Daily News from New York, New York • 7

DAILY WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1974 TP -rr ''i vt By OWEN MORITZ In a major breakthrough, a Puerto Rican coalition of business interests was designated by the city yesterday as developers of a $10 million shopping center on a two-block site off Third Ave. in the South Bronx. 4' "I -it PHi-r i -WK'niff J.1-J... 1 1 I J. i v-i i Tha center called San Juan Plaea, is the first Puerto Rican sponsored shopping center In mainland U.S.

and when com and is expected to be fully cleared after Jan. 1. The city Housing and Development Administration, which controls the urban renewal site, has designated the South Bronx Puerto Rican Development a 35-member local body, as San Juan Plaza's sponsor-developer. David J. Burgos, chairman of the development group, said: "The South Bronx has been one of the most under-rated of New York's retail areas.

A report by Larry Smith and Co. the country's leading economic ysis firm, has stated that residents of the San Juan Plaza trad- pleted in 1976 should house a major department store, a supermarket- and a host of small retail shops, the developers said. The earmarked for. Third Ave. between 154th and, 156th will take advantage of a City of New York writedown tf real estate costs designed to make th project a market able one.

Given this municipal aid, the development will thus compete with the privately-financed Alexander's and Hearn's department stores at 149th St. and Third the so-called hub of the South Bronx. ing area generate an annual $250 Sketch shows artist's conception of San Juan Plaza, earmarked for Third 154lh and Ma. Puerto Rican group at a discount. If the city were to sell the land for what it paid, development experts contended, then tha development costs would be prohibitive.

A final price between the city and the Bronx group being worked out. million expenditure lor retail goods and these expenditures are projected to increase to almost $300 million by 1980." Sutton Towne, a Manhattan real estate development firm, is working as consultant with the Bronx group. And David Solomon, Sutton Towne's vice president, said there should be no problem getting private investment money, given the optim- All told, the shopping center will contain 210,000 square feet of retail space. It will be part of the Bronxchester urban renewal area that also will include a new 14-acre Hostos Community College, a new post office, a low-income housing project and two new municipal parking garages. The site is now 80 cleared Eartment of Commerce (rve a 310,000 planning grant to the group.

Burgos added: "To paraphrate Mark Twain, the death of the South Bronx has been widely exaggerated. There ha Wen toe much written about failure not enough written about eueeett in thia community. ism of Smith's economic analysis. The shopping center itself will be a private development, using outside investment. The land beneath the development, bought by the city of New York from the owners of small stores and tenements who occupied the site, will in effect be sold to the In addition, the Office of Minority Business of the U.S.

De Driver Takes a Crash Course nl(0)(lQSD01I hv 100,000 Seen, Making public its long awaited housing policy, the Beame administration aid yesterday that up to 100,000 new and rehabilitated apartments and houxcs could be built here over the next three years provided a new federal housinpr act is funded properly. of the But the significance Beame policy paper was consid fewer than 20 o' the city'i ered primarily to be its sharp break with the style of postwar Among the Innovations nuxhed American family" has become "increasingly remote" here. The officials said prospects here are brightened somewhat by passage of the Federal Housing is a return to the prewar policy construction. It called for more emphasis on rehabilitation, on of building lower-rue apartment houses taking up more of the low-rise apartment houses and on city subsidized three family homes property, as opponed to the eu-perblocks of the poatwar period which called for hlgh-rUe towers and Community Development Act of 1974 an act that could give the city sufficient funds through Despite the prospect of at least surrounded by large open spaces. 30,000 new units a year, Housing subsidies for 24,000 low and mod Advancing an idea favored iy Administrator Roger Starr said erate-income units.

News photo by Richard Corkerv Pnlir anil nedestrians view taxi that crashed through window in The key Is a new rent assis office of Sands Hotel of Las Vegas, 24 Central Park South. Starr, the report alo urges open-ing up the rity and state's Mitrh-ell-Lama middle-income houKing program to finance corut ruction of low-rise structures, even three- tance program known as Section 8. which eives the city some flex ibility in sheltering persons or Police said driver Phikas Sperber, 65, of the Bronx, wnue puuing over to park, lost control of cab, which jumped curb and smashed through window. Sperber refused medical aid, police said, and a tow truck pulled car out of the window. modest means.

