Bronx residents concerned over Innovative Development's new Sedgwick Avenue project

It will change the fabric of this neighborhood when they proceed with this development”

Carl Ford, Sedgwick Avenue resident

Neighborhoods change all the time. Developers have big ideas and big wallets and, before city residents know it, they have a new residential building on their block.

This has been the case in recent months along the northend of Segwick Avenue. A lot.

Paperwork filed with the city Aug. 12 indicates Bronx-based Innovative Development has successfully had the zoning changed for the lots on the now combined site of 3870 and 3874 Sedgwick Ave.

Innovative plans to build an eight-story apartment building. According to the paperwork, the building will include 42 class A units.

Class A properties are defined by the state as multiple dwellings designed for permanent residence. 

The building will be the latest in Innovative’s greater plan for northern Sedgwick Avenure.

In December 2023, Innovative purchased the two-family home at 3870 Sedgwick Avenue. A month later, it purchased the site of the old Van Cortlandt Library, 3874 Sedgwick Ave.

Prior to these purchases, Innovative acquired 3862 Sedgwick Ave. 

Innovative has been the subject of conversation next door at the Van Cortlandt Jewish Center for a number of months, as the company is reported to be the impending buyer for that building as well.

The Jewish Center, located at 3880 Sedgwick Ave., has been in talks to sell the property for more than a year. The center’s board of directors cites low membership numbers as its reasoning to sell the property. 

At a May membership meeting, Van Cortlandt Jewish Center board chair Jack Kleinfeld said the center would move forward with selling the property to Innovative with an agreement allowing the Jewish Center to indefinitely occupy space within any new building built on the lot to maintain their membership. 

Innovative’s purchase of the Jewish center’s lot would give the company ownership of three consecutive lots on Sedgwick Avenue, which has been the cause of many neighbor concerns for the future of the area. 

The Van Cortlandt Jewish Center is also the owner of the Denishawn House located at the back of the property, facing Stevenson Place. The 97-year-old house was once owned by married couple and founders of modern dance, Ruth Saint Denis and Ted Shawn. The house was established in 1972 as a school for dance. The building standing at 67 Stevenson Place is all that’s left of the house and, while the property was never officially landmarked, some worry the Jewish center sale will mark the end of the Denishawn House’s history. 

Carl Ford has lived in an apartment building on Sedgwick Avenue for more than 40 years. His building, and many of the others on the street, went up in the 1950s and sit alongside one and two family homes on a tree-lined street.

And some of those trees, Ford said, have stood for more than 100 years. 

Ford said he attended Community Board 8’s land use committee meetings in January and February, during which the plan for the properties was discussed both with Innovative owner Endi Ulaj and the community. In the meeting, Ford said, committee chair Chuck Moerdler assured the public he would notify them of any new permits filed by the company. 

Ford said he periodically checks city databases to learn if new permits have been filed for the land. After seeing trees being cut down on the lot, he took to the internet.

Ford said the only way he came to learn about the latest Innovative filing was after finding the permit they filed on Aug. 12, despite Moerdler’s earlier assurance. 

Community Board 8 did not respond to request for comment at press time. 

“It will change the fabric of this neighborhood when they proceed with this development,” Ford said. 

The purchase of the property at 3868 Sedgwick Ave. currently stands between Innovative and a building that could occupy a large portion of the block, from the corner of Stevenson Place and Sedgwick Avenue, halfway down the street to the Jewish Center. 

The history of the Van Cortlandt Village neighborhood dates as far back as the early 20th century, with many of the street plans laid out with the help of architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the man responsible for the design of both Central Park and Prospect Park. Olmsted’s design welcomed further residential development in 1908 and eventually allowed for parks, like Fort Independence Park, to frame the neighborhood. 

Ford said the significance of the area’s design should not be forgotten. The “canopy of greenery” he said he gets to look out of his window and see everyday would be demolished with Innovative’s new build. 

“It’s not appropriate for the character of this neighborhood,” Ford said. 

Ulaj did not respond to requests for comment at press time.