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Potential Hotel Site on Webster Clarified

A developer is considering building a hotel on Webster Avenue near PS/MS 20, though not in the location previously reported in the Norwood News.

The News reported in the previous issue on rumors that Holiday Inn might be coming to a large open lot just above Mosholu Parkway on the west side of Webster Avenue. But the site in question is across the street, just up the way from PS/MS 20.

A Long Island-based developer purchased 3070 Webster Ave., a warehouse located between East 202nd and 203rd streets, last year for $550,000. The 5,500 square foot structure is in the process of being demolished. The company filed plans with the Buildings Department earlier this month to erect a 5-story hotel at the site with 1,224 square feet of parking space, which could be constructed underground.

The owner, Sam Chang, says he’s now not sure about the hotel plans. “The spot might be too small for one,” said Chang. “We don’t have a 100 percent idea yet.”

Chang owns a hotel in Long Island, and has also developed condos in Queens and Manhattan. He’s not considering housing for the lot because it’s commercially zoned.

The site is flanked by 1- and 2-story homes. Virginia Hekimian, who lives just south of it, thinks a hotel would be intrusive. “You can’t even put a pencil between [the lots],” said Hekimian, who has lived in the house all her life with her brother. “We don’t want this.”

The current permit does not specify the type of hotel it will be. Under city housing code, the development can be hotel, motel, lodging house or rooming house.

Hekimian received a letter last year about the proposed hotel, and has been worried about it since. She says demolition workers indicated it might become a rooming house.


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.

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