The Gateway Center, a one million-square-foot LEED silver certified retail mall in the Bronx, has officially opened, according to the New York Post’s Lois Weiss. The mall, built on the site of the former Bronx Terminal Market in the South Bronx, is 90 percent leased and 80 percent open and includes a BJ’s wholesale club, Target, and Marshall’s. Developer Glenn Goldstein, president of Related Retail, said he hopes to keep some of the stores open as late as 11 p.m.

Developers began construction today on an affordable housing community that will house thousands of South Bronx residents. The project will include eight new buildings containing a total of 640 units on Eagle Avenue and 156th Street in the Melrose neighborhood. Jackson Development Group and Joy Construction expect to complete the first phase of construction, six buildings costing approximately $169 million, in about two years. The project has been in the works for around three years, in a neighborhood that “desperately needs new opportunities for housing and development,” said Community Board 1 District Manager Cedric Loftin. Residents’ income will determine eligibility and qualifying families will be selected through a lottery.

From the June issue: Having transformed from blighted neighborhood to artists’ enclave,
Hunts Point in the South Bronx was poised to take the typical
four-decade route to gentrification that culminates in wine bars, Whole
Foods and an Apple store. But these are not typical times, as one
developer there has discovered. Taconic Investment Partners bought the
fortress-like American BankNote Building, a landmarked
400,000-square-foot, three-building commercial complex in Hunts Point,
for $35 million at the end of 2007, “in the good old days,” said
Taconic partner Douglas Winshall. [more]