Two remote Brooklyn, Bronx spots ripe for development: study

A pair of long-overlooked spots in the far reaches of Brooklyn and the Bronx are ripe for development, according to two reports released Monday by the Urban Land Institute.

University Heights, a West Bronx neighborhood that borders the Harlem River, and Broadway Junction in Brooklyn’s East New York are longtime industrial enclaves that could support residential development, according to the reports, which were sponsored by the Department of City Planning and complimented two proposals for the areas released earlier this year.

While University Heights is largely cut off from the rest of the borough by Metro North railroad tracks and the Major Deegan Expressway, the report points to the waterfront access potential, location next to Metro North and MTA Select Bus Service stops as potential harbingers of residential success. Broadway Junction is similarly desolate, according to the report, but boasts a strong transportation network.

“Places like Broadway Junction were designed as transit hubs, but the idea of transit-oriented development only came afterward,” Janice Barnes, a principal at architecture firm Perkins + Will, told Crain’s.

Earlier this year, the de Blasio administration called for the closure of several roads in the Brooklyn neighborhood and consolidating land ownership to craft a more pedestrian-friendly environment and lure mixed-use tenants. Future development of Both Broadway Junction and University Heights would also help the administration meet its current affordable housing mandate, Felix Ciampa, executive director of Urban Land Institute New York, told Crain’s. [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland