The Bronx, and the city as a whole, need more housing, virtually everyone agrees. But a new proposal from the Department of City Planning for the Parkchester/Van Ness and Morris Park neighborhoods in The Bronx is far more ambitious: It also seeks to bring lots of well-paying jobs to the borough that needs them the most.
Designed to capitalize on the construction of four new Metro-North stations, the rezonings could not only spur thousands of new housing units but accelerate the creation of a life sciences and health care hub in Morris Park that promises to give the borough’s economy an unprecedented boost in middle- and high-income jobs.
“It’s transformative and a wonderful opportunity to leave a huge impact on the Bronx,” said Rubén Diaz Jr., the former borough president who is now senior vice president of Montefiore Health System, which has enterprising plans for the area.
The Metro-North rezoning, which began the city’s seven-month land use review process in January, is referred to by almost everyone involved as a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. City Planning envisions the addition of 7,500 new housing units over the next 10 years, about 2,000 of which would be classified as “affordable.”
It also predicts that as many as 10,000 jobs can be added in Morris Park, which has a concentration of hospitals, including Montefiore’s Einstein campus. Unlike some past rezoning proposals from city planners, it has won early praise from local City Council members and the borough president.
Council members Amanda Farias and Kristy Marmorato have praised the project. Since Republican Marmorato ousted her predecessor by pillorying her for a rezoning vote to authorize a housing development, her stance is regarded as especially significant.
Borough President Vanessa Gibson has also been supportive. But local community boards, which have an advisory vote in the land use process, have started to push back.
A Community Board 11 land use committee meeting Monday night became a forum for airing fears and warnings about the impact of a potential 20,000 new residents and big new commercial development.
“We are in need of middle schools,” said Community Board 11 chair Bernadette Ferrara, whose district includes Morris Park and Van Nest. We don’t even have enough public schools.”
Other commenters expressed concerns about pushing out tenants and small, family-owned enterprises, citing the recent transformation of Mott Haven in the south Bronx, now home to high-rise rentals.
“What protections are going to exist for current businesses so that they’re not bullied by developers into selling their businesses and leaving the community?” asked board member Mary Elkaham, citing automotive businesses.
Board member Malcolm Gray warned: “The culture of small business activity will be lost because property values are going to increase…. Our residents here are going to be priced out of the community.”
Challenges Ahead
Rezoning alone will not guarantee results.
Some real estate experts warn that the housing won’t be built unless the state’s expired housing development tax break, known as 421-a, is revived in some form. Others worry the new jobs won’t go to Bronx residents.
The key to the ambitious proposal is a plan initiated by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to add four new stations in the Bronx along the Metro-North New Haven train line in Co-Op City, Hunts Point, Morris Park and Parkchester. They are now expected to open in late 2027.
“For decades we had outrage at watching the trains go by and not stop here,” said Camelia Tepelus, executive director of the Morris Park Business Improvement District.
The stations unlock the area’s potential in several ways. They provide much shorter commutes to Manhattan for residents and easier access for them to commute to jobs in Westchester and Connecticut. At the same time, it will provide easy access to Morris Park for suburban commuters along the line to the new jobs in the area.
Meanwhile, the rezoning would allow taller buildings in the mostly low-rise neighborhood and increase density, especially near transportation.
“This is the definition of transit-oriented housing,” said Dan Garodnick, commissioner of the Department of City Planning and chair of the City Planning Commission.
With Mayor Eric Adams pushing to have every neighborhood add affordable housing, City Planning points out that two of the areas affected by the plan — Bronx Community Districts 10 and 11 — produced the fewest income restricted new apartments of any neighborhood in The Bronx between 2014 and 2022, according to city planning statistics.
Already, 23,000 people work within half a mile of the proposed Morris Park train station, accounting for 12% of all jobs in the borough, primarily in medical institutions like Montefiore, Jacobi Medical Center, Calvary Hospital and the Hutchinson Metro Center. The 10,000 new jobs will be in newly constructed office buildings, the city expects.
On one side of the station, Simone Development is working on expanding biotech at the Hutchinson Center.
On the other side, Montefiore expects to be a major player. It is already working on winning zoning approval for a new building, which will expand the emergency department and provide space for a sophisticated open heart and transplant surgeries center, just outside the area to be rezoned. It also has plans for a cancer center within the boundaries.
“We own a lot of land and want to create a wellness center,” said Diaz, who noted it could also give easy access to patients coming from the suburbs.
The development may also give a boost to the area, which is dominated by traditional mom-and-pop businesses. Once heavily Italian, the stores are now divided between Italian, Mideast and Hispanic owners. Rather than fear displacement, the businesses are enthusiastic about the plan, says Tepelus of the BID.
With the zoning speeding along, the biggest hurdle is likely to be whether developers believe it is economically feasible to build, said Ron Mandel, a partner focused primarily on New York City zoning issues at the real estate law firm Belkin Burden Goldman. He notes interest rates have soared and the lack of a tax break like the expired 421-a incentive will be problems.
“Sadly, the market is not as great as it was several years ago,” he said.
Others say that the plans are not geared toward most Bronx residents. Paul Lipson, a longtime staffer on development efforts in the borough and now a principal at the consulting firm Barretto Bay Strategies, wishes that Hunts Point had been included in the rezoning to broaden the types of jobs being created.
“A lot of those jobs are going to people with degrees,” he said. “It is wonderful for the Bronx, but those STEM jobs are not necessarily going to the people who need them the most.”