The New Rochelle City Council chose a developer for the Echo Bay waterfront at its meeting Tuesday, resurrecting a mixed-use project that was effectively crushed under community resistance in 2013.
The council voted to negotiate a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with Manhattan-based Twining Properties, which finished as runner-up in the last round of Echo Bay bids in 2006. The group is in discussions with local veterans groups about the repurposing of a former armory building at the site, the fate of which drew picketing and protests in the past.
Luiz C. Aragon, the city”™s development commissioner, said the MOU negotiations would allow the city to “get the players at the table” and move forward. “I”™m confident that we”™ll have a product that we”™re all going to be proud of,” he said.
The MOU focuses on two city-owned properties in what is the first phase of a project that could eventually encompass as many as 26 acres and include up to 930,000 square feet of residential space and 130,000 square feet of retail space. The phase one properties are the armory, which will be spared from demolition but renovated for a community use, and a deteriorating public works yard.
Mayor Noam Bramson, a Democrat, said the MOU discussion was a somewhat noncommittal first step with details to be ironed out by the developer before environmental reviews were conducted and more specific site plans were outlined.
“We”™re not getting married, we”™re not getting engaged, we”™re not even going steady,” he said. “It”™s like we”™re going on our first date and it may progress from there.”
City officials moved quickly to find a new developer, they said, because the state has already tagged a $1.5 million Empire State Development grant for the project, and although the city is the named grant recipient the grant listed the previous developer of the project. Aragon said it was important to select a new developer so the agreement could be revised and the funds kept in place. Twining was one of four groups asked to present proposals at a City Council meeting in June.
Twining, which will be working with Northwood Investors L.L.C., is looking to create a waterfront town center similar in design to Newport, R.I., that will link Main Street to a waterfront esplanade.
A former proposal to develop Echo Bay, by Forest City Residential Inc., saw opposition from members of the community who said it did not contain enough of a retail component and would need too much in the way of tax breaks. Forest City initially sought to raze the armory but later revised its plans to keep the building mostly intact, which did not appease local veterans groups that continued to oppose the development.
Reimagine New Rochelle, a group formed by veterans, was among those who proposed ideas to the City Council last month. Ron Tocci, a former state assemblyman who represented the group, said he and other representatives would be willing to work with developers on preserving the armory. Reimagine and others proposed uses for the building in a city-run design competition last year.
Councilman Al Tarantino, a Republican, said he viewed the MOU as a step forward but noted the issues from the previous development plan continue to exist. “I want to make sure they (Twining) are aware of the hurdles before us that we have to address,” he said.
The first hurdle will be the fate of the other city-owned property in what Aragon, the development commissioner, called “The Heart of Echo Bay,” the maintenance yard. The yard would have to be relocated in the city before any project breaks ground, but questions continue over how much the move would cost and if potential locations are suitable for a maintenance yard.
