The development team and agency officials break ground on Compass Six in West Farms. Image Credit: NYC HPD
The new affordable housing development will house 261 low-income and formerly homeless families. On March 19, 2021, Mayor de Blasio and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced the groundbreaking of a new affordable housing building in the West Farms section of the Bronx. The building, named Compass Six, is located at 1923 West Farms Road. Compass Six is part of the Compass Resident Development, which will consist of eight buildings and be one of the largest-scale affordable housing developments in the area once completed. The groundbreaking of Compass Six marks the beginning of the final phase of development for the Compass Residence project.
The building will have sixteen floors and contains 261 units for low-income families. Half of the homes will be reserved for families earning less than $52,000. Thirty-nine homes will be reserved for formerly homeless families. Once the full development of eight buildings is completed, the full facility will have 1,400 affordable units for families, and nearly 300 units across will be set aside for formerly homeless families.
The development is within the historic industrial district of the Bronx. Before being converted to a development for affordable housing, the location was a marble factory warehouse. The location is within walking distance of both subway trains and the MTA bus routes. The neighborhood is also home to multiple schools, restaurants, retail locations, and supermarkets.
The development will include a public school and will connect to Starlight Park. The site will also have access to the Bronx River. Additional space has been allocated for essential businesses like after-school programs, offices, an urgent care facility, a community space, and 71 parking spaces.
The development began ten years ago in 2011 when Crotona Park East and West Farms underwent rezoning to allow for new construction. The rezoning has led to older buildings being reconstructed into new living and recreational spaces. The Compass Six development project will have generated over 2,000 new jobs in the Bronx by its completion. The development is committed to 25 percent Minority/Women-owned Business Enterprise participation. The development is also working with the City’s HireNYC initiative to support employment opportunities for local and low-income New York Citizens.
The Compass Six project is projected to be completed by 2024.
Mayor Bill de Blasio stated, “Building a recovery for all of us means ensuring every New Yorker has fair access to affordable housing. This project will deliver opportunity to a proud neighborhood that has been hit hard by COVID-19, and help West Farms chart a path forward for its recovery. With a new school, space for small businesses, public recreation space, and easy access to health care, the Compass Residences will transform and revitalize the heart of the Bronx.”
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Louise Carroll stated, “Today marks a significant milestone as we begin construction of the final phase of the Compass Residences development, a transformational project that is bringing 1,400 deeply affordable homes to the Crotona and West Farms neighborhoods in the Bronx. A decade in the making, Compass Residences is not just providing housing, its building a community, with a school, vibrant retail spaces, an urgent care facility, and public recreational space that will benefit a neighborhood particularly devastated by the pandemic.”
Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Jr. stated, “Once home to numerous factories and industrial buildings and cut off from the waterfront because of the Sheridan Parkway, the area has been thriving thanks to pro-community development and significant infrastructure projects to convert the parkway to a more pedestrian-friendly boulevard. A huge factor in the area’s overhaul has been the Compass Residences.”
By: Patrick McNeill (Patrick is the CityLaw intern and a New York Law School student, Class of 2022.)