Transforming a Formerly Industrial Neighborhood in the South Bronx

Transforming a Formerly Industrial Neighborhood in the South Bronx

Bronx Point adds 542 units of affordable housing — along with retail space and a new home for the Hip Hop Museum — to a former industrial site along the Harlem River in New York City. Built by L+M Development Partners and Type A Projects, the project also features a nearly 3-acre public park recognized for its community amenities and resiliency features. Photo credit: Sylvester Zawadzki

For decades, the Lower Concourse area of the Bronx had been home to industrial activity along New York City's Harlem River. By the 2010s, industrial uses in the area were in decline, and in 2016, the city issued a request for proposals to add significant green space and affordable housing to a large city-owned site on the water. The resulting development, Bronx Point, consists of a 22-story tower providing 542 units of new affordable housing to approximately 1,500 individuals across income levels, retail and cultural space, and an amenity-rich park that extends existing waterfront green space. The combined project is helping to seed the area's redevelopment and catalyze market-rate development as the neighborhood transitions from industrial to residential uses.

Housing, Services, and Amenities for Residents

Bronx Point is notable for the diversity of housing needs it addresses. Income limits for tenants range from 30 percent to 120 percent of the area median income, with approximately 15 percent of units reserved for individuals who have experienced homelessness. Bronx Point offers residents supportive services through Bronxworks, a longtime local provider. The development consists of 135 studios, 192 one-bedroom units, 122 two-bedroom units, and 93 three-bedroom units, accommodating both individuals and families, including larger households. BronxWorks is also providing early childhood educational programming for Bronx Point's youngest residents — one consequence of the site conditions, according to Josue Sanchez, a senior vice president at L+M Development Partners, which partnered with Type A Projects to develop Bronx Point and the new waterfront park. The site is bounded by significant road and rail infrastructure (including the elevated Major Deegan Expressway and the 145th Street Bridge) and the Harlem River, which isolates the building and places increased importance on access to onsite children's programming. Other amenities include an outdoor terrace, onsite laundry, a children's room, a community lounge, bike storage, and a fitness center.

Development costs for Bronx Point totaled over $350 million. The New York City Economic Development Corporation contributed $25.5 million to develop the park. Funding sources for the building include the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development; the New York City Housing Development Corporation, which contributed $130.8 million in tax-exempt bonds and $87 million in long-term bonds; $21 million in brownfield tax credits; Wells Fargo, whose purchase of low-income housing tax credits raised $99 million in equity; and additional private sources.

Green Space for Resiliency, Recreation, and Community

L+M also directed the creation of the new park at the Bronx Point site. At 2.8 acres, the waterfront esplanade extends south from an existing waterfront park, Mill Pond Park, which owes its creation to agreements negotiated in connection with the development of Yankee Stadium 15 years ago. According to Sanchez, community input played a central role in L+M's design of the park and its programming. In response to the community feedback, the designers included space for active recreation, added more barbeque areas, and incorporated open space capable of hosting a farmers market and other community events.

L+M’s park design also includes significant environmental features. The resiliency aspects of the design earned the park Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines certification from the Waterfront Alliance — the first affordable housing project to receive such certification. L+M added native species of plants on 69 percent of the park’s shoreline and regraded the shore to better absorb tidal energy. Finally, the park has partnered with the Billion Oyster Project, which restores the once-abundant oyster reefs of New York City that help filter and clean the harbor.

Anchoring Neighborhood Revitalization

The Bronx Point site originally was an industrial area. In 2009, after industrial uses in the area declined, the city began taking steps to facilitate the neighborhood's gradual transition to residential, retail, and cultural uses. In addition to rezoning the area in 2009, the city invested approximately $200 million in infrastructure improvements to support the transformed neighborhood, including sewer upgrades, streetscape enhancements, improvements to traffic flow, and commercial-grade broadband. In 2016, the city issued a request for proposals to transform the Bronx Point site in a single project. The two components of the redevelopment continue to be symbiotic: revenue generated by the building supports the park's maintenance, and the park serves as an invaluable neighborhood amenity for the entire South Concourse community.

Bronx Point also serves the surrounding neighborhood through the inclusion of retail space as well as space to house the Hip Hop Museum. The museum’s new home encompasses 50,000 square feet over two stories and will join the nearby Bronx Children’s Museum and Yankee Stadium as another cultural attraction in the neighborhood. As the name suggests, the Hip Hop Museum preserves and exhibits the history and impact of the hip hop genre’s 50-year history, which began in the Bronx.

The neighborhood's transformation, guided by the city's vision to reconnect the urban fabric to the Harlem River waterfront and anchored by mixed-use development and affordable housing, is well underway, says Sanchez, who describes significant residential construction activity that is ongoing in the area. These new builds, he says, are expected to add thousands of new, market-rate housing units, with some new development already in the pipeline just south of the Bronx Point site. An anticipated second phase of Bronx Point will add additional affordable housing and retail space. As the neighborhood continues to develop amid New York's high land costs, says Sanchez, partnerships between affordable housing developers and the city government, as exemplified by Bronx Point, will remain a potent strategy.