$1.5B Yonkers Project Gets City Council Nod
 Ross Pepe, president of the Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley, Inc., urged members of the Yonkers City Council to approve the SFC Land Disposition Agreement so that the $1.5-billion waterfront redevelopment initiative could move forward. |
By JOHN JORDAN
YONKERS, NY – After more than three-and-a-half years of exhaustive reviews culminating in a final 90 minutes of last minute back room negotiating, the massive $1.5 billion redevelopment of a major portion of the city’s downtown waterfront crossed what appears to be its final hurdle on Oct. 13 when the Yonkers City Council voted to approve the comprehensive Land Disposition Agreement. The Council’s 5-2 vote in favor the plan by Struever- Fidelco Cappelli L.L.C. (SFC) could spell more than $3 billion of construction when all phases of the project are completed.
The project is a product of a partnership of Struever Brothers Eccles & Rose of Baltimore, Fidelco Realty of Millburn, NJ and Cappelli Enterprises of Valhalla, NY. SFC officials have stated that the development is expected to create more than 13,000 construction jobs and approximately 5,400 permanent jobs when the development is complete and operational.
While the final approval for the plan is welcome news to the construction industry, shovels are not expected to break ground for at least three years. Provisions of the LDA give the SFC partnership three years to obtain financing and four years to begin construction.
City Council President Chuck Lesnick said to the audience immediately after the 5-2 vote to approve the LDA that, “With this vote Yonkers takes another step toward the transformation of our downtown.”
Yonkers Mayor Philip Amicone, a strong supporter of the project from the beginning, released a statement recently praising the Council for scheduling the vote, urging it to approve the LDA that will convey a number of acres of land in the Getty Square Urban Renewal District to the SFC partnership.
“From the day it was announced in early 2006, it was clear that SFC would be the most important urban renewal program in our city’s history,” the mayor said. “If approved, the jobs, excitement, and revenue generated from this development will completely transform downtown Yonkers and will put our city on more stable financial ground for the next generation of Yonkers residents. And after more than three-anda- half years of intense scrutiny, the public can be assured that the city is getting a great deal for our taxpayers.”
The SFC project includes the River Park Center, Cacace Center and Palisades Point residential development. In total, the project involves the creation of 1,436 housing units, a 6,500-seat stadium, restaurants, retail shops, and a multiplex cinema. The new location for the City of Yonkers Fire Department headquarters will be in the Cacace Center component, along with a 150-room hotel and a 150,000 square foot office building. Located between both the River Park Center and Cacace Center the project will also create more than 5,000 public parking spaces. Additionally multiple public open spaces will be created, including: a “riverwalk” along the Saw Mill River, an esplanade along the Hudson River, and an Art Walk along Nepperhan Avenue.
The SFC partnership released a statement praising the City Council for its affirmative vote on its plan that it said will be “one of the most important economic redevelopment plans ever undertaken in New York State.” SFC officials added that “With this final approval, SFC can begin working with the investment community as well as retailers, entertainment companies and others who will have a unique opportunity to participate in this extraordinary project as it moves forward. The approval comes as the national economy is showing significant signs of recovery which augers well for shovel-ready projects such as those planned for Yonkers.”
Joseph Apicella, executive project manager for SFC, said the revised timetable giving the developer three years to obtain financing and four years to begin construction was necessary given the current economic environment.
Mr. Apicella, who is also senior vice president of Cappelli Enterprises, said, “That gives us enough time, hopefully out of this recession, to look at a fresh new marketplace and begin to phase in the minimum development, which is about 400,000 square feet of retail and entertainment and the H&I site which is about 400 units of housing which we would phase in over a period of time; maybe one tower at a time, 120 to 130 units at a time, and enable the project to move forward in a substantive way.”
He said the Council vote allows SFC to begin marketing the project to recruit national tenants such as: Target, Kohl’s, Stop & Shop, and Regal Cinemas. He added that Wal-Mart had expressed interest in the SFC venture just a few weeks ago.
When asked if it could take as long as four years to put a shovel in the ground on the project, Mr. Apicella responded, “I think it may... The greatest economic minds can’t figure out this economy, so I am not going to profess to know the answer. But I can tell you this, three years plus one should be enough for us to figure this out.”
However, he said that if SFC can secure commitments from tenants totaling 300,000 square feet to 400,000 square feet of retail from its marketing efforts earlier than the four-year deadline, “which we believe we can do pretty readily based on our preliminary research. We will go to the Council and we’ll modify our site plan and start the project immediately,” he said.
Ross Pepe, president of the Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley, Inc. (CIC) was one of less than a handful of speakers to address the Yonkers City Council on Oct. 13, all but one of whom expressed support for the redevelopment plan, prior to its vote. Observers pointed out this was a much different scene than what took place some years back when the Council Chambers was jammed with supporters and opponents of the controversial $600-million Ridge Hill Village plan, which is now under construction.
Mr. Pepe, who represented the county’s construction trades in urging the City Council to approve the LDA, said he was pleased with the vote but noted that if the project had not taken so long to obtain the approvals, perhaps work could have already been started on the redevelopment project.
“It was good to see that the City Council has moved forward to adopt the program that SFC has proposed. Unfortunately with the calendar and the economic stratus being a little late, it is going to be up to SFC to put tenants and financing together to make the project a reality,” Mr. Pepe said. “It would certainly create substantial opportunities for the economic viability of the city, the taxpayers of the city and jobs as well. It is a great plan and it needs to move to the next level to become a reality.”
The City of Yonkers has submitted proposals to the federal government to receive stimulus funding for various components of the Yonkers waterfront redevelopment plan, including a portion of the more than $200 million worth on infrastructure work that will need to be done in connection with the SFC project and other waterfront-related initiatives. Mr. Pepe said the CIC will be working with the city to get these projects funded.
This is part of the October 1, 2009 online edition of Construction News.
Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you. Click here.
