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A residential project that is on track to be one of the largest of 2023 is the latest sign of interest in a long-struggling stretch of the Bronx.
Mega Development, a low-key but prolific builder of affordable housing, is planning a 213-unit all-affordable apartment complex in East Tremont, a neighborhood near the rumbling Cross Bronx Expressway that appears to have struggled since around the time the borough's municipal offices left in the 1930s.
In October, Mega filed permits for the 14-story, 212,000-square-foot project that would rise from a mash of parking lots and commercial buildings, including 521 E. Tremont Ave., a three-story structure containing a pizzeria and shops.
As of late November, Mega had not yet filed demolition permits. But Department of Buildings records indicate the plan, which also features ground-floor retail space and a community facility, plus a design by high-end firm SLCE Architects, continues to wind its way through the approval process.
Emanuel Kokinakis, who handles development for the three-decade-old, Queens-based Mega, said he's "still uncertain about exact timing" and otherwise declined to comment on the project until it's further along.
Adding such a splashy new project to an area bedeviled in recent years by poverty, drugs and crime will likely not reverse its decline overnight. Indeed, the changes in East Tremont are gradual and have been playing out over years. But the fresh attention to a neighborhood that was once the beating heart of the Bronx's government and that later bustled with printing plants, lumber yards and machine shops is noteworthy.
That interest includes another bet by Mega in the form of the Wilfrid, a stylish all-affordable complex spanning an entire city block that opened in 2020. Similarly, developer Pistilli Management recently converted a portion of a prewar apartment building at East Tremont and Third avenues into offices in an apparent wager that an area next to a major highway has potential as a business district again. And Mastermind, a local firm owned by a family from Puerto Rico, continues to break ground on large-scale projects in the area.
Mega's latest plan stands out because development has been so sluggish in New York this year. The city will likely produce 10,000 units of new housing...