A deep excavation pit at the corner of Jerome and West Tremont Avenues in Morris Heights has given way to an array of pilings and the first formed sections of foundation, marking real forward motion on a 15-story residential project years in the making. The site, long occupied by a two-story commercial structure housing auto shops, was cleared earlier in 2026, with construction crews moving in soon after demolition wrapped.
According to New York YIMBY, below-grade work and foundations are now underway at 1959 Jerome Avenue, where the site has been excavated deep below street level and crews have already formed some foundation sections. A rendering cited by the outlet depicts a bulky mass rising from a double-height first-story podium, with a facade dominated by gray paneling, PTAC windows and sections framed in white.
A Mixed-Use Plan Years in the Making
The project traces back to January 2023, when permits were filed for a 15-story mixed-use building at the site, as newyorkyimby.com reported at the time. Those filings listed Peter Fine as the owner behind the applications and GF55 Architects as the architect of record, describing a 165-foot-tall development spanning 243,007 square feet. The 2023 filing broke that space down as 170,723 square feet for residential use, 42,832 square feet for community-facility space and 29,451 square feet of commercial space, plus a cellar, one commercial loading berth and one enclosed parking space.
That original filing described the building as yielding 333 residences, which the outlet at the time suggested were most likely condos given an average unit scope of 1,004 square feet. The project reported this week by New York YIMBY also lists 333 residential units, though now with a far smaller average unit size of 513 square feet — a discrepancy the available reporting does not explain.
Ownership Shift and a Planned Supermarket
The site's ownership picture changed in 2024. The development site was acquired by Maddd Equities along with Joy Construction and supermarket chain Food Bazaar, according to ripcony.com, which put the sale price at $23 million. Commercial Observer's account of the same deal describes the buyers' plan to build a roughly 320-unit housing development with a Food Bazaar at the base, financed in part through a $16.2 million loan from LibreMax Capital.
Per the same account, the acquisition was structured through an entity called Hdpc2 Housing Development Fund Company, with the site purchased from Peter Fine's Atlantic Development Group. Commercial Observer's report described the planned project as a 15-story affordable-housing development with a 35,000-square-foot Food Bazaar on the ground floor — a framing that differs from the market-rate condo scenario floated in the original 2023 filing coverage.
Transit Access and What's Still Unknown
The nearest subway access is the elevated 4 train, running over Jerome Avenue at the Burnside Avenue station to the north of the site. As for what residents might find inside once the building opens, the potential list of amenities remains undisclosed, per New York YIMBY's latest report.
The 2023 filing had offered no estimated completion date, but the outlet's more recent coverage points to an anticipated completion in the summer of 2028. Food Bazaar's involvement in the Jerome Avenue project follows a pattern for the grocery chain's developer partners: Commercial Observer notes that Maddd and Joy also brought Food Bazaar into a 611-unit residential building at 375 West 207th Street in Inwood, where the supermarket signed a 37,000-square-foot lease, and that the same development team is behind River Crest, a 750-unit affordable and supportive-housing project near Yankee Stadium at 1164 River Avenue.
Part of a Broader Morris Heights Buildout
The Jerome Avenue corridor has been a focus of city planning efforts for years, with the Department of City Planning maintaining a dedicated Jerome Avenue Neighborhood Plan for the area. Nearby, work is reportedly finishing up at 1298 Inwood Avenue, a two-tower, 15-story mixed-use residential development, according to New York YIMBY's coverage of other projects in the Highbridge and Concourse area. The neighborhood has also seen completed affordable housing in recent years, including Starhill Phase I, which New York State Homes and Community Renewal says created 326 new affordable homes in Morris Heights, 200 of them supportive housing for adults experiencing homelessness.
