New Rochelle”™s poorest, most ethnic neighborhood may get an opportunity to capitalize on its hidden strengths, and on one rather obvious one, to overcome a constrained cityscape that has stymied development.
The shift is being spurred by a plan to build an apartment building on Union Avenue in the West End. Before that can happen, the city must amend the zoning code to allow higher, mixed-use buildings.
At first glance, the neighborhood does not look like a promising place for developers.
“It”™s a working-class, blue-collar neighborhood,” said Louis Trangucci, the council member who represents the district.
Historically, the West End is the city”™s ethnic gateway. Immigrants start out there, and as they prosper many of them move on to nicer places. It was settled first by Germans, then Italians and more recently Hispanics and Latinos.
More than half of the West End residents were Hispanic or Latino in the 2010 census. Two-thirds of the residents speak a language other than English at home, according to a 2011 neighborhood assessment prepared for the city.
The West End is the city”™s most densely populated neighborhood. It has the highest concentration of low-income households. Per-capita income is around $20,500, versus $40,810 citywide.
The land is jammed with multifamily housing, mostly in 3-story structures built close to the street on tiny lots. Storefronts are clustered on Union Avenue.
“Most of it is over a hundred years old,” Trangucci said.
But the old, crowded neighborhood has its strengths. It is “vibrant and diverse,” said Luiz Aragon, commissioner of development, in a memo to the city council.
Much of the aging housing is well-kept, according to the 2011 report. Residents can walk to downtown or to Metro-North train stations at New Rochelle Transit Center and in Pelham.
The obvious asset is Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital, the city”™s largest private employer. The Bronx-based hospital system bought out the bankrupt Sound Shore hospital in 2013.
“But the neighborhood does not capitalize” on the hospital, Aragon noted in his memo.
The zoning would allow mixed-use buildings, including medical offices, up to 7 stories along a 4-block section of Union Avenue, from 1st Street to Badeau Place.
The proposed “neighborhood business-hospital district” was spurred by Quintessential Land Development LLC. of New Rochelle Developer Louis Iacopetta paid $1.8 million for three small parcels on Union Avenue between 1st Street and Webster Avenue, including the Battaglia Brothers market and Win-Rite Plumbing Supply Co. store and warehouse.
He plans to put up a $15 million, six story building with 75 apartments, some retail space and a parking garage. Rents would range from $1,400 for a studio, $1,600 for one bedroom and $1,800 for two bedrooms.
“I saw a need for nice, safe affordable housing,” said Iacopetta, who was brought up in the neighborhood.
He thinks the apartments would be ideal for nurses who work at the hospital, teachers, municipal workers and elderly retirees who want modern amenities but can”™t afford the rents elsewhere in the city. Even millennials who are being priced out of New York City might want to move to the West End because of its transit connections.
For council member Trangucci, the proposed rezoning and apartment building offer a way to stimulate new housing and economic growth in a neighborhood that has nurtured his family for generations.
His grandfather, Angelo, discovered the West End”™s Italian enclave when he was bringing his son, Michael, for frequent appointments with a specialist at the hospital. He moved the family there in 1912, from Oyster Bay, Long Island, and the council member”™s father was born there in 1926.
“I understand the Hispanic culture here,” he said, “because of what we went through. I take a lot of pride in helping the neighborhood.”
The City council is expected to consider the zoning proposal at its March 15 legislative meeting.
