Along the slopes of Waldo Avenue, where the clack of the No. 1 train ricochets through the streets of Riverdale, the boxy new Waterford condominium building stands on a lot that once held a century-old, single-family home.
The development symbolizes the change taking place along this bluff in the northwest corner of the Bronx, which feels like it’s a world away from the rest of the borough. The grand mansions in the Fieldston section seem to be transplanted from Scarsdale or Bronxville, and subscribers to the Sunday New York Times receive the Westchester section, not the City section, with their papers.
The building explosion in Riverdale is evident along the Henry Hudson Parkway, the neighborhood’s traffic artery. A hole in the ground along the thoroughfare’s service road portends the arrival of a gleaming new building. A McMansion under construction is covered with Tyvek, and the glass-sheathed tower where the New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter is rumored to have signed a contract to buy a place is almost complete.
East of the parkway, in an enclave known as South Riverdale, generic brick co-op buildings from the 1960s and single-family homes occupy the leafy streets. Near the core of the commercial section, which centers on Johnson and Riverdale avenues between 227th and 239th streets, construction projects are under way on what seems like every other corner.
“I’ve never seen this much happen so fast,” said Anthony Perez Cassino, chairman of Community Board 8. “Neighborhoods are changing before our eyes.”
In a land of co-ops and owner-occupied homes, around 400 new condo units are under construction, said Bradley Trebach, who has sold real estate in the neighborhood for over 20 years. Though some brokers in the Bronx see a cooling market (see The Real Deal’s May issue, Advantage tilting to outer-borough buyers), he foresees a healthy market for the immediate future.
“The current purchasing market is robust, but only time will tell whether or not the boom is sustainable,” Trebach said.
For a long time, homes sold on a generational cycle, with people holding on to property for a long time, but that pace is being accelerated, said Trebach.
One symbol of the neighborhood’s transformation is the opening of a branch of Halstead Property along Johnson Avenue last October. On a recent weekend afternoon, dozens of people pressed their noses to the glass facade to gaze at the offerings.
Buyers include not just Manhattanites seeking bargains, but displaced Brooklynites, people from Westchester looking to cut their commute and out-of-towners seeking a toehold in the city, said sales director Vasco Da Silva.
“With taxes in Westchester skyrocketing, Riverdale is poised for long-term growth,” said Da Silva.
The current spate of development has come at a literal and figurative price. A buying spree by a developer along Tulfan Terrace pitted neighbor against neighbor and turned old friends into bitter enemies. The tall, 36-unit condominium currently under construction obliterated all of the single-family homes along one half of the dead-end block and remains an open wound.
Challenging the power of the real estate interests, many residents embarked on a crusade to rezone a large swath of South Riverdale, which went into effect last year. The rezoning includes the area east of the parkway and the rambling hills west of the thoroughfare, which features narrow roads and big homesteads. In April, a large portion of the Fieldston section received landmark status, which will protect exteriors from radical alteration.
“We’re trying to bring some reason to the development; we don’t want to look like Manhattan,” said Cassino. “For years, the developers claimed there was no more land to build on and they threw the kitchen sink at us. Now look what’s happening.”
The lull in tensions may be only temporary, since some developers argue that new regulations actually encourage more building in a less aesthetically pleasing style.
“The rezoning wasn’t done in a way that reduces development, it’s actually going to increase it,” said Bill Friedlich, owner of Hudson View Construction, who is involved with several projects. “The discussion in the press got a lot of people to look at Riverdale as a place to develop.”
The new zoning instituted a height limit, which Friedlich argues will inspire wider and shorter buildings that fill up lots.
East of the parkway, “it will create a wall of buildings that won’t be aesthetically ideal,” he acknowledged. To the west, it will foster the spread of McMansions, like the $5.6 million, 24,000-square-foot behemoth known as the “pink house” that he is building.
Community Board 8’s Cassino said enough unattractive new buildings could eventually contribute to a drop in property values. “If developers want to wring every last nickel and dime out of their projects and cover every foot of a lot with an ugly building, we’ll see if they get $1 million for an apartment,” he said.
Though South Riverdale’s residential stock has become more upscale, the enclave’s retail centers along Johnson and Riverdale avenues remain frayed, dominated by stores that have been around for years.
A planned commercial complex at 230th Street and Broadway, located in nearby Kingsbridge, is to include a multiple screen cinema, a national bookstore chain and a Whole Foods. Yet the location is relatively far from South Riverdale, said Friedlich, where most new stores replicate the same pattern. “Every time there’s a vacancy at a prime corner lot, a bank pops up,” he said. “There are more than enough banks. We really need a Starbucks.”