By Kit Dillon 5:36pm

on the waterfront

16 Photos

Hunts Point Landing Now Open

EDC and Congressman Serrano Open Hunts Point Landing Park, Go Kayaking

Much has been made of the transformation of the city’s waterfront, but it is usually tonier precincts like Manhattan and bourgey Brooklyn getting all the attention. Meanwhile, the Bronx waterfront has undergone a quieter transformation that has still managed to maintain its industrial character while introducing greenspace and recreation to the area.

Yesterday, the latest piece of this aquatic puzzle opened, a fun-looking 1.5-acre park in the Hunt’s Point section of the borough.  It includes a new fishing pier, a kayak launch, and a restored shoreline with tidal pools that, according to the city’s Economic Development Corporation, will naturally absorb storm water runoff.  The park is liberally sprinkled with large granite slabs of city history, remnants of the deconstructed Willis Avenue Bridge, which make up much of the comfortable looking boulder seating area and grass retaining wall. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/08/12 2:40pm

Slippery slope

6 Photos

Skating Into the Bronx

How Exactly Do You Cram Nine Ice Rinks Into a 95-Year-Old Armory, Even One as Big as Kingsbridge?

Easy—just stack them on top of each other.

When Mark Messier first announced his intentions to build a new skating complex inside the Kingsbridge Armory, it sounded crazy. This is the Bronx, after all. When it was revealed there would be eight rinks in total, it sounded insane.

But the Kingsbridge National Ice Center recently launched its social media campaign—what bid for a public project would be complete without one?—and on the project’s Facebook page are a number of models that show exactly how Mr. Messier and his team intend to pull off this wild engineering feat. Read More

By Kim Velsey 7/23/12 10:45am

Suburban Dreams

Just what New York needs?

Tourists, Facing A Dearth Of Shopping Options In the City, Are Super Excited About Bronx Outlet Mall

New York may be home to some of the best boutiques, specialty shops and department stores in the world, but you know what it really needs? A huge outlet mall with brand names for less!

The New York Times claims that New Yorkers, secretly covetous of the bland, sprawling suburban malls that can be found in the city’s hinterlands, are ecstatic to hear that an outlet mall may be opening near Co-op City in the Bronx. (The Lightstone Group, a company that develops and manages outlet malls, purchased a 19.2-acre site in the Ferry Point neighborhood this May, although the group has yet to announce any plans for the site.) Read More

By Matt Chaban 2/16/12 4:06pm

Best Laid Plans

Back to the streets. (HUD/Flickr)

Adolfo Carrion Leaves HUD to Help Save Cities on His Own

Friday was Adolfo Carrion’s last day working for the Obama administration. He had been ensconced for the past two years in a corner office on the 35th floor of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building downtown, serving as director of HUD Region 2, which is where The Observer met him a few weeks ago to discuss the president‘s flagging urban agenda.

Bronx paraphernalia filled the glass-line space. Near the doorway was a green highway sign, WELCOME TO THE BRONX. On a bookshelf behind his desk, beside family photos, books (Sonia Sotomayor’s biography, Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat) and hardhats of special significance, rested  a miniature subway sign for the 161st Street-Yankees Stadium stop. Along the wall stood a T.V. tuned to CNBC, framed newspaper clippings, and not one but two Yankees groundbreaking shovels, one of which had a bat for a handle. Pinstriped paraphernalia was everywhere, declaring the Manhattan-born, Bronx-bred politician’s on-field allegiance.

Mr. Carrion left the Bronx to go work for the administration, first on the campaign trail, then as the inaugural director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs. He left that position to come work at HUD, a move many saw as a demotion, though he insists it was always part of his plan. Read More

By Matt Chaban 2/02/12 10:17am

Slippery slope

His eyes are set on the Bronx. (Sports Illustrated)

An Outer Borough Goal? Hockey Skates Into Brooklyn, the Bronx

New York is not much of a hockey town. The Rangers are the top team in the league right now, and still the awfulness of the Knicks gets more attention. The Super Bowl is sucking up a lot of air time, but even if the Rangers win the Stanley Cup—their first since 1994, second since 1940—the back pages of the tabs will still spend most of their time on off-season baseball news.  Sean Avery’s sartorial choices attract more attention than a Henrik Lundqvist shut out.

Thus The Observer almost slipped on the ice in surprise when two reports surfaced yesterday about hockey coming to some unlikely places. Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/12/12 7:34pm

SOC It to Me

Mayor of the Capital of Innovation. (Getty)

What Does the Mayor Have Planned for Grand Central, and Other Developments from the State of the City

The main focus of the Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s State of the City speech today may have been on taking another crack at fixing the city’s schools and streamlining its government, but this is still Mike Bloomberg, remaker of skylines and rebuilder of waterfronts, so there was bound to be a lot of development goodies studding the speech.

Aside from the Kingsbridge Armory announcement, which was previewed yesterday, the proposal that most jumped out was one for the heart of Midtown. “In the area around Grand Central, we’ll work with the City Council on a package of regulatory changes and incentives that will attract new investment, new companies and new jobs,” the mayor said. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 3:48pm

Land Use

Win one for the Giff.

Former City Council Speaker Paves Way For Largest Bronx Rezoning

A development firm that counts former speaker of the New York City Council Gifford Miller as a partner received city approval to rezone a portion of the Bronx for a 5-acre mixed-use property development.

The project, which is being spearheaded by the development firm Signature Urban Properties, is situated on a portion of land located along West Farms Road in the neighborhoods of Crotona Park East and West Farms. Read More

By Guelda Voien 10/20/11 4:17pm

glamorous

Packaging Manufacturer Leases Space to Self-Storage Business

American Real Estate Management, a self-storage facility, has inked a deal for 90,000 square feet of space at 1351 and 1339 Jerome Avenue, near West 170th Street, in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx.

The five-year triple net deal—by which the tenant pays the net taxes, insurance and maintenance—commanded an asking rent of $7 Read More