A prominent development group has submitted plans for an affordable housing building on a cleared parcel just off the Grand Concourse.
The Purchase, NY-based Stagg Group has submitted plans to build a 13-story apartment building at 150 Van Cortlandt Avenue, the former site of a gas station and auto repair shop.
The 19,811-square-foot property was acquired by Stagg in spring 2015 for just under $7 million from realty firm Cushman and Wakefield.
The former gas station has been defunct for more than two decades, and the underground gas tanks were removed in 1997 before an environmental remediation project at the site had been completed. The site is zoned residential.
Stagg Group president Mark Stagg said all 163 units in the proposed building would be of the affordable housing variety, and said his company would be working with the office of NYC Housing Preservation and Development and NYS Housing Development Corporation to fund the project.
The owner of such buildings are usually compensated with tax credits as an incentive to create affordable housing, since they cannot charge market rate rents.
“It’s a great location, right at the end of the Grand Concourse and near the Mosholu Parkway,” Stagg said of the planned development.
In addition to close proximity to the Bedford Park Station on the 4 and D subway lines, the property is also within walking distance of the Bronx High School of Science, Dewitt Clinton High School and Lehman College.
The western portion of Van Cortlandt Park and the Jerome Park Reservoir are also nearby.
Construction on the building will begin in July of 2017, Stagg said.
The project will be designed by Walter Marin of Marin Architects of Manhattan, who designed the affordable housing development being built at 203rd Street and Webster Avenue in nearby Norwood.
That residential project will include 130 units of affordable and market rate housing.
Work is also well underway at another Stagg project, The Equestrian at Pelham Parkway.
The seven-story Equestrian, a 129-unit building, will include approximately 20 percent affordable units.
Stagg said he wanted the Van Cortlandt Avenue building to fit in with the historic brick architecture prominent in the north Bedford Park neighborhood.
The building will be built to ensure certified LEED green building status, and will also feature rooftop gardens and a fitness facility, as well as a basement community center for use by residents.
Community Board 7 chair Adaline Walker Santiago said Stagg Group had not presented its new plans to the board, but would go before the Housing and Environment and Sanitation committees early next year.
“It needs to go through both committees because it used to be a gas station, but we will be addressing this in January,” she said.
Santiago said the board had a good history working with Stagg Group and was hopeful about the newest project.
“Whatever happens, it will be for the better of the community, because we always fight for that,” she said.
