The Bronx shoreline along the Harlem River is poised to undergo a massive change within Community Board 7’s (CB7) borders if developers win approval for their projects. But the city has already said this will be a complicated process.

The area just south of the University Heights Bridge was bought for $31.5 million by Dynamic Star, a Connecticut-based developer headed by CEO Gary Segal.

Their goal is to invest $3.5 billion in 5 million square feet that will include 2,800 residential units, with 30 percent set aside as affordable. A 700,000 square-foot Life Science Center, esplanades, and a stadium for professional video gamers is also in the works.

The area north of the bridge is still being negotiated but presents more obstacles to development.  This section runs north to West 193rd Street where the Metro-North train tracks curve west to the Spuyten Duyvil station.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) also utilizes some of that space to get its equipment onto the Harlem River for bridgework.

“While the site seems underutilized, we have found that it’s pretty important for DOT to have a site where they can access the water,” said Shawn Brede, deputy director of the city Department of City Planning’s Bronx Borough Office.  “Aside from anything to do with land use or planning, this is just an incredibly complicated site.”

Although the project is in the early stages of being approved, John Snider, chairman of the CB7 Housing, Land Use & Zoning Committee is in no hurry to see it pushed through city agencies.  “This project is years away; years away.  I probably will not be on the board and maybe many of us won’t be on the board [when it’s completed],” Snider said.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.