SoBRO: South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation

The New York Yankees award $15,000 to SoBRO

October 31, 2011: The New Yankees Stadium Community Benefits Fund, a philanthropic arm of the New York Yankees, has generously awarded a $15,000 grant in support of SoBRO’s Adult Education programs.

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The New York City Montessori Charter School (NYCMCS), the first Montessori Charter School in New York State and the first Montessori public school in New York City, opened its doors to over 100 students in the South Bronx on Tuesday, September 6th, 2011. To mark the occasion, the school will hold an official ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, October 6th.

SoBRO teacher Beda T. Vergara has been awarded the Literary Assistance Center’s Literacy Recognition Award. The Literacy Recognition Award honors the outstanding contributions of practitioners in the field of literacy, recognizing hardworking and innovative teachers, counselors, tutors, staff, volunteers, and program managers. Honorees are selected by a committee composed of literacy professionals, previous Recognition Award recipients, and representatives of the staff of the Literary Assistance center. It will be presented to Mr.

Tony Riccio Jr., SoBRO’s Chairman of the Board, has been selected by the NYC Brownfield Partnership for the Big Apple Brownfields Award in Economic Development. Mr. Riccio is being honored for his work with Harlem River Yards Ventures (HRYV) and their efforts over two decades to clean-up and develop formerly hazardous and unused land in the Port Morris section of the South Bronx.

The New York State Department of State awarded SoBRO two Brownfield Opportunity Areas (BOA) Program grants for planning, analysis and predevelopment activities in the Port Morris neighborhood of the Bronx adjacent to the Harlem River and the East River. The awards will allow SoBRO to advance efforts to clean up “brownfield sites”—dormant and environmentally contaminated lots of land— for their eventual redevelopment into areas of commercial and/or residential use.

Mott Haven, the Bronx: With good fortune implied in his last name and his mother’s dream of a better education for her son, kindergartener Wesley Lucks may land a coveted spot in the first Montessori Charter School in the Bronx. Wesley’s mother, Teashia Ruiz, sat with a group of anxious parents who observed the randomized lottery for slots in the New York City Montessori Charter School in kindergarten and first grade. “My niece goes to a charter school,” said Ruiz after Wesley’s name was placed on the wait list board, “and she is alert and so advanced in her academics.

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April 4, 2011: Most of America’s housing stock is in the doldrums, but many experts are betting that real estate growth in New York City will point north to what was once an unlikely haven for property investments: the Bronx. This bullishness about the borough could barely be contained on March 30th as developers, lenders, builders, brokers and public officials filled the north wing reception hall of the Bronx Museum of the Arts to take part in the Second Bronx Real Estate Summit.

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January 24, 2011: SoBRO is pleased to announce that an application to establish the first Montessori Charter School in the Bronx was approved by the Board of Regents last month. The New York City Montessori Charter School, which has formed an institutional partnership with SoBRO, will open its doors next September.

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July 7, 2010: SoBRO is pleased to announce that it has successfully coordinated the future installation of parking meters in the Tremont and Bathgate sections of the Bronx with the support of local merchants of the Tremont and Bathgate Industrial Business Zones (IBZ) and the New York City Department of Transportation. The parking meters, which will be installed in the Fall of 2010, will help local businesses by freeing up parking space for customers who want to shop at the local stores.

SoBRO Contact:
Ayca Ergeneman, Vice President of Development, 718-732-7520

NYCAL CONTACTS:
Anthony Ng, United Neighborhood Houses, 917-723-4607
Bruce Carmel, Turning Point, 646-522-8889

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