Simone scraps Bronx hospital plans, will build apartments instead

Simone Healthcare Development is looking to construct a 14-story luxury apartment building in the Bronx’s Riverdale neighborhood after plans for an 11-story, 93,000-square-foot medical center on the site fell through.

Montefiore Medical Center leases from Simone, a Bronx-based firm that designs, builds and finances health care facilities, Crain’s reported. Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who led the opposition, announced that hospital officials had abandoned the project along Riverdale and Oxford avenues.

Construction was expected to begin in 2013 despite widespread disapproval from residents.

Instead, the 48-unit project will proceed. The property will hold a two-story, 48-space parking garage at the base. The site is on a hill, so part of the building will rise only 12 stories.

There will be a mix of one- and two-bedroom units. Newman Design will serve as the architect.

“We will build at a quality that is condominium-appropriate, and the market will tell us whether the units will be for rent or sold,” Guy Leibler, president at Simone, told the publication. [Crain’s] — Mark Maurer