The French-American School has sold the former Ridgeway Country Club in White Plains, which it had purchased in order to build a new school, the Business Journal learned on Nov. 30. The property covers 127 acres. The buyer is the Farrell Building Company from Bridgehampton, New York.
In statement sent to the Business Journal on Nov. 30, company owner Joe Farrell said, “Given the limited inventory of new construction homes in Westchester County and the resurgence of demand for suburban housing following the pandemic, Ridgeway is the perfect opportunity for the Farrell brand to enter the market. We look forward to working with the City of White Plains on the project which will generate substantial tax revenue for the community.”
FASNY”™s plan had been challenged by local homeowners and, after the Common Council declined to approve FASNY”™s plans to build, the school in 2015 sued the city.
The City of White Plains had declined to exercise its right of first refusal to purchase the property when the Ridgeway Country Club originally put it up for sale while former Mayor Adam Bradley held office. The Common Council declined to back his administration’s plan to turn the club into a municipal golf course and recreation center. FASNY subsequently bought the property.
The sale price to Farrell was not immediately disclosed. FASNY had listed three of the parcels at the site with the real estate services firm CBRE but the sale to Farrell covers the entire property.
Farrell Building is noted for constructing upscale homes in the Hamptons. The firm also offers summer rentals. In 2019, the New York Post reported that Joe Farrell was hosting a fundraiser for President Donald Trump at his 17,000-square-foot Sandcastle mansion in Bridgehampton. Farrell had offered the estate for sale at $39.9 million, according to the Post. Celebrities Justin Bieber, Jay-Z, Beyonce and Madonna are among those who spent time at the estate, according to the Post.
In October of 2019, the Business Journal reported on Farrell’s development business. At that time, Stephen Zagoren, chief development officer for Farrell Communities, told the Business Journal that the company has taken note of shifting populations as people become interested in moving from Manhattan to beyond Westchester and Putnam and into Dutchess and Orange.
“We have 12 to 15 projects in the Hudson Valley in various stages, more like 15. In Florida, we”™ve got five or six projects going on, a combination of self-storage and multifamily. In Massachusetts, we”™ve got four projects going on that are all self-storage,” he said.
Zagoren had been involved in the self-storage business when he and Farrell got together to work on self-storage properties and then expanded into multifamily development, building on Farrell”™s success in building luxury homes on Long Island and in Florida.
“We”™ve taken what Joe Farrell had established on Long Island, on the eastern end of Long Island, to produce top-quality projects and we”™ve transferred that to the multifamily category,” he said. “We never build anything with less than a nine-foot ceiling. We never build anything that doesn”™t have top-quality cabinets and flooring and trim details and whatnot. People are getting more for their money, still at a competitive rental rate.”
Farrell had projects either completed or in some phase of development in Fishkill, Beacon, Wappinger, Middletown, Newburgh and New Windsor. Zagoren said others were in the works but declined to specify the communities, saying it would be premature.
