111 Willow Ave Rendering. Image Credit: CPC

New industrial modern loft building for Bronx area scarce with residential options. On March 14, 2018, the City Planning Commission held a hearing on the Willow Avenue Rezoning application. The applicant, Markland 745 LLC, seeks to develop a mixed-use, mostly residential building on Willow Avenue between East 133rd and East 134th Street in the Port Morris section of the Bronx. The property is currently occupied by a three-story commercial office building and a single-story warehouse. The current buildings will be demolished to make way for the new development. The application includes a rezoning from a manufacturing district to a mixed residential, manufacturing, and commercial district zone and mapping of a mandatory inclusionary housing (MIH) area for the property.

The new mixed-use building will be eight-stories, including a surface parking area for 26 cars. The first floor will be for commercial use. The building will contain a green roof with live vegetation, solar panels, and seating area open to the building’s residents. The building’s design will model an industrial modern loft style that will blend in with the surrounding community’s low and mid-rise industrial buildings.

The rest of the floors will contain 126 apartments from studios to three-bedroom units. The mapping of the MIH will include the selection of option number one requiring that a minimum 25% comply with the affordable housing regulations. The affordability of these units includes 30-50% of Area Median Income (AMI) for 30 units, which averages out for a family of three to $34,360, 60-80% AMI for 48 units which averages out for a family of three to $60,130, and 110-120% of AMI for 37 units, which averages out for a family of three to $98,785. Forty percent of the total number of units will remain affordable in perpetuity.

The applicant is currently working with Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Jr. to provide even greater levels of affordability than required under the MIH program.

CPC: Willow Avenue Rezoning (C 180088 ZMX, N 180089 ZRX).

By: Dorichel Rodriguez (Dorichel is the CityLaw Fellow and a New York Law School Graduate, Class of 2017.)