Albanese to Build Affordable Housing on New York Botanical Garden Lot
By Abigail Nehring August 19, 2024 5:27 pm
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The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) handed over a piece of land connected to its 250-acre Bronx campus to an affordable housing developer.
The Albanese Organization signed a 99-year ground lease for the 43,202-square-foot vacant parcel at the corner of Southern and Bedford Park boulevards in the Fordham neighborhood, according to property records made public Aug. 12. The Garden City, N.Y.-based developer will pay NYBG $15.2 million for the site and it plans to turn into an affordable housing project for seniors, according to an agreement.
Spokespeople for Albanese and NYBG did not respond to requests for comment. It’s unclear how many units are planned for the project, but the lot comes with up to 104,981 square feet of residential development rights, according to the city’s zoning documents.
The lot does not have an address but it’s located next to 2855 Southern Boulevard and is a block away from the Botanical Garden stop on the Metro-North Railroad’s Harlem line.
The Albanese family firm was founded in 1949 by brothers Vincent and Anthony Albanese; and their sons, Christopher and Russell Albanese, took it over 30 years ago, according to its website. Its portfolio includes residential and commercial buildings in New York City, New Jersey and Long Island.
It has also recently been casting around for residential development sites farther afield, and broke ground last year on a $200 million 400-unit housing project in Syracuse, N.Y., the Long Island Business News reported.
Albanese’s Bronx deal comes nine years after the NYBG acquired the vacant parcel from its next-door neighbor, Rosehill Housing Management, which manages a federally subsidized senior housing development at 2855 Southern Boulevard, for $417,000, according to property records. Rosehill also signed an easement with the NYBG at that same time to allow the developer to run utilities on the lot.
Cushman & Wakefield (CWK)’s Jonathan Squires, Frank Liantonio and Josh Neustadter arranged the deal for NYBG. A spokesperson for C&W did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 130-year-old botanical garden already handed over another piece of its property to Douglaston Development, which turned one site into a senior housing development at 2856 Webster Avenue and has a second similar project underway at 410 Bedford Park Boulevard, The Bronx Times reported.
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.