But the new hous ing act will mean In total $.10 million less in 1974-75 than the he foresaw little dent in the historic housing shortage here simply because the city is now losing 30,000 units a year to fire, demolition and abandonment. One-Third Ill-Housed The Beame policy statement, defined by Starr and city Planning Commission Chairman John Zuccotti, estimated that about two thirds of New York's population have "a decent place to live at rents they can afford." But some 925.000 families con $150 million provided under pre vious housing programs In 1973 74. Keach Tentative Part The city projects 75,000 feder family homes. "Studies Indicate that by rom-bining ite hell-Lama and urban renewal writedown, the standard three-family home rould be carried for as little as $75 per room per month with a downpayment of less than per unit, the report declared. A change in the state Mitchell.

Lama law is needed to permit use of low-Interest loans and tat abatement the earmark of the Mitchell-Iama program for three-family homes. ally aided units over the next three years with the city pro grams providing the remaining 25,000 units through direct and stitute a city of the "ill-housed" In Bronx Bus Strike and Starr and Zuccotti conceded indirect subsidies to private de veloners. The Beame policy re that achieving the national goal port said that developers building of a "decent home and a suitable I without any subsidies can reach i living environment for every By MICHAEL PATTERSON A tentative settlement of the four-and-a-half-month Bronx bus strike which has left over 12,000 school children without transportation was reached late yesterday between the New York Bus Company and Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union. Island laundry's in a Wringer By JOHN TOSCANO Pressure on the Health and Hospitals Corp. to find a way to shut down Its laundry on Roosevelt Island mounted yesterday when a top planner warned that the laundry In hinderine development on the island and threatens to bring about construction cost hindering development in the second and 25 cents and 20 cent3 in the third.

The new tentative agreement provides for 40 cents In the first year, an additional 40 in the second and payments of 50 cents The agreement, reached In the offices of the State Mediation Board after an all-day bargaining session, marks the second time the negotiators have reached tentative accord. Last month, tha union rank and file voted overwhelmingly to reject a proposed package, overruling the unions increases. to close the laundry has been the Inability of the city's Site Selection Board over the past and 5 cents in the third. A pro capital construction for the hospitals corporation, denied Urban Development Corp. Is bringing pressure on the city agency.

The spokesman said the posed cost-of-living escalator Diane Porter, the chief planner for the Urban Development Corp. in its development of the multi-million dollar "minicity" on the former Welfare Island, said that the stalemate in relocating or shutting the laundry hasn't caused UDC officials to press the panic button yet. But "sometime after the first of the year, we'll clause remains unchanged. Under the expired contract, schoolbus drivers earned $6.22 per hour while drivers who manned the company's express buses, which carry commuters recommendation. The new proposed contract, like one rejected, calls for a $1.35 across-the-board hourly Increase over three years.

However, the latest proposal calls for the same amount of money to be paid In larger Increments. fiVia mnt.ract first DrO- two years to select a site for a new lnundry. During that period, more than 20 have been rejected. At present, the board has three sites under format consideration In Manhattan and the Bronx, and another in Queens. The city Is alio looking Into a plan to nave a group of private laundries take over most of the Roosevelt Island laundry's load so It can tWaea.

from the Bronx to Manhattan, through a spokesman that tne agency is continuing Its search for a new laundry site and has a request pending with the Budget Bureau to add a third shift at the corporation's laundry at Kings County Hospital in order to take on the load at the Roosevelt Island laundry and so close it by March. The main bottleneck In plans earned $5.20 per hour. No date for a rank-and-file vote UUVli WUV posed to the membership, the start thinking of our options for a quick solution to the problem," she declared. drivers were to receive cents mr hnnr mnn the first Tear. on the new contract was announced, but the voting Is expected by the end of the week.

Edward Richards, In charge of raises of 25 cents and 25 cents.