Southern Bronx’s Luxury Property Influx Threatens A Tight-Knit Community
A subway train pulls into 161st Street station in the New York borough of The Bronx © Bloomberg
Financial Times
By: David Kaufman
Back in 2015, author and journalist Chike Frankie Edozien was looking to move from a Brooklyn rental to a permanent home that he and his partner could own. “We both have large families and needed a place with room for everyone,” says Edozien. After searching through the more affordable fringes of Brooklyn and Manhattan, Edozien turned to The Bronx.
Although New York City’s northernmost borough hadn’t initially been on his radar, Edozien was able to find a home that met both his “wish list” and budget. “I wanted proximity to a park, easy access to a library and a nearby subway station,” he says. Nearly three years after beginning his search, Edozien closed on a three-bedroom duplex house close to St Mary’s Park priced, he says, between $500,000 and $600,000.
Best known for landmarks such as Yankee Stadium and the Art Deco-rich Grand Concourse, the southern Bronx has recently emerged as the busiest new building site in New York City. Along its Harlem River shoreline — directly across from Harlem itself — thousands of new homes are coming to market aimed at the affluent professionals typically found in Manhattan or Brooklyn.
