Chetrit rumbles in the Bronx with Mott Haven towers

The Chetrit Group and Somerset Partners filed plans for two 25-story apartment towers in the South Bronx, a project officials say could be the catalyst to a new wave of development in the booming borough.

The partners are looking to build the towers on two adjacent lots at 2401 Third Avenue and 101 Lincoln Avenue in the Mott Haven neighborhood, which they picked up over the winter. The Lincoln Avenue tower has a planned floor area of 784,000 square feet, including 33,000 square feet of commercial space, while the smaller tower at 2401 Third Avenue comes in at 345,000 square feet. The towers will feature 826 and 370 apartments, respectively. GHWA is the architect of record for both projects.

Chetrit and Somerset bought 101 Lincoln Avenue from carne company Gerosa Inc. for $32 million in December, and a month later dished out $26 million for 2401 Third Avenue.

“We are looking to acquire developments in this highly underutilized section of the Bronx and redevelop industrial buildings,” Somerset’s Keith Rubenstein told The Real Deal in January.

“Once the Somerset [Chetrit] project gets under way, I think you will see a total turnaround of this area,” Michael Brady, the director of special projects for the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp, told the Wall Street Journal in March. “I think you will find this area becomes Williamsburg meets Dumbo.”

The developments are a further sign that real estate investors are growing more interested in the Bronx amid ballooning land prices in Manhattan and Brooklyn. “If I had enormous amounts of cash to invest, I would pick up properties in Queens and the Bronx,” Forest City Ratner’s CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin said in May.