NEW YORK, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2025

About Real Estate

Comeback for Ambitious Bronx Project

    They were to have been the start of a sprawling middle-income condominium colony along the shore of the Bronx, but the 172 units overlooking the East River wound up as a sobering symbol of the deflated building boom of the mid-80's. Now, however, the project is making a comeback.

    Construction halted four years ago at the project in the borough's Clason's Point and Castle Hill sections, which had been home since early in the century to neighboring beach clubs. The project was to have included 1,609 units on two waterfront parcels.

    The first units, 148 of them sold and occupied, sit on 55 acres at White Plains Road and Sound View Avenue on a site once occupied by the Shorehaven Beach Club. The rest of the site, where 1,011 more units were proposed, is rundown and vacant, except for 86 foundations and abandoned cars.

    The same is true for the 22.5-acre site formerly occupied by the Castle Hill Beach Club a quarter of a mile away at Castle Hill Ave and Barrett Avenue, where 426 units were to have risen. The plan was to link the tracts by a public riverfront promenade, creating a $200 million-plus project in an area where modest houses fill neighboring streets.

    The unfinished project, which was to have included retail strips, parks and day-care and community centers at each site is being revived by the bank that holds the mortgage. In June, River Bank America, based in New Rochelle, took back the project from the original developers, who included William Zeckendorf Jr., Arthur G. Cohen, Daniel Z. Nelson and (the principals of World-Wide Holdings, an automobile dealership, Victor Elmaleh and Frank Stanton.

    At the same time the bank which holds a $30 million mortgage on both sites, designated the local Procida Organization Inc., to move the project forward in stages. The company, which has managed the day-to-day operations of the sites since spring 1993, is focusing first on completing the 110 units in the initial phase and selling the first 24 at lower prices-and with attractive financing. Prices are to be raised for the next 86 units.

    "We have the ability to develop it out, maximize its value and recoup our investment," said Douglas Benach, River Bank's chief operating officer.

    Taking back problem properties, rather than selling them at a loss, industry experts say, is common among larger lenders. "In a recovering market," said Peter Hauspurg, president of Eastern Consolidated Properties Inc., a Manhattan real estate investment-banking firm, "stepping into a project may be the best way for them to get out."

    William Procida, co-president of the Procida Organization, added: "With so large an amount of waterfront land and a niche in that market for moderately priced homes that has not been filled, the project was, and can still be, a home run."

    It is the largest planned in the area covered by Community Board 9, which has 165,000 lower- and middle-income residents in five square miles.

    Before taking over the project, the bank worked out an agreement with homeowners to complete paving at the site's entrance, among other things. Once the bank has gotten certificates of occupancy for the existing units, the way will be cleared for applications to be filed for homeowners to receive tax abatements under the city's Section 421A program, an incentive for new construction outside of central Manhattan.

    Still, skepticism remains. "Sure, we would like to see the project become what it was envisioned to be," said Stephen Tyler, a four-year resident and president of the Shorehaven Condominium Association. "We recognize the bank is not responsible for what happened in the past, but we are taking a wait-and-see attitude about the future."

    The Procida Organization has completed the 24 unoccupied units at the Shorehaven site and put them on the market last Saturday. The one- to three-bedroom factory-built units range from 1,050 to 1,350 square feet and cost $109,000 to $135,000, about $30,000 to $40,000 less than originally. The complex has 24-hour security.

    The bank will offer buyers of those 24 homes zero-point mortgages at an interest rate below market with a low down payment and ' a $2,000 credit toward closing costs. Monthly maintenance fees are $170 to $341, including water and sewer charges.

    Once those units are sold, the Procida Organization will build on speculation 30 of the final 86 phase-one units, Mr. Procida said, with construction of the rest tied to sales. Prices will be $150,000 10 $190,000.