Smithsonian Sells Site After 80 Years

BRONX, NY-The Ciampa Organization has acquired the largest undeveloped parcel in the northeast section of the borough from the Smithsonian Institution. The selling price was $11.1 million. This marked the first sale of the property in more than 85 years.

The four-acre site, which is bordered by Bruckner Boulevard, Jarvis Avenue and Middletown Road, was originally acquired by George Heye in 1919 as a place to build a storage facility for surplus elements of his collection of Native American artifacts which numbered more one million pieces. The collection was given to the Smithsonian in 1925 and has been relocated to new facilities in suburban Maryland, and in two museums–the National Mall in Washington, DC, and one in Lower Manhattan.