A new $300 million development will soon offer affordable housing and recreational space in the borough.

Developers broke ground Friday on La Central, a mixed-use project on Bergen Avenue.

Two of the project's buildings will house 496 affordable and mixed-income apartments, a 50,000-square-foot YMCA and a rooftop community garden.

"More housing is better for everybody," says Aaron Koffman, of Hudson Companies. "We are going to have solar panels. We are going to have water recycling. It's going to be a symbol for the South Bronx also that new investment is coming here to stay."

The project is expected to be completed by 2020.