A revised proposal for the redevelopment of eight parcels that currently have 11 mixed-use one- to three-story buildings along Broad Street in downtown Port Chester, directly across from the Metro-North train station, is being considered by the village.
The developer, Broad Street Owner LLC, is asking that the determination by Port Chester”™s Board of Trustees of its previous plan for the site would not have significant environmental impacts be applied to the new site plan. It also is seeking site plan approval from the village”™s Planning Commission.
Broad Street wants to build a new 15-story, mixed-use building with 336 dwelling units, 10,370 square feet of ground floor retail space and parking for 258 vehicles. There would be 98 studio apartments, 168 one-bedroom units and 70 two-bedroom units. The building would have a 2,300-square-foot fitness center for residents along with two separate amenity spaces. One amenity space would be 2,400 square feet and the other would be a 2,600-square-foot roof terrace.
Ten percent of the apartments would be priced in the affordable housing category. The developer points out that under the current downtown zoning for transit-oriented developments, only 79 parking spaces would be required, but they are able to provide more than three times that number in five levels by excavating for three subsurface parking levels and creating two additional parking levels on the first story of the building behind the retail frontage.
“The 2019 conceptual plan was 17 floors. In 2019, the village”™s form-based code limited buildings to 12 stories in the CD-6 district,” Attorney David Cooper of the White Plains-based law firm Zarin & Steinmetz told the Business Journal. Cooper said that the firm petitioned the Board of Trustees to allow additional stories and the board created the CD-6T district covering about a two-block radius around the train station that allows 15 stories, which is what the developer now wants to build.
The developer points out that the ground floor retail space it plans to provide would greet passengers exiting the train across the street, as well as provide new commercial offerings to village residents and visitors walking along Broad Street.
Cooper described the proposed development site as “the crown jewel of the village”™s efforts to revitalize its downtown with transit-oriented development.” He said that when a person steps off the train, this building would be the first thing they see.
“It”™s a zoning-compliant project. The original plans that were submitted had a mezzanine level for parking essentially, but under the code that level would be considered an extra story,” Cooper said. “The village interpreted that as being a 16-story building so we”™ve now resubmitted a revised plan”¦that doesn”™t have the mezzanine. The height hasn”™t changed and, in fact, it”™s about a foot or so shorter than the building that was shown in 2021 in connection with our petition for the 15-story CD-6T.”
Cooper said that the developer is confident that the project works from a financial standpoint even in view of increases in construction costs and market uncertainties while keeping “an eye on making sure that there is sufficient density and commercial activity in the building to ensure that the cost to construct this type of transformative project in this location is viable.”
Cooper said that the Port Chester Planning Commission is definitely a meticulous review board and they have a specific process that they follow for all applications.
“We certainly anticipate appearing before the Planning Commission and having a public hearing over the next couple of months,” Cooper said. “This plan is certainly the actual development plan for the site now that the zoning is in place. The developer is excited and ready to move forward with this proposed development and so we”™re hopeful we can more this forward this year.”
Cooper expressed the belief that the project would activate the block in downtown Port Chester and send a message that the village is open for business and an attractive place for visitors.
