A sprawling, $64.5 million mixed-use development will soon break ground on the site of a former convent and Revolutionary War lookout in Peekskill.
Ginsburg Development Cos. is preparing to put shovels in the ground at Fort Hill, a planned development overlooking the Hudson River that will include rental apartments, a hotel and a restaurant.
Sited just off Route 202 and Bear Mountain Parkway, the 178-unit luxury rental apartment complex will be clustered in three five-story buildings on Chateau Rive and John streets and include a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, some of which will offer views of the city of Peekskill and the Hudson River. The complex”™s amenities will include a fitness center, club room and swimming pool, along with access to event space.
The project will also include the construction of 20 rental townhomes along Main Street between Spring and Hadden streets.
Ginsburg also plans to develop the Fort Hill Inn and Spa, a 41-room hotel and eatery in the former St. Mary”™s Chapel building on the site. The chapel dates to the late 19th century and was home to the Episcopal Community of St. Mary until 2003.
Geoff Thompson, a spokesperson for Ginsburg Development, said the Valhalla-based company’s in negotiations with a number of prospective restaurateurs, though no plans have been set. Ginsburg Development will also bring in an outside management company to operate the hotel.
Ginsburg Development acquired the property in 2003 and, after numerous development plans fell through over the next decade, rekindled the project at the urging of Peekskill Mayor Frank Catalina and presented plans to Peekskill city officials in 2015. At that time Martin Ginsburg, founder and principal of Ginsburg Development Cos, told the Business Journal that the idea for the Fort Hill development was a “combination of promoting tourism and bringing people in a higher income category into the downtown area.”
The site surrounding the planned development in the Revolutionary War was a Continental Army lookout post that was attacked and occupied by a British military expedition in 1777. In 1929, Peekskill purchased the property for Fort Hill Park, a 10-acre site commemorating that battle.
As part of the development plans, Ginsburg will donate 52 acres of parkland to the city, which will expand the public park to 62 acres, according to Peekskill City Planner Jesica Youngblood. Youngblood added that the city might take advantage of state funding initiatives to expand the area”™s existing trail network into the new parkland.
In preparation for the development of the property, rock blasting began on the site earlier this year. The project is expected to break ground on June 13 and construction could take about a year to complete, according to Thompson. The developer expects to begin leasing at Fort Hill Apartments next spring.
The Fort Hill project will mark another of Ginsburg”™s luxury apartment complexes built in Westchester in the market recovery since the Great Recession and credit market crisis halted condominium development by Ginsburg and other developers here. In May, the developer unveiled the latest in its GDC Rentals brand of luxury apartments with the $110 million, 330-unit River Tides at Greystone complex in Yonkers, the company”™s third luxury rental development to open in the county in the past year.
In September, Ginsburg opened The Lofts on Saw Mill River, a $35 million, 66-unit apartment complex on Route 9A in Hastings-on-Hudson. Hudson Square, a $65 million, 188-unit complex on the Ossining riverfront, opened last summer.
Earlier this year, Ginsburg Development Cos. paid $35.25 million for a 124-unit luxury apartment tower at 34 S. Lexington Ave. in downtown White Plains, which it rebranded as The Metro.
