UPTOWNflavor

There was a quiet uproar over the closing of the blighted and outdated Bronx Terminal Market which sits beneath the shadows of Yankee Stadium. The grumbling has faded away just as many of the signs from the former businesses that once crowded the cobblestone street. 

Four years after the shuttering of the last business, the area prepares to become the next hot shopping destination in the Bronx and Harlem.  The location is just  stone’s throw from the 145th/149th Street bridge that divides Manhattan from the Bronx.

“The development will house a mix of national and local retail stores, offering quality shopping venues for Bronx residents – 76 percent of who regularly shop outside of the borough. ”

Among the amenities provided by the new Gateway Center at the Bronx Terminal Market will be:

• Top national retailers, as well as space for neighborhood stores and local dining options.
• An attractive, environmentally-friendly design that will beautify the area.
• Restoration of public access to the Harlem River waterfront.
• Revitalization of the neighborhood with clean, lively, well-lit sidewalks that are safer to travel.
• A powerful magnet that will encourage other businesses to invest in the Bronx.

Is this going to be a positive venture or have a negative outcome?  I can already foresee the traffic nightmare that needs to be dealt with.  There are already dreadful traffic jams that line 145th and the 149th Street Concourse area every time the Yankees have a sold out home game. This is going to be worse several times over if it isn’t dealt with now.  There was some talk about adding a new Metro North station at the site of the New Yankee Stadium (over on Macombs) but I don’t know if that will help alleviate the traffic situation at the proposed mall along with the existing Yankee Stadium traffic problems.

 Comments, concerns, complaints???

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