Phipps may demolish Bronx’s Lambert Houses

1,600 new apartments could replace affordable complex near Bronx Zoo

Lambert Houses Fipps Houses
The Lambert Houses in West Farms

Out with the old and dilapidated, and in with the new.

Nonprofit developer Phipps Houses is considering a plan to demolish its Lambert Houses complex in West Farms near the Bronx Zoo to make room for a 1,665-unit affordable housing project.

The new development would also include 61,100 square feet of retail and an elementary school for 500 students, DNAinfo reported.

The Lambert Houses is a set of five groups of six-story buildings, with 731 residential units and 40,000 square feet of retail.

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The complex has come in for criticism from the city’s Housing Preservation and Development.

“The existing buildings were constructed between 1970 and 1973 and have outdated building systems,” the agency wrote. “Furthermore, the configuration and circulation plan of the buildings, with multiple entrances and egresses, compromise building security by making control of access difficult.”

Work on the new project is slated to begin in 2017 and be completed by 2029.

Phipps, the largest non-profit affordable housing operator in the city, bought the 300,000-square-foot Blue Ridge Farms in Brooklyn earlier this year.  [DNAinfo]Ariel Stulberg