The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is slated to construct two residential buildings totaling more than 400 units along a property it owns Webster Avenue in Bedford Park, advancing an interest in development that harkens back to nearly a decade when community advocates joined city leaders in rezoning Webster Avenue to welcome such development projects.

Ahead of a Community Board 7 Housing/Land Use and Economic Development Committee meeting tonight, NYBG approached community stakeholders regarding the two projects—a senior home and an affordable housing development. It’s tapped Douglaston Development to spearhead the projects after entering into a 99-year lease. Financial details between the two sides were not disclosed. Douglaston Development expects to apply for tax credits with the New York City Housing Preservation and Development agency (HPD).

The deal represents a first for NYBG, which has never entered into the residential housing market in its 129-year history as a Bronx institution.

The project appears to be a long time coming for NYBG, which, along with Montefiore Health System, Fordham University, and the Bronx Zoo, was at the table during discussions for the large-scale rezoning along 88 blocks of Webster Avenue that went into effect in 2011, encouraging a mix of residential and commercial spaces, with a litany of incentives to encourage the development of affordable housing and storefront space. Community Board 7 had approved the plan, followed by Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., the City Planning Commission, and finally the New York City Council.

Prior to that, the strip had been a bastion for automotive companies. NYBG had initially proposed a hotel project in March 2016, but those proposals fell through. Aaron Bouska, NYBG’s vice president for community and government relations, said the new projects “fits a community need.”

“There wasn’t anybody that had a reasonable model for doing a hotel business there,” Bouska said. “We kept hearing from elected officials—Council Member [Ritche] Torres and others—about the need for senior affordable housing. And it’s just a great match. There’s such a need for in New York City for affordable senior housing.”

The news comes amid a building boom along Webster Avenue as a result of the rezoning, where at least five buildings have opened or are in the midst of construction over the last five years, coinciding with other large-scale projects built in Bedford Park and Norwood.

The two new NYBG-led projects will be built in stages, with the affordable senior home expected to be built at 2856 Webster Ave. sometime this year. NYBG and Douglaston Development estimates that 187 units of senior housing—151 studios and 36 one-bedroom apartments—will be built for residents with a maximum yearly income of $37,750, translating to an area median income level of 50 percent. On-site services will be provided to seniors, with Douglaston Development not having to go far in finding a provider in Fordham Bedford Community Services, which oversees the massive Serviam Gardens senior complex.

The senior residence will adjoin the affordable housing project at 410 Bedford Park Blvd., which is expected to be built soon after the senior residence opens. Some 250 units—31 studios, 90 one-bedroom, 118 two-bedroom, and 21 three-bedroom units—are expected to be built, with two-dozen of those units marked for formerly homeless families, according to the term sheet distributed by CB7. Douglaston Development seeks to apply for tax credits through HPD’s Mix & Match Program that calls for nearly half the affordable units to be built for those earning a maximum yearly income of $84,540 for a family of eight. The latter project is currently the site of the Cherry Valley supermarket, a 20,000-square-foot market, and one of the few shops in the area.

NYBG’s 2016 proposal for a hotel would have resulted in the supermarket’s temporary closure during construction. This time, that won’t be the case.

“The first phase…they will continue to be in operations in their old store…while we’re in construction for the new construction, and when that store is ready they’re going to build it out and move in and they’re going to be operating at about 12,000 square feet,” Russell Lang, senior vice president for Douglaston Development. “But when we build the second phase, then they’re going to expand to 8,000 square feet more so then they’ll have the full 20,000 square feet. In the interim, there will be a little bit of time when they’ll be operating with a little less, but they’ve kind of made accommodations to do that.”

The nearest supermarket is the Met Food supermarket on East 198th Street and Bainbridge Avenue and a Fine Fare supermarket at 2645 Webster Ave., both at half a mile.

Lang noted that Douglaston plans to extend long-term leases to Cherry Valley.

The size of each building is estimated at 12 stories to accommodate for the supermarket, which would be attached to both buildings. The zoning laws approved for Webster Avenue in 2011 allow for buildings as high as 11 stories, but Lang pointed to the city Department of City Planning’s (DCP) Food Retail Expansion to Support Health Program (FRESH), which allows for an extra floor in mixed-income housing developments so long as the ground floor is reserved for a supermarket.

Lang and Bouska are expected to appear at CB7’s committee meeting tonight to ask for a letter of support that it can present to DCP.

The news is certainly a long time coming for NYBG, long enough that many of the members and community stakeholders that once helped usher in the existing zoning laws are no longer part of the conversation, negating some context over the kind of support CB7 and community stakeholders had given the zoning at the time.

Since the rezoning, much of the vision that was drafted by community stakeholders hasn’t quite come to fruition as the prospect of bookstores and cafes—requests made by CB7 and residents at the time—have remained on the backburner.

These days, the belief that Webster Avenue will be overburdened has taken shape, spurring questions over whether city officials are even contemplating more city services in the way of extra police officers or another school to handle an influx of new residents

Asked whether it’s taking in these considerations in the case of NYBG, Bouska and Lang referred those questions to DCP.

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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.