After several failed attempts to bring a viable tenant to the undeveloped county-owned site known as the North 60 on the Grasslands Reservation in Valhalla, Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino and Greenwich developer John J. Fareri are hoping their new public-private partnership at last leads to shovels in the ground.
Fareri Associates L.P., the development company Fareri leads as president, plans to invest up to $1.2 billion to create a biotechnology research facility, children’s science center, medical offices, a 100-room hotel and retail stores and restaurants on the 60 acres of county-owned land within the 512-acre Grasslands Reservation adjoining Westchester Medical Center.
Calling the mixed-use development a “strategic investment” for the county, Astorino announced the ambitious project this month at the Westchester County Association’s Economic Forecast Breakfast 2016.
The proposed Westchester BioScience and Technology Center would include 2.25 million square feet of biotech and research space, 400,000 square feet of medical office space, a 100,000-square-foot hotel with 100 rooms, 114,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and a 34,000-square-foot Children’s Living Science Center.
Fareri said the Children’s Living Science Center would “elevate the Westchester Medical Center to a new level of prominence.” The center will include health and safety exhibits and lessons for area youth.
Fareri, who developed and spearheaded fundraising efforts for the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center after his daughter Maria”™s death from rabies, owns 20 acres of undeveloped land between the North 60 property and Route 9A. The project will encompass both the county-owned property and the company’s land.
Fareri said his company will invest $40 million in infrastructure work, including road, water supply and waste system improvements.
The first phase of the three-phase project would be built on an estimated 20 to 25 acres of county property and include 220,000 square feet of research space, 100,000 square feet of medical space, 80,000 square feet of ground- floor retail space and the 1000,000-square-foot hotel. Roughly 44 acres, or 54 percent of the property, will remain as open green space.
Fareri has agreed to a 99-year lease with the county for the North 60 tract. Astorino said the lease deal took nearly two years to reach.
“They need stability to make sure they see a profit,” he said of the long-term lease.
The proposed lease will be presented to the county Board of Legislators for review this month before the project is presented to the Town of Mount Pleasant for review and approval.
Asked for an estimated time frame for the project, Astorino replied, “We have no idea.”
He said the county has several tenants in mind for the development, adding that the campus will be geared toward a mix of companies rather than a single large corporation.
Astorino said the project would bring in an estimated $9 million in annual real estate taxes, $7 million in annual rent and create 4,000 construction jobs and 8,000 permanent jobs when completed.
The development would include outdoor dining, landscaped plazas, a pond, gardens and pedestrian bridges. The project architect is Maryland-based Torti Gallas & Partners Inc.
Astorino emphasized the site’s desirable location near several Metro-North train stations, the Sprain Brook Parkway and Pace University”™s Pleasantville campus less than two miles away. Westchester’s status as the nation’s leader in degree-holding residents made the choice to develop the site as a biotechnology campus easier, he said.
“It plays to our strengths and pays our bills,” Astorino said. “As we build it, the jobs will come. And it expands the county’s growing leadership in the fields of biotechnology and medical science.”
The county purchased the Grassland Reservation in 1915 and has since developed on the property Westchester Medical Center, New York Medical College, the county jail, and facilities for several county departments, including Labs & Research and Emergency Services.
Previous proposed developments included a simulcast theater for the New York Racing Association in 1992, a biomedical research center in 2002 and a continuing care community center in 2005.
Fareri in 2012 first presented plans for a $500-million, 800,000-square-foot mixed-use development including medical office space, retail space, commercial space and 120-room hotel in response to the county”™s request for qualifications from companies interested in developing the North 60 site. Carmine DePalma, principal of Portal Venture Group Inc. in Mount Kisco, the only other company to submit a proposal, was later revealed by the Business Journal to have pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny in 2007 for stealing nearly $164,000 from a widowed client.
Fareri Associates”™ numerous developments in the region include a 220,000-square-foot medical office building at 19 Bradhurst Avenue in Valhalla leased to Westchester Medical Center and an 85,000-square-foot medical building at 3030 Westchester Ave. in Purchase built in partnership with Simone Healthcare Development Group and leased to Westmed Medical Group. Fareri raised $40 million in donations and built the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in 2004 after his 13-year-old daughter died from rabies at Westchester Medical Center after being bitten by a bat outside the family”™s Greenwich home.
“We look forward to working together with the county in developing this unique and exciting Bioscience and Technology Center that will create thousands of new construction and permanent jobs, while positioning Westchester County at the forefront of the region’s emerging new economies,” Fareri said in a statement.
Westchester County Association president and CEO William Mooney Jr. said the proposed development reinforces Westchester”™s position as a global leader and hub of innovation in the life sciences industry.
Business Council of Westchester president and CEO Marsha Gordon called the Fareri development “an exciting and innovative plan that builds on Westchester”™s fast-growing biotech and technology sectors, which are crucial to the economic
