A century-old two-story house on Crotona Avenue in Belmont is about to be replaced by a six-story rental building with 54 apartments, according to new building permits filed for the address. The plans call for a 70-foot-tall structure with four enclosed parking spaces and roughly 36,994 square feet of residential space, averaging 685 square feet per unit — a scope that suggests the residences will most likely be rentals.
The filing, first reported by New York YIMBY, lists John Backos as architect of record, working through Grid Drafting and Consulting LLC, and names Doug Pelinkovic as the owner behind the applications. The proposed building will sit on a masonry-based structure with a 20-foot-long rear yard, on a site located between East 187th Street and East 189th Street, near the Fordham Road subway station served by the B and D trains. No estimated completion date has been announced.
The lot itself has some history worth noting. The existing structure at 2419 Crotona Avenue is a two-story multi-family house built around 1913, containing 8,070 square feet on tax block 3105, lot 52, according to the Marketproof Blog. Demolition permits for that building were filed earlier in 2026, ahead of the new six-story permit filing submitted on August 3.
A Landlord's Violation-Heavy Portfolio
Property records reviewed by tenant advocacy platform Who Owns What show that 2419 Crotona Avenue also serves as the registered business address for L.D. Property Management and Pelinkovic himself. That portfolio spans 14 buildings and nearly 400 units across the Bronx, and it has accumulated more than 3,700 total HPD maintenance code violations — averaging 1.0 open violation per unit, above the citywide average of 0.8. The records offer a stark contrast between the landlord's existing housing stock and the new construction now planned for his own listed address.
Backos and Grid Drafting and Consulting are no strangers to mid-density Bronx filings. The architect has also drawn up plans for a 55-unit residential building at 2320 Belmont Avenue and a 28-unit project at 2184 Muliner Avenue, according to the Bronx Times, reflecting the firm's established footprint in designing this style of housing across the borough.
Zoning and Tax Rules Shaping the Project
The Crotona Avenue parcel sits within an R6 residential zoning district that was modified during the 2013 East Fordham Road Rezoning, a change intended to encourage medium-density residential development while preserving neighborhood scale, per CityLand. That framework is part of what allows a structure of this height on the site.
The filing also lands amid a broader citywide building boom. Following the City Council's December 2024 passage of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning reform, new building permit filings across New York City jumped to 28,773 proposed units in the first quarter of 2026 — almost double the 2025 quarterly average, according to New York YIMBY's construction report. Whether this particular 54-unit proposal will make use of the state's 485-x tax incentive program remains an open question; that program, enacted in April 2024, allows modest rental projects of 6 to 99 units to qualify for a 35-year property tax exemption if at least 20% of units are set aside as permanently affordable, according to the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. There is no indication in the current filing of whether that affordability threshold will be met.
Bronx Investment Surge Meets Local Growth
The project also reflects a wider wave of investor interest in Bronx real estate. Commercial real estate investment in the borough rose 46% year-over-year in 2025 to $1.82 billion, driven by a 66% surge in multifamily sales volume totaling $800.7 million, per a report from GREA. Belmont in particular has drawn a string of new housing filings recently, including a February permit for two 13-story mixed-use towers totaling 190 units at 680–690 East Fordham Road — covered previously by Hoodline — and a January housing lottery launch for 12 units at 2305 Belmont Avenue.
Belmont's continued appeal to developers traces back to its position near major institutions. The neighborhood is anchored by the Arthur Avenue commercial corridor and bounded by Fordham University, the Bronx Zoo, and St. Barnabas Hospital, which together serve as key drivers of local housing demand, according to a neighborhood report from Ariel Property Advisors. As demolition clears the way at 2419 Crotona Avenue, it remains unclear exactly when construction will break ground, but the filing adds one more entry to a growing list of mid-rise projects reshaping this stretch of the Bronx.
