Two become one: Combined Mott Haven dev sites could bring 600K sf resi project

Pantheon Properties and Borden Realty have joined together to sell adjacent development sites in the South Bronx, The Real Deal has learned.

Pantheon previously put 399 Exterior Street, a former bus depot on the Harlem River, on the market, after the city moved to take part of it for a public park through eminent domain. The adjacent lot at 355 Exterior Street belongs to Borden and is similar in size.

The sites, which one source estimated might fetch in the neighborhood of $70 million, measure approximately 120,000 square feet in floor area and could give way to 600,000 square feet of residential development under current zoning regulations.

Ackman Ziff Real Estate brokers Marion Jones, Jason Meister and Chris Gillis are marketing the property. The group says the combined Exterior Street lots are the biggest New York City development site currently on the market, and with 725 feet of frontage on the Harlem River, have even more water frontage the Brookfield Properties’ nearby site at 2401 Third Avenue.

The Exterior Street site is also included in one of the new tax code’s “opportunity zones,” which could allow a potential investor to defer taxes on profits made from development for up to a decade.

“There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity zone fund money chasing scale,” Meister said. “This is a behemoth.”