Developers continue to break ground on new construction projects in the northwest Bronx at a furious pace. As the Norwood News reported last month, University Heights is in the midst of a building boom like it hasn’t seen in years. But the entire area, including Norwood and Bedford Park, are receiving an unusual amount of attention from developers.

 
The Bronx borough president’s office issued a record number of addresses for new projects in 2004, almost double the rate of 2003. All but 5 percent of the projects were for housing. As Assemblyman Jose Rivera quipped earlier this month, “Iraq has oil, the Bronx has housing development.”
 
While the construction is mostly housing of various types, two of the six developments profiled here include office space.
 
Housing—3121 Villa Ave.
Now a vacant parking lot, the corner of Villa Avenue and East 204th Street will be home to a 10-story apartment complex by 2006. The Van Zandt Agency acquired the large space for $725,000 last April, and construction on the tower should begin soon.
 
The 99 apartments will be geared toward middle-income renters. “The majority of them will be two-bedrooms with some ones and threes mixed in,” said Richard Rodriguez, the company’s vice president. The building will also include an 8,000-square-foot storefront property. Van Zandt hopes to house a medical facility there, but he has not yet identified a specific tenant.
 
Based in the Pelham Parkway area, the developers have built projects in that community and in Throgs Neck, but this is their first undertaking locally. Van Zandt has been in the construction business for four years.
 
Housing—3080 Villa Ave.
Wedged between other Villa Avenue homes, this slim eight-family building is nearly complete. Work should wrap up in the next month or two, according to a worker at the site last week. Each of the four stories contains two one-bedroom apartments, and small balconies face the street.
 
The property was formerly owned by the Assumption of St. Anthony Realty Corporation, which operated a social club and neighborhood patrol out of the building. Though defunct, the organization is still associated with Castaldo Play-ground, a boarded-up plot which community advocates have long wanted the city to turn into a playground.
 
Mustafaj Fatos, the current owner, acquired the lot from the city in 2003. A Villa Avenue resident, Fatos could not be reached for comment.
 
Housing—189 St. Georges Crescent
Three four-story rental buildings will rise on this little hook of a street lodged between Van Cortlandt Avenue East and East 206th Street. The exterior brick, a tawny color that matches the surrounding buildings, was completed as of last week. Begun last May, the project should be complete in April.
 
The 27 units are all two-bedrooms with one-and-half baths each. They will rent for between $1,250 and $1,300. Charles Celaj, the project’s owner, says he can hardly keep up with the interest. “Every day I get calls from people asking, ‘When, when can I get an application?’” he said.
 
Celaj said applications will be available by the end of the month for the development, which is his first.
 
Housing—3335 Hull Ave.
Bulldozers just began clearing this vacant lot on a dense stretch of Hull Avenue near East 209th Street for three eight-family buildings. The units will consist of one- and two-bedroom rentals ranging from $1,000 to $1,500, according to Carmine Della Cava, the owner. The four-story buildings will include air conditioning and a laundry facility.
The lot, which changed hands a few times before Cava acquired it, went for $615,000.  Cava hopes to finish the project in a year.
 
In the business for about 15 years, Cava says he’s completed many other projects in the Bronx. Cava Construction is based in Westchester.
 
Office Space—3199 Bainbridge Ave.
The steel beams rose last year on this professional office building, but work slowed as the project hit some serious snags. One of the few vacant sites remaining on the packed Bainbridge Avenue merchant strip, a house on the site was purchased by the Slingsby, Sanders, and Pagano law firm back in 1992. Their offices were in the house until several years ago when a fire gutted the structure. Near East 207th Street, the office building will rise four floors and include a basement space.
 
Chris Pagano did not have information on when the construction would conclude or how much the spaces will rent for.
 
The project has been plagued by violations, the most alarming of which occurred last fall when un-secured materials flew off the site and damaged property in the adjacent lot.  The developers had to stop work last September for failing to sufficiently safeguard the site for pedestrians, and they received multiple complaints for working during the weekends without a permit, according to city records.
 
Pagano said that the scaffolding problems were fixed. “It appears to me that everything has been secured,” he said. “What isn’t encased in cement is encased in a mesh netting that will prevent anything from falling.”
 
 
Office Space—301 E. Gun Hill Rd.
Work has just begun on this nine-story building, which will include offices and commercial space. On the corner of Perry Avenue, the complex will be home to Perry Realty Management, lawyers offices and a few other private businesses.
 
“I have a bunch of people who are interested,” said Luciano Victor, Perry’s president and the developer.
 
The site is zoned for a mixed-use building, which can include retail, offices and housing. Victor did not say whether the complex would also include apartments.
 
The site was acquired for $750,000, and it will house 29 units with parking in the basement. In his 24 years in the realty business, Victor says he’s previously completed construction projects in the south Bronx.