad people to the neighborhood. People are what make neighborhoods, not buildings. If you inject lowlifes to a decent area, the area will tip on the undesirable side. I.e. hanging out, loud and unruly behavior, gang presence and violence, uptick in crimes, more panhandling, more graffiti. You get the picture.
Just take a drive on any given fay from Moshulo Parkway and Webster Avenue to 149th and Third Avenue – every single block has a new 7+ story structure going up. It would be nice is they were as attractive architecture like the building along Grand Concourse.
In the past 14 days I have seen three stone churches demolished to rubble. The entire Bronx is then epicenter of new construction – not Norwood. There are 362 apt developments going up in Melrose. Homeless shelters going up along Avenue – it a complete rehaul of the Bronx. My question is where does NYC plan on moving the Bronx natives who were born and raised here? Because these institutional looking buildings are not all affordable to the tenants they are displacing.
Just take a drive on any given day from Moshulo Parkway and Webster Avenue straight to 149th and Third Avenue – every single block has a new 7+ story structure going up. It would be nice if they were as attractive as the architectural buildings along Grand Concourse.
In the past 14 days I have seen three stone churches demolished to rubble.
The entire Bronx is the new epicenter of new construction – not just Norwood.
There are 362 apt developments going up in Melrose. Homeless shelters going up along Avenue – it a complete re-haul of the Bronx.
My question is where does NYC plan on moving the Bronx natives who were born and raised here that are being displaced?
These unattractive institutional looking buildings are not all affordable to some of the long standing tenants. It all is happening so quickly that of you drive by a spot in the Bronx 7-days later it is no longer the same. Are all Community Boards talking to each other and aware what is going on?
My concern is that Bronxites are being pushed out.
NORWOOD UNDER CONSTRUCTION & ITS STREET TREES.
With an already existing low tree canopy volume across the Bronx (the least treed of the 5 boros next to Manhattan) it is a fact that much of the new building construction for high density housing at sites of former old homes will impose other unexpected consequences to the neighborhood- large street tree losses. At many of these properties it is the last of the large canopied veteran street trees adjacent to those construction sites that will be deliberately killed and destroyed by unmonitored and unchecked construction impacts- rather than their preservation and conservation. This has already been a trend for decades where the Bronx and Queens (and elsewhere) are loosing large healthy shade trees and the benefits and services trees deliver occurring one tree at a time and unsuspectingly b/c of the developers.
How does this urban forest denuding happen and where is Parks Forestry that has jurisdiction over those street trees and their preservation? The absence of NYC Central Foresters in this scenario whether unwilling or planned is the driver of large numbers of street tree losses. Rather than intervene when street tree damage is taking place, Foresters sit and wait until damage are so extreme that the tree then needs condemnation and removal for concerns for public safety. With that, Foresters then impose costly fines and restitution fees to the builder that fuels the NYC Parks general operating fund. Yes, living public trees are the agency cash cow. And it is the public who forever loose their invaluable and irreplaceable veteran trees and their shade because no one spoke on their behalf.