A Hyundai dealership, Tasca Hyundai, is getting ready to seek approval from the Town of Greenburgh for a site plan that would allow it to convert the Scarsdale Park Mall shopping center at 450 S. Central Park Ave. into a combination showroom and service center. Tasca Hyundai currently operates at 111 S. Central Park Ave. on a property about one-third the size of the Scarsdale Park Mall. It also is leasing space in two adjacent properties to park vehicles. The entity TAG Holdings LLC is contract vendee to buy the Scarsdale Park Mall site.
Tasca Hyundai has approached Greenburgh for preliminary discussions prior to submitting a site plan and application for a special permit to allow motor vehicle sales at what would be the new location. Tasca would use existing on-site buildings that total approximately 40,000 square feet and also would build two additions of about 9,000 square feet. The 4.36-acre site would be configured to accommodate up to 300 vehicles including customer and staff parking, parking of vehicles being offered for sale and parking for vehicles being brought in for service.
The property is situated on the east side of Central Park Avenue near the intersection with Dromore Road. Nearby are a residential area, a commercial section and the Greenburgh Nature Center.
Zac Pearson of Insite Engineering said that they are in the process of working with architects to nail down just how the site would work in terms of having people drive in and drop off cars for servicing. He said that all vehicles entering and exiting the property would do so via Central Avenue. He said that when a site plan application is submitted it would specify which areas are set aside for various parking uses.
“It’s an interesting site as far as how the building certainly steps and the whole site terraces down,” Peterson said. He also said that parking would be provided in the rear of the auto dealership for a yoga studio that they expect would continue to operate at the site.
Attorney Helen Mauch of the New York City-based law firm Mintzer Mauch PLLC said new cars being brought to the dealership for display and sale would not be directly trucked to the site.
“The cars are going to be delivered on the large trucks to a different location and then driven over one by one to the site,” Mauch said.
Hugh Schwartz, chairman of the Greenburgh Planning Board, said they would like to see the site plan provide details of screening that would be set up for the rear of the property.
“You’ve got a residential area right behind you,” Schwartz said. “You’ve got the nature center across the back of your property. We would like to see a robust screening plan for the side and the back of the property. I understand you want to display cars and I assume the cars right in front are for sale, but it would be nice to put up some high-canopy trees to give it attractiveness rather than make it look like just another line of cars in there. The screening is going to be extremely important.”
According to a profile of Tasca from June of this year in an announcement that Tasca Automotive Group had acquired L.T. Begnal Motor Company in Kingston in Ulster County, Tasca operates 20 dealerships in the Eastern U.S. It’s a fourth-generation family owned and operated automotive dealership group.
