Back in 1980, a plan to develop a wooded estate property in the Bronx seemed like a brilliant compromise for both environmentalists trying to preserve a natural area and real-estate interests looking to put up houses there....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204554204577026090106230070.html

Major Joseph Delafield, president of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, purchased 257 acres in what was then still Westchester County in 1829.  Today, the area is in the section of the Bronx known as Riverdale. Delafield purchased the land as a country retreat where he could bring parties to hunt wild boar.  The hunting lodge originally on the property survives to this day. The property extended from Broadway to the Hudson River, with a manor house built in 1865. Rising costs, however, caused the Delafields to begin to search out other uses for the property....

http://bronxbackthen.blogspot.com/2011/11/delafield-estate-riverdale-on-hudson.html

Now on its fourth development attempt, the Delafield Estates in Riverdale could finally become what developers first envisioned for the 10.4-acre Bronx site back in 1980, the Wall Street Journal reported....

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2011/11/09/after-30-years-and-three-owners-delafield-estates-in-riverdale-may-finally-fulfill-original-plan-after-foreclosure-auction-marketed-by-brown-harris-stevens/