In an effort to be transparent, a luxury housing developer spoke to Community Board 1 last week about its plans to conduct water treatment at its mega million project in the south Bronx.
On Tuesday, February 25, representatives from Brookfield Properties revealed what it will be doing at 101 Lincoln Avenue in Mott Haven. BOP 101 Lincoln Ave. LLC submitted an application to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation for dewatering and groundwater pumping operations, which requires a State Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit. The treatment will begin in the second quarter of the year.
The property was once used for coal storage and as a vehicle repair, paint shop, blacksmith shop, bus depot and crane yard.
“This site is a brownfield site with known contamination and you have to have a treatment system,” said Joe Mahon of Subsurface Consulting Services. “[The developers are] very well aware of all the contamination on the site.”
This is part of Bankside, a $950 million, 4.3-acre mixed-use multi tower development located along the waterfront in Mott Haven. Hill West Architects are designing the project.
Bankside represents one of the largest private investments ever undertaken in the borough.
A series of pipes will be inserted vetically into the contaminated construction site that will pump the ground water into the water treatment system, before being flushed into the Harlem River. This process will continue for a year.
Soils at the site consist of historic fill materials to a depth ranging from five to seven feet below the surface followed by salty sand and peat layers.
Mahon explained this clean-up work is required by the state.
Charlie Howe, a senior associate at Brookfield, explained the process is quite common on former industrial sites.
“There’s tons of development all along Long Island City,” Howe said. “We think it’s a trend here in NYC. For a long time NYC turned its back on the waterfront. As a society we’re learning the importance of being by the water.”
The towers will be interconnected by a low-rise base spread across the two parcels. All the towers will be 25 stories, except for the one on the 2401 Third Avenue site, which will be 17 stories.
The construction, which has now begun, will occur in two phases, beginning with more than 450 apartments on the site at 2401 Third Avenue, expected to open by the end of 2021.
There will be a public waterfront park and esplanade on the Harlem River shoreline. Brookfield will also make substantial improvements to the shoreline bulkhead and enhance upland connectivity to the river.
Bankside will consume two sizable parcels located on each side of the Third Avenue Bridge along the Harlem River – at 2401 Third Avenue and 101 Lincoln Avenue. There will be 462,000 gross square feet of development at 2401 Third Avenue and 950,000 gross square feet at Lincoln. The Third Avenue parcel will have three towers and 101 Lincoln Avenue will have four towers.
There will be more than 1,350 apartments, 30 percent of which will be income-targeted through the Affordable New York program.
Brookfield Properties paid $165 million for the site.
