A long-vacant lot at the corner of Marmion Avenue and Fairmount Place in West Farms is now the site of new permit filings for a six-story residential building with 10 homes. The proposed development would rise 62 feet tall on land owned by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, bringing fresh housing stock to a Bronx neighborhood where renters far outnumber homeowners.
According to New York YIMBY, the filings describe a masonry-based structure with 12,089 square feet of residential space spread across 10 residences, averaging roughly 1,208 square feet each, plus a rooftop terrace for tenants. Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architect PC is listed as the architect of record. Separate permit documentation reviewed by the Marketproof Blog lists 2,248 square feet of residential space and 1,353 square feet of commercial space for the address, with Cristian Vimer of Rogers Calvanico Group PLLC representing the applicant. No estimated completion date has been announced, and it is not yet known whether demolition permits will be required for the currently vacant lot.
An Architect Known for Supportive and Infill Housing
Jonathan Kirschenfeld's firm has built a reputation around supportive, senior, and urban infill housing across New York City, including The Domenech in Brooklyn, according to Breaking Ground. That background lines up with the compact, tight-lot nature of the Fairmount Place site. The filing representative, Rogers Calvanico Group PLLC, is no stranger to city bureaucracy either — the firm ranked sixth among New York's busiest architecture firms in 2023 with 33 building permit filings, per The Real Deal.
The site sits close to the West Farms Square–East Tremont Avenue subway station, served by the 2 and 5 trains, putting future residents within easy reach of transit. That proximity mirrors a pattern already playing out nearby: 2070 Honeywell Avenue, a seven-story, 54-unit building located five blocks from the same station, opened its affordable housing lottery in April 2025 with 17 units set aside for households at 130% of Area Median Income, as reported by New York YIMBY.
A Neighborhood Where Renting Is the Norm
The math behind West Farms' housing pressure is stark. Census Bureau data compiled by Point2Homes puts the neighborhood's median annual household income at $36,309, with 34.2% of residents living below the federal poverty line — far below the citywide median of $63,998. In NYC Council District 17, which covers West Farms, 58.2% of households are considered rent-burdened and the rental vacancy rate sits at just 1.5% as of this year, according to the New York City Housing Tracker.
Homeownership is nearly nonexistent in the surrounding district. NYC Department of City Planning figures show that 95.4% of occupied housing units in Bronx Community District 6 are renter-occupied, with homeownership accounting for only 4.6%. Against that backdrop, HPD has leaned on programs like the New Infill Homeownership Opportunity Program and Open Door to convert small, vacant municipal lots into new housing, an approach detailed by ESKW/Architects.
Part of a Broader Building Wave, Without the Backlash
The Fairmount Place proposal joins a string of recent West Farms projects near the same transit corridor. Construction wrapped in July on 872 Bronx Park South, an eight-story mixed-use building delivering 83 residential units including 53 rent-stabilized affordable apartments through HPD, designed in partnership with Birch Family Services to serve residents with developmental disabilities, New York YIMBY reported.
Not every proposal in the neighborhood has gone smoothly. Bronx Community Board 6 unanimously rejected a much larger, 457-unit affordable housing rezoning by Phipps Houses in West Farms in May, citing concerns over existing building maintenance and infrastructure capacity, as Hoodline reported at the time. The 10-unit scale of the 851 Fairmount Place project stands in sharp contrast to that fight, reflecting how smaller HPD infill developments have so far moved forward without triggering the same community pushback.
