Construction set to begin on Fordham Landing by end of the year

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS—Fordham Landing, the mega development along the Harlem River in The Bronx, that was first proposed four years ago in 2019 by developer Dynamic Star, is nearing ground-breaking for construction of phase 1 of the development.

The development site, which is located along the Harlem River, is located directly south of the University Heights Bridge and Fordham Road and is bound to the east and west by the Major Deegan Expressway and the Harlem River and Roberto Clemente directly to the south.

The first phase is slated to have a 290,000 square foot community facility as well as 505 units of affordable and market-rate residential housing. As part of this phase, a new, 3,000 square foot entrance to the University Heights Metro North Station will be constructed and located within the community facility building.

The waterfront will also be developed to provide public accesss and once all phases of the development are completed, it will include a waterfront promenade that will connect with the Bronx Harlem River Greenway connecting Van Cortlandt Park to Randall’s Island along a 7-mile waterfront route.

Originally, when the development was first announced four years ago, Fordham Landing was proposed to be a massive 5 million square foot, 2,800 residential unit development along with a life science center and even a hotel and a conference center spread across the entire development site, which actually begins just south of the Shops at Marble Hill and south to the University Heights Bridge, and had an estimated price tag of $3.5 billion dollars and would have made it the largest development in New York City since Hudson Yards.

However, since then, the proposal appears to have been changed a bit and the developer will first focus on phase one since that lot will not require rezoning.

In a statement to Welcome2TheBronx by Dynamic Star, the site north of the bridge will require rezoning and the company stated that, “…this property requires zoning changes and the program will be determined in close collaboration with the New York City Department of City Planning, the local community, and local elected officials.”

Meanwhile, there are concerns of how such a development can speed up gentrification in the area which already has one of the highest rates of rent burdened residents paying over 30% of their income towards rent.

Welcome2TheBronx hasn’t received word yet on exactly how affordable the units that will be set aside in phase one will be.

Construction is slated to begin by the end of the year and anticipated completion date some time in 2025.