1314 Seneca Avenue and Michael Shah (credit: PropertyShark)

DelShah Capital has sold the last of its Bronx properties, this time selling a six-story apartment building in Hunts Point for $6.9 million, according to records filed with the city today. [more]

The Bronx

Institutional investors busied themselves buying up Bronx investment properties in 2012 as they looked for places to park their capital, according to a report by Ariel Property Advisors released today. The number of investment properties sold in the borough jumped 46 percent compared to the prior year, while the dollar volume of those deals shot up by 63 percent, the report shows. There were a total of 220 commercial real estate transactions totaling $1.28 billion, compared to 147 transactions totaling $613 million in 2011. Thirty-seven of the year’s transactions were priced at more than $10 million…. [more]

Simone’s Joseph Deglomini Jr., Joseph Simone and Joseph Kelleher.

From the December issue: In the Bronx — where interest in development is meager when compared with Manhattan and Brooklyn — one company has repeatedly wagered its capital and has become what many sources say is the borough’s most dominant developer.

Simone Development Companies owns more than 100 commercial properties, many of which are in the Bronx. In the past five years, its portfolio has expanded by 1 million square feet. The firm is currently knee-deep in several of the largest development projects underway in the Bronx. [more]

Rendering of the Atrium at the Hutchinson Metro Center

Simone Development, the developer of a new luxury hotel at Metro Center Atrium in the Bronx, has inked a lease for 43,000 square feet in the building to L.A. Fitness, Crain’s reported.

The Marriott Residence Inn-operated hotel and the surrounding 42-acre Hutchinson Metro Center commercial campus development is expected to draw large numbers of workers to the area, which attracted the tenant, according to Simone. Currently almost 4,000 people work within the new development and another 800 are expected to arrive once a new New York City 911 call center is complete nearby. [more]

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]

From left: Karl Brumback of Massey Knakal, and Shimon Shkury of Ariel Property Advisors and Neil Dolgin of Kalmon Dolgin

From the July issue: It’s been a long time since the Bronx was actually burning. But these days, parts of the long-blighted borough are catching fire — or at least producing sparks — with real estate investors. The market is still not back to its pre-recession levels, and sources say investments in the borough are far riskier than they are in other parts of the city. But brokers and developers interviewed for The Real Deal’s Q&A this month said that development, especially on the large-scale retail front, is on the rise. [more]

Rendering of the Hub shopping district (credit: WSJ)

Triangle Equities and the city are in dispute over a $35 million development in the South Bronx. That is delaying plans for the project and potentially threatening its future, the New York Daily News reported. The project encompasses the development of two buildings in the Hub shopping district. The structures will house retail, office space, a school and a supermarket atop two city-owned plots of land. [more]

From left: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Jonathan Rose and Via Verde

Via Verde, a green affordable housing complex in the Melrose Section of the South Bronx, officially opened its doors today — and Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan were there to celebrate.

The 222-unit rental and co-op building — developed by Phipps Houses and Jonathan Rose Companies and designed by Dattner Architects and Grimshaw Architects — was the winning proposal of the city’s first juried design competition for affordable and sustainable housing, according to a press release issued today by the Mayor’s office. [more]

Following the trend of Fresh Direct, an online children’s clothing purveyor is asking the city to provide $3.4 million in subsidies for it to move to and expand its business in the Bronx, the New York Daily News reported.

CookiesKids.com said their planned move would create 34 jobs and provide $9 million in city tax revenue over 25 years. By CookiesKids’ own admission, however, all of those jobs pay minimum wage. [more]

1880 Bartow Avenue in the Bronx

The largest property sale in the Bronx since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holding Company has closed, according to records filed with the city last week. The property, a storage facility at 1880 Bartow Avenue in the Baychester section of the Bronx, sold for $59.27 million, the records show. [more]