City files for 300 affordable units in South Bronx’s Melrose Commons

12-story property is the latest leg of long-term, 30-block redevelopment project

<em>443 East 162nd Street in the Bronx (inset: Les Bluestone)</em>
443 East 162nd Street in the Bronx (inset: Les Bluestone)

The city is looking to build a 12-story, mixed-use building as part of its massive Melrose Commons Urban Renewal project in the southwest Bronx.

The project’s developer, Les Bluestone’s Midtown East-based Blue Sea Development Corp., plans to build a roughly 340,700-square-foot building at a city-owned site at 443 East 162nd Street, according to a permit application filed on Monday. The building will consist of 303 affordable housing units across 301,730 square feet of space, along with 25,640 square feet for commercial and 13,300 square feet of community space.

Amenities include a fitness room on the ground floor and an outdoor recreation area on the eighth and 11th floors.

The architect of record, David Danois of Danois Architects, referred questions to Bluestone, who was not immediately available for comment.

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The project is part of the New York City Housing Preservation and Development’s Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan efforts, an ongoing redevelopment project of 30 blocks near Melrose Avenue and East 161st Street.

The Bluestone site — bounded by 162nd Street, Brook Avenue, Elton Avenue, 163rd Street and Melrose Avenue — is located on one of three development sites that had been pegged by the city in the northern-most section of Melrose as ripe for new residential, retail and community space. It’s the last large city-owned site to be developed in the area. More details on the development — in terms of the levels of affordability and the sizes of apartments — are expected to be released in June.