We also believe there’s a lot of professionals who leave [the Bronx] because they make too much money for the lower AMIs and they don’t make enough money to buy a house in Fieldston or in Throggs Neck.

You look at many of these professionals, they’ve been living in an apartment for quite some time. If you tell them we’re going to increase the rent, they’ll say, no way no how, not for this apartment. If you give them an apartment with amenities, a fitness room and so on and so forth, you’re going to see a lot of professionals say, I’m going to take a chance on that.

Q: What’s your role in determining where to put the 200,000 affordable housing units Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to create or preserve over the next decade?

A: That is still being hashed out right now. We’re still in conversations with the city and the administration to define — all of the borough presidents — where the sites are going and exactly what our role is going to be.

Stay tuned. That’s going to be an interesting conversation.

Q: Do you view Riverdale as a possible site for affordable housing units? 

A: Yes. I think there’s got to be equity. I’m not saying where in Riverdale, but I think that right now, everything is on the table. That’s what dialogue and conversation is all about. Why wouldn’t Riverdale be on the table?

Q: How did the 100th-anniversary celebrations of Bronx County go for you this year?

A: We had over 100 events. I thought it went well. It was fun. It helped us highlight many of our different institutions. It helped us talk about our history. It helped us bring in folks from outside our borough so they can rediscover the Bronx and tell the story of the new Bronx.

We have an amazing momentum. At some point… I don’t want us to feel like we’ve always got to keep catching up and to tell a story. I just hope that like Brooklyn, just like Manhattan and parts of Queens, that people know we’re a very integral part of the city and that we’re dong well.

This interview has been edited for length.