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BX. IS BOOMING

'07 DEVELOPMENT NEAR $1B AMID RISE FROM ASHES

By TOM TOPOUSIS

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July 23, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, The Bronx is . . . booming. Three decades after fires, crime and neglect turned the South Bronx into a national icon for urban decline, the borough is now experiencing a massive building boom with $453 million invested in new construction last month alone.

Much of the new development is springing up in formerly vacant lots across the South Bronx - the last remaining scars of the fires that devastated the neighborhood near Yankee Stadium in the 1970s, spurring the infamous line by sports commentator Howard Cosell, "Ladies and gentlemen, The Bronx is burning."

During the first six months of this year, total investment in new development is pegged at $965 million. That's about as much as for all of 2005.

Last year's figure was $2.1 billion, but that was inflated by two huge projects: the Yankees' $800 million stadium and a long-sought $500 million deal to replace the Bronx Terminal Market.

The housing boom that has been consuming the city has spread to The Bronx, where developments including 5,187 new apartments have been launched this year. Over the past six years, 33,687 new units of housing have been built or are under way.

Overall, Borough President Adolfo Carri�n's office has calculated property values in The Bronx have jumped 76 percent over the past four years and nearly 28 percent in the last year alone.

Ron Moelis, of L&M Equities, a major developer in The Bronx, said he's taking a shot that conditions have improved enough that buyers can be found for condos at two buildings he's developing on Third Avenue at 156th Street called the Orion and the Aurora.

"Until recently, most of the people moving into our buildings have been coming from The Bronx, but now we're beginning to see people coming from other parts of the city," said Moelis.

The influx is being fueled by rapidly escalating prices in neighborhoods such as Harlem and a growing number of new stores and services in Bronx neighborhoods that had once been abandoned by retailers, Moelis said.

tom.topousis@nypost.com

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