Talk Bronx New York

Retail, office development finally gets off ground in South Bronx

Shoppers crowd the Hub retail district, where Harris Stores, below, sells 300 items a day from its 99-cent sidewalk rack.

The South Bronx

site had sat empty since a mayoral groundbreaking ceremony.

The mayor was Abe Beame, and the year was 1976. The ceremony marked the first of three decades of false starts in a slice of the city that had more than its share of undelivered promises.

But finally, last year, megadeveloper Stephen Ross built a two-story retail and office building at Third Ave. and E. 156th St., and renovated the parking garage next door.

Shoppers in the neighborhood known as the Hub said they like what his firm, the Related Cos., delivered.

Yonarys Ramos runs errands at the building’s Rite Aid on her way home from work in the admissions office of Boricua College because the drugstore stays open until 9 p.m.

Ramos, who has four kids, gets school supplies at its Staples. And she thinks the prices are right at its Nine West outlet store — her cousin bought a purse there for just $5.

“I hope they build more stores,” said Ramos, 31.

She’ll get her wish if Related becomes a joint-venture partner with Blackacre Capital and Cypress Equities in a massive development planned nearby at a nearly empty, six-acre site at E. 149th St. and Bergen and Brook Aves.

Related wants in on the proposed 1.1 million-square-foot project, called the Plaza at the Hub. Before getting involved, the developer is asking the Bloomberg administration to move a city agency into an office building that would be part of the project, sources said.

Also, Related is seeking changes in the development plan, for instance, to include more housing. The current design calls for up to 250 apartments, 375,000 square feet of shops, a large supermarket, a 14-screen movie theater and about 1,000 parking spots.

Officials at the city Economic Development Corp. and execs at Related — which built the ritzy Time Warner Center and is now constructing the Gateway Center mall at the former Bronx Terminal Market — wouldn’t discuss the proposed project. Regarding the Third Ave. project, Glenn Goldstein, the president of Related’s retail division, did say he’s in “advanced negotiations” with a casual restaurant about renting the last vacant space, on the ground floor of the garage.

While development officials were reticent, real estate brokers were eager to talk about changes the proposed Plaza at the Hub project would bring.

“A regional-tenanted corridor would get an opportunity to have lots of national tenants — and parking spaces, so people would come in by car,” said broker Steve Lorenzo of NAI Friedland Realty. “It would bring the Targets of the world to the Hub and make it a place for 21st-century shoppers.”

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Yankee Stadium Bonds Request Defended as Good for the Bronx

The Bloomberg administration is defending its decision to seek additional tax-exempt bonds for the new Yankee Stadium, pointing to the new jobs, increased revenue, and parkland the project will bring to the Bronx.

The new Yankee Stadium, scheduled to be ready for Opening Day 2009, has already received $942 million in tax-exempt financing, but the Yankees are seeking additional tax-exempt bonds that would primarily fund “scope improvements” such as a scoreboard, concession stands, and other stadium amenities.

Since the Tax Reform Act was enacted in 1986, private developers have faced more restrictions when trying to get tax-exempt bonds for stadiums. In 2006, the Yankees, with the support of the Bloomberg administration, avoided such restrictions by having the city and state pay off the bond debt with money received from the Yankees, also known as payment in lieu of taxes.

The IRS is in the process of closing this loophole, but city officials are requesting that they not.

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