Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

February 3, 2016

Bronx Rail Yards Could Become a $500M Mega-Development

Back in September, Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr. put forth a plan to transform an abandoned stretch of rail tracks in Mott Haven into a Lowline-style park. There hasn't been much in the way of updates since then, but now Diaz is turning his sights to another set of tracks, this one much larger and in the northwest Bronx. The Real Deal cites findings from the borough prez that claim the MTA's Concourse Yards, a 19-acre open-air subway depot, could be decked over to yield two million square feet of development rights, resulting in a mega-project like Hudson Yards. At an estimated cost of $350-$500 million (Hudson Yards cost $800 million by comparison), the project would require no rezoning and would be "a real opportunity to not only provide much-needed homeownership, mixed-income housing and retail space, but to allow Lehman College to expand by better connecting it to the Bedford Park neighborhood and making it a true community campus," according to Diaz's report.
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January 17, 2016

A New York Minute With Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

6sqft's new series A New York Minute features influential New Yorkers answering spitfire (and sometimes very random) questions about their life in the big city. Want to nominate yourself or someone you know? Get in touch! With the somewhat-recent arrivals of The Bronx Brewery and Trump Gold Links at Ferry Point, as well as talks of a Lowline-style park and bringing back streetcars, it's no wonder Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. has described the borough as "The New Bronx." Though BP Diaz has only held his position for about seven years, he's a lifelong Bronxite, and he's taken some time out of his busy schedule to chat with 6sqft about what his life has been like in the Boogie Down.
BP Diaz's NY minute this way