The Greenburgh town board held a public hearing April 8 that marked another step forward in the process to approve the rezoning proposal for what developers hope will be a biomedical business hub.
Eastview Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Pennsylvania-based LCOR Inc., is looking to develop 100 acres of the 270-acre Landmark at Eastview property at 777 Old Saw Mill River Road into a “planned economic district.” The proposal is to rezone the undeveloped space for a research and development company, hotel, retail and other recreational-use buildings or offices.
“The concept is to promote a good range of just employment opportunities for the local residents,” said Garrett Duquesne, the town”™s development commissioner, and to “complement the growing biotechnology sector.”
The site is currently zoned for multifamily residences and office space.
“Maybe six or seven years ago there was a bigger market for residential,” Duquesne said, adding that “as the process evolved it seems like this site is more conducive to supportive uses like a hotel, complementing retail and more research and development.”
The developer wants to build in two phases: one on the western side of Route 9A that would include a 125,000-square-foot, 150-room hotel and roughly 175,000 square feet of retail; and a second phase farther west on the property that would allow for 800,000 square feet for biomedical office development, which would be linked to the campus that extends into the town of Mount Pleasant and is anchored by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc., another biotech company, also occupies the Eastview property.
The Progenics office occupies about 72,900 square feet and employs 57 people full time, according to the company”™s federal financial filings last month. Regeneron has recently expanded and now uses about 1 million square feet for its laboratory and office spaces. The company employs about 3,000 people between its Westchester headquarters and its manufacturing facility in upstate Rensselaer.
At the hearing, Ella Preiser was the only member of the public who spoke in front of the town board. The purpose of her comment, she said, was to publicly thank Duquesne, the developer and others for meeting earlier to discuss her concerns.
Town Supervisor Paul Feiner said the proposed rezone “has become one of the least-controversial applications” in Greenburgh”™s recent history.
“I think that there is excitement for the project,” Feiner said. “The community is looking forward to development possibilities, and I don”™t think there is going to be controversy.”
The Landmark at Eastview campus was for years operated by Union Carbide Corp., which declared bankruptcy and left in the 1980s. LCOR bought the property in 1999 with plans to build a biomed cluster on the land. It sold more than a 100-acre portion to BioMed Realty Trust Inc., a publicly traded real estate investment trust based in San Diego that develops, owns and operates office properties for the life sciences industry. BioMed Realty in 2007 built 360,000 square feet of office and lab space in three new buildings on the Greenburgh side of the campus.
The Greenburgh town board is set to vote on the zoning proposal April 22.
