Krinos products

Another food business is moving to the Bronx, as the city continues to try to steer the industry to the borough in an effort to spark its flailing economy. Mediterranean food importer Krinos Foods, previously based out of Long Island City, has struck a deal to develop a $20 million, 100,000-square-foot facility on city-owned land in the Tremont section of the Bronx.

Krinos purchased the site for $3.5 million and will bring its 85 employees to the Bronx. The company has not received any government subsidies for its move. [more]

Hunts Point Market

Hunts Point Produce Market is again threatening to move to New Jersey. Despite having secured a $172.5 million incentive package from the city, the market said it would allow the exclusive negotiating window with the city to expire, the New York Times reported.

The market and the city were believed to be on the verge of finalizing an agreement to keep the market, which generates $2.3 billion in sales annually and employs more than 3,500 people, in the Bronx, where it has been located since 1967. But the market cooperative and the city can’t agree on the role of the Business Integrity Commission, an agency charged with preventing organized crime in carting. [more]

Rendering of Young Woo’s Mercado Mirabo

With so much public support, the Kingsbridge Armory ice rink plan may appear to be a done deal — but not so fast, said Young Woo’s development firm, which is behind a competing proposal.

“The public endorsement is early,” Greg Carney, a partner at Young Woo and Associates, told the Bronx Times. The firm wants to bring Mercado Mirabo (“a market you can see”) to the site, which would include space for a food court, a movie theater, a rock climbing wall, a sports arena, a hip hop museum and weekend markets. Woo said the project would create 1,500 Bronx jobs, including 800 permanent ones. [more]

From left: Bob Knakal and 385 Gerard Avenue (credit: PropertyShark)

California-based Public Storage is purchasing a 410,000-square-foot building in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx for roughly $30 million, the New York Observer reported, but couldn’t immediately confirm. The property is located at 385 Gerard Avenue. This will be Public Storage’s third location in the Bronx. Massey Knakal’s Bob Knakal led a team to represent the property’s seller, R Squared LLC. [more]

From left: Ruben Diaz Jr., Marlene Cintron and a rendering of the Kingsbridge Armory ice center

Bronx officials, led by Borough President Ruben Diaz, have come out in support of the proposal to turn the 575,000-square-foot Kingsbridge Armory into an ice skating center rather than a competing bid, by developer Young Woo, that envisions a shopping and food complex similar to the Dekalb Market he conceived or the Chelsea Market. According to the Wall Street Journal, their support was swayed by two factors that extend far beyond the success of the armory. [more]

Rendering of the Atrium at the Hutchinson Metro Center

Simone Development is bringing a much-needed hotel to the East Bronx. The New York Daily News reported that the developer plans a seven-story hotel on the upper floors of a new, 300,000-square-foot building planned for the 42-acre Hutchinson Metro Center, located off the Hutchinson River Parkway between the Pelham Bay and Morris Park neighborhoods. The hotel will be flagged by Marriott’s Residence Inn extended-stay brand and will feature 125 rooms. [more]

From left: Gifford Miller and a rendering of West Farms

The massive West Farms development being led by former City Council Speaker Gifford Miller secured more funding this month, paving the way for construction to start on the first phase of the project by early next year. The New York Times reported that Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. allocated $1.2 million in funding, and City Council member Joel Rivera’s office contributed $1.3 million more on top of financing already secured from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. [more]

2785-2791 Sedgewick Avenue

Scarsdale, N.Y.-based landlord Steve Finkelstein has made significant improvements to the dilapidated portfolio of Bronx apartments he bought last year from Milbank Real Estate, Crain’s reported, but he’s also taken on increased debt in a move reminiscent of that which caused the downfall of Milbank — and their units — in the first place.

The Finkelstein Timberger Real Estate head said he has spent $10 million to improve the nine Kingsbridge buildings and cut building violations by 80 percent. He said he expects a further reduction upon the Department of Building’s next inspection. [more]

Whitestone Multiplex Cinemas

The Lightstone Group is looking to bring New York City its first outlet mall. Crain’s reported that the developer has met with Bronx officials to talk about the specifics of an outlet mall at the Whitestone Multiplex Cinema site in Castle Hill, which Lightstone purchased for $30 million two months ago.

Though Lightstone did not confirm its plans to Crain’s, only saying the cinema would continue to operate until plans are finalized, Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. President Marlene Cintron said Lightstone acquired the property, at 2505 Bruckner Boulevard, in hopes of “turning it into a Woodbury Commons-type outlet mall.” [more]

Brooklyn Grange's rooftop farm in LIC

Rooftop farms have been sprouting across the five boroughs, led most recently by a city-issued request for proposals for possibly the world’s largest in Hunts Point, and according to the New York Times, New York City is now a leader in the field. And because the Department of City Planning eased zoning regulations to encourage rooftop greenhouses and farms, the city could continue to pull away from the pack. [more]