A non-profit is one step closer to completing a new affordable and supportive apartment building with exciting new green features.
Bedford Green House, developed by Project Renewal, held a topping off ceremony on Wednesday, March 13 for a new 118-unit apartment complex edging its way towards completion in Bedford Park.
The project, located at 2685 Creston Avenue, is the first phase of a two-phase project, which will total 234 units, as well as a medical clinic and playground, said Eric Rosenbaum, Project Renewal president and CEO.
The 13-story, 83,000 square foot building features 47 units of affordable housing for area residents earning up to 60 percent of Area Median Income and supportive housing that is permanent for those transitioning from homelessness and in need of services, said Rosenbaum.
Bedford Green will afford residents the opportunity to grow their own vegetables in a rooftop garden and greenhouse and cultivate edible fish within the building’s design.
The rooftop growing areas will make use of a vertical farming system, aquaponics, which allows residents to raise fish and vegetables in an eco-friendly way, with waste from the fish becoming fertilizer for the vegetables.
The ecosystem will produce tilapia fish that are edible. Rosenbaum said raising food and fish is symbiotic with a six-month culinary arts work readiness program which serves the formerly homeless.
Paul Woody, Project Renewal director of real estate said that the as-of-right project is located on land purchased from a real estate developer years ago. A large rock outcrop on the site initially prevented development.
Instead of blasting the rock away, it was incorporated into the design of the first three stories of the building, the developer explained.
The building is LEED Certified Gold, which is an environmentally sustainability rating, said Woody.
The second phase of the project will include 116 units located at 2880 Jerome Avenue, and work will begin on that building sometime after phase one is completed later in 2019 or early 2020.
Project Renewal also runs Marsha’s House, a shelter for LGBTQ adults for 18- to 30-years-old in Fordham, said Rosenbaum, and a number of other programs in the borough.
According to Project Renewal no local elected officials provided funding allocations for the first phase.
