The Mott Haven neighborhood in the Bronx is becoming more desirable. So, inevitably, some real estate pros gave the neighborhood a brand new name: the Piano District.

The story is a lesson on the limits of rebranding. Developers Somerset Partners and the Chetrit Group took out a giant “Piano District” billboard to promote their plan to build 1.2 million square feet of apartments on their development site at 2401 Third Avenue along the Harlem River waterfront back in 2015.

The development is still moving forward — but after a year of derision from Bronx residents, the billboard came down. “It’s one thing when you move in because of cheaper rent and it’s another when you just give a neighborhood a totally different name that no one uses,” said Chyann Sapp, a real estate agent for Citi Habitats to am New York.

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