WASHINGTON HEIGHTS
FROM $179,000 TO $285,000

After the collapse of a plan to build 124 homes on six square blocks near Vincennes Avenue and 105th Street, the veteran builder Stan Smagala stepped in. Last May, he bought 18 of the three- and four-bedroom houses, which were in various stages of completion. By December, with work still underway, he had sold 13 of them.

Where the original developer had priced the residences from $300,000 to $500,000—and managed to sell only five—Smagala listed them from $179,000 (for buyers who qualify under the city’s affordable-housing rules) to $285,000. “It’s much more realistic for this area,” says Carrie McCormick, the @Properties agent representing the project, now known as The Homes Located at Beverly Ridge. Smagala says that he has a deal to build more homes; the city will create a two-acre park at the center of the development.

Send tips about home sales to dennis@rodkin.com.

Photograph: Dennis Rodkin