The sprawling Fordham Landing development along the Bronx's Harlem River waterfront is caught in its second bankruptcy filing in four months, even as its developer insists the sprawling, multi-phase project isn't going anywhere. Dynamic Star LLC, led by Brad Zackson, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection again in March 2026, and the company is now navigating a court-ordered arbitration process that Zackson says is close to wrapping up.
According to Norwood News, Zackson described the situation as basically coming to an end, characterizing the second filing as a technical issue between lawyers and judges rather than a fresh crisis — essentially a correction or redo of the first bankruptcy petition. The parties involved are aiming to reach an agreement within 30 days, per the same report. Zackson was blunt about his intentions going forward, saying Dynamic Star is not leaving the Fordham Landing project.
The financial turmoil traces back to December 2025, when lender CREMAC Asset Management moved to force non-judicial foreclosure auctions on equity interests tied to roughly $115 million in senior and mezzanine debt spread across the Fordham Landing site, according to The Real Deal. That debt originated with loans from Signature Bank and Columbia Pacific Advisors before CREMAC acquired it, and the foreclosure threat triggered Dynamic Star's first Chapter 11 filing to halt the forced sale.
Partners Turn On Each Other
The second bankruptcy filing in March 2026 came with a far messier backstory: Dynamic Star co-founder Gary Segal accused investment partner Igal Namdar of trying to seize control of the project by buying up defaulted debt and driving the foreclosures himself, the outlet reported. Namdar Realty Group and Gorjian Acquisitions had joined Dynamic Star as project partners back in 2022, and the internal power struggle now sits at the center of the bankruptcy arbitration that a federal court is forcing the parties into.
Money troubles haven't been limited to lenders and partners. Construction manager and contractor AECOM Tishman, which had been retained to oversee Phase I predevelopment and construction, filed a lawsuit against Dynamic Star in August 2025 seeking to recover unpaid funds for work performed on the Fordham Landing South site, according to M&A Critique.
Two Sites, Two Very Different Visions
Fordham Landing is split into two phases on opposite ends of the University Heights Bridge. Fordham Landing South sits on a four-acre Harlem River waterfront site at 320 West Fordham Road and is planned as a 900-plus-unit affordable housing project, entering Phase I in September 2025, per Norwood News's reporting. City officials confirmed in August 2025 that the South site will consist of 927 units of 100% affordable housing, with at least 15% reserved for formerly homeless families, according to 6sqft, in an announcement made jointly by Mayor Eric Adams and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Lettire is Dynamic Star's partner on the South site, and the company says it hopes to close and move forward with Arden Partners and Lettire this December. The South site sits directly next to the University Heights Metro-North station, and the design incorporates an 810-linear-foot public waterfront esplanade along the Harlem River, a commercial dock for kayaks and water taxis, and a new pedestrian bridge connecting to that same station — infrastructure created by architecture firm Perkins Eastman, per 6sqft's report.
The engineering plans also call for geothermal heat pumps to meet 60% of the complex's energy demands, along with AI-controlled View Smart Windows to regulate indoor sunlight and heat, making it one of the first major Bronx residential developments to employ geothermal energy systems, according to the same outlet. In October 2025, Dynamic Star announced a partnership with Carlo Schiattarella, founder of the Schoolhouse Project, to bring a new charter school into the planned 350,000-square-foot community facility building at Fordham Landing South, a site otherwise envisioned for medical, academic, and cultural tenants.
The North Site's Very Different Ambitions
Fordham Landing North, located at 2475 Exterior Street north of the University Heights Bridge, is a different animal entirely. Dynamic Star presented project plans to Bronx Community Board 7 in February 2025, and per Norwood News, the North site is planned to include more than 3,500 units, 574 residential units, 182 parking spaces, marinas and waterfront space, a grocery store, and supportive housing administrative space, along with 800,000 to 900,000 square feet of retail, commercial, and light industrial space. Dynamic Star is working with the NYC Department of City Planning on the North site, which will be developed under Phase II.
Zackson said the company is also working with an unnamed major national opportunity fund on the North site, and plans to develop a commercial, job-creating concept for small businesses modeled partly on the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Industry City. Dynamic Star is separately working with Winston Peters at the new Bronx Economic Development Corporation and is trying to connect waterfront deliveries to the Hunts Point Market. Zackson said a new partner would be announced within a few weeks, according to the Norwood News report.
Opportunity Zones and a Waiting Game
Part of the North site's appeal hinges on opportunity zone status — economically distressed communities defined by individual census tracts, nominated by America's governors and certified by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. New investments in these zones may be eligible for preferential tax incentives under certain conditions, and Zackson said he is waiting for confirmation of the new list of Bronx opportunity zones before moving forward.
Meanwhile, despite the fanfare around a $55 million Empire State Development investment that Governor Kathy Hochul announced in November 2025 to advance Fordham Landing South, that funding has not actually been disbursed. Empire State Development has said it will complete all due diligence before releasing any state funds and that it continues to monitor Dynamic Star's Chapter 11 filing and the project's overall status.
Even amid the bankruptcy proceedings, Dynamic Star has kept filing paperwork with the city. In March 2026, while the company was navigating bankruptcy court, it submitted new building applications to the New York City Department of Buildings for a 34-story, 368,469-square-foot mixed-use tower at 360 West Fordham Road, an as-of-right structure on the southern waterfront lot, according to Commercial Observer.
From a Waterfront Lot to a Billion-Dollar Gamble
The scale of the ambition here is hard to overstate. Dynamic Star originally purchased the main waterfront parcel from the Lasala family for $31.5 million in 2019, initially projecting a 30-acre, $3.5 billion megaproject before scaling that down to roughly $2 billion after removing a proposed dedicated transit stop, according to Meridian Capital Group. Norwood News has described the overall Fordham Landing redevelopment as the most expensive and ambitious redevelopment project in the country since Manhattan's post-9/11 Hudson Yards development — a billion-dollar undertaking in University Heights that is still, by any measure, a work in progress.
That tension between grand vision and financial gridlock is playing out against a broader backdrop of change along the Harlem River waterfront, where Hoodline previously reported on how new development has driven rents as high as $4,500 while longtime South Bronx residents worry about being priced out. Whether Fordham Landing ultimately becomes an engine for the affordable housing and public waterfront access its backers promise, or another cautionary tale of a mega-development stalled by debt and infighting, likely won't be clear until the bankruptcy arbitration plays out — and until Empire State Development decides the due diligence is finally done.
