Enter Mark Lu

Mark Lu was born in Southern China and immigrated to New York City with his family in 1995 at the age of 19. Mark remembers the early days living in Kensington, Brooklyn where his father ran a small Chinese takeout restaurant on the corner of their block, and Mark and his brother shared a bunk-bed in the family’s tiny two-bedroom apartment. From a young age, his parents emphasized the importance of education. “My parents, when I was like four years old, five years old, [my mom] was telling [me], ‘You’re going to be the doctor!’ And she was telling my brother, who’s about four years younger, ‘You’re going to be the lawyer!’” (Lu 2). He enrolled in Brooklyn College on a pre-med track, and when he was finished, continued to medical school at New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM).

However, after the first year of his residency, Mark had what he described as “a crisis.” He recounted that, “When I was so focused on academia I never was going through my search for … my own identity. … I always thought that was my parents’ decision to go into medical school. I fulfilled that … for the first 20-something years of my life, and I said, ‘Now it’s time for me to define who I am’” (Lu 4). He left medical school and spent a year figuring out what he wanted to do. While in school, Mark had helped his parents negotiate buying the building their restaurant was in, and enjoyed the experience, so he decided to take a business course. He distinctly remembers that the professor telling the class, “95% of you [are] going to finish this course … and leave here and do nothing, and only 5% of you [are] going to go out and really do something, and that does not even guarantee that you are [going to] be successful” (Lu 5). Mark took that the statement as a challenge, and told himself, “regardless of success or failure that you want to be that 5% that at least do something” (Lu 5).

In 2004, Mark moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he began buying multi-family homes, renovating them, leasing them out to tenants, and refinancing. That began his career in real estate. After getting a foothold in the market, he decided that it was time to move back to New York, and in the wake of the 2008 financial crash began an investment group with a few partners in Long Island. He counts himself as very lucky that despite the economic downturn he continued to do well, although the attributes it in part to his personal business ethos. “You have to treat people like if you were … the recipient of that product or the service: what would you expect? If you can put yourself in other people’s shoes then I think your product is gonna be very much in demand” (Lu 6).

In 2010, Mark’s partner of 10 years passed away and he took some time off to reevaluate his life. During that time, he traveled to Australia and South Africa, as he says, to, “either find myself or lose myself, either way … just to get away from where I was” (Lu 7). But in 2011 he returned to New York and to real estate with a newfound purpose in the fact that, “I’m a little guy. I’m not a developer who develops 100 unit buildings or something. … If I can take a house or building and I can make it nice [so] that people want to live in [it] … think that’s important” (Lu 7).

Then, he met his current partner, Luigi Ghidetti, who was at the time an Italian chef at Alfredo Rome, and “[they] converged our lives in 2012” (Lu 9). After living in a small Upper East Side studio, Luigi expressed interest in moving to a new apartment and told Mark there was a beautiful place that they had to check out called Via Verde. When Luigi mentioned that it was in the Bronx, Mark was a little put off. He recalls that, “I was very biased back then” (Lu 7). But they took a look at the property and Mark saw tremendous potential in the area around the site, specifically the Third Avenue corridor just north of The Hub. “I immediately knew that was where Fulton Street used to be in Brooklyn” (Lu 7). They bought, moved in later that year, and now “consider Melrose [their] home” (Lu 8).

Also in 2012, Luigi and Mark opened their first restaurant in Spanish Harlem. “Before it was a Mexican restaurant, and then we took it over and we turned it into a wine bar” (Lu 10). Although they lost that restaurant after the gas explosion on 116th Street in 2014, they’ve opened two other restaurants since: The Draft House and Anchor Wine Bar, both in Hamilton Heights. Currently, Mark and Luigi are opening their fourth restaurant in Melrose called Porto Salvo, which will be just across the street from the future Bronx Commons and Bronx Music Hall on 161st Street. Mark says, “We know that Melrose Commons is finishing, we know that Elton’s Crossing is being built up. We didn’t know … that the Music Heritage Center is going to be there. … 161st Street is going to be … a little bit cultural spot. I thought we would fit in really well, helping the patrons of the Music Heritage Center to have a place to gather” (Lu 11-12).

After living in Via Verde for a few years, Mark and Luigi had outgrown the space but wanted to remain in Melrose, after growing quite fond of the neighborhood. They opted to purchase a house, which is technically in Woodstock, but only about four blocks from Via Verde and very much close to Melrose. “You’re still in the city, but … you don’t feel you’re cramped. You don’t feel like everybody else is on top of you. … We find the quality of life that’s here, that it’s hard, or very expensive to find in Manhattan or Brooklyn” (Lu 8). Mark acknowledges that he was biased about Melrose when he first moved to the neighborhood and had many preconceived notions about what “the Bronx” meant. Now, one of his favorite parts of living here is, “the discovery of a different culture, of different ways of living, of different people living under different circumstances” of which he says, “I think I had it in Brooklyn when I first came [to New York]” (Lu 8). Melrose’s diversity, in all aspects, reminds Mark of his own background as an immigrant and as a New Yorker, and he has created formed ties in the community after living here for five years.