A Yonkers preservationist group wants it.
The Yonkers mayor does not.
The city”™s Landmarks Preservation Board wants it.
The city Planning Board does not.
A Yonkers foundation wants to demolish its part of it and spend $36 million to redevelop that part.
The City Council president wants it and wants that development, too.
That many-handed political tug of war is playing out in Yonkers this month over the proposed Philipse Manor Historic District on downtown Warburton Ave. A block of 13 properties bounded by Wells Street on the north and Manor House Square on the south and taking its name from Philipse Manor Hall, the colonial stone mansion that dominates the western side of Warburton Avenue at the top of Larkin Plaza, it would be the first commercial landmark district in Yonkers. The proposal has halted demolition and development on the site at least until early May.
The proposed district also sits at the center of a downtown and waterfront area that could be physically transformed and economically revitalized in the next several years by billions of dollars in private redevelopment spearheaded by the city”™s master developer, Struever Fidelco Cappelli L.L.C (SFC). The block of mid- to late-19th-century brick and wooden buildings, some in deteriorated condition or with altered facades, could be the first battleground in a series of political battles involving developers, residents, business owners, environmentalists and public officials over the future look and course of urban development in Yonkers.
A citizens group, Yonkers Committee for Smart Development, has led the effort to have the Warburton Avenue block preserved as part of the city”™s diminishing stock of historically important buildings. They argued, and the city Landmarks Preservation Board last winter agreed, that they represent a period of conspicuous growth of the city”™s downtown after the Civil War and architecturally embody the city”™s historical moment as a thriving river town in America”™s Gilded Age.
Terry Joshi, a committee leader, said the district could fit into the city”™s larger redevelopment plans, with upstairs residences and small commercial firms and retail stores at street level, while maintaining a scale of low-rise buildings that complements the 18th-century manor hall.
“Buildings of that sort have been adaptively reused in a million other cities to attract high-end retail business,” Joshi said last week. Along with large-scale development, “I would like to think there was room for that kind of quirky, esoteric business and corporations” such as computer companies. “It”™s not either-or.”
The landmark application has put Greyston Foundation”™s planned $36 million workforce housing development and demolition plans there on hold. Owning five properties at the Wells Street end of the proposed district, Greyston officials proposed to erect a 12-story building with 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and a four-story parking garage. The upper floors would include 108 condos to be sold to Yonkers residents who met Westchester County”™s affordable-housing income requirements.
That high-rise housing could ease some concerns about and opposition to the nearby $1.4 billion mixed-use downtown project proposed by SFC. It also would contribute to the downtown population density that business owners say is needed to revive commercial activity and keep them afloat there.
“There are families living downtown that are fearful that with all the new development, they will not be able to purchase anything that is affordable,” said Shelley Weintraub, Greyston Foundation”™s vice president for real estate. “We think we are the solution.”
Weintraub said Greyston officials determined it would not be economically feasible to save and readapt the buildings that others want landmarked. “We own these properties. We have a history of historic preservation in Yonkers. Were we able to make that work, we would have done that in the first place,” she said.
If the proposal”™s final arbiter, the Yonkers City Council, approves the landmark district,” I think that makes it very problematic for us,” said Greyston Foundation President and CEO Steven Brown. “It would be a major problem.”
If the council does not vote on the proposal by May 4, when a six-month moratorium on demolition ends, Greyston could proceed with the permits process. But Brown said the aspiring developer likely will wait for a council decision.
Mayor Philip Amicone “feels that it”™s not really needed,” mayoral spokesman David Simpson said of the proposed historic district. The city already has mechanisms to protect historic landmarks, he said.
“The mayor views it not necessarily as a preservation attempt but kind of a counterdevelopment initiative,” Simpson added. If approved, “This would completely thwart Greyston”™s plans.”
The Yonkers Planning Board shares that view from City Hall. Describing it as “spot landmarking,” the board last winter said the proposed district seemed primarily aimed at stopping one specific development. The board advised the landmarks preservation board that preserving the existing buildings “does not seem to be in the best interests of the city and would hinder the planned redevelopment of the downtown.”
Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick last week said the preservation group “made a very persuasive argument” for the Warburton block”™s historical value. “On the other hand, Greyston has a very viable project to build work force housing, which is well needed in downtown Yonkers. How can we compromise to allow Greyston to build and at the same time preserve those other historic buildings so it”™s economically viable?”
Lesnick said he hoped to delay a council vote on the district to allow him to negotiate with Greyston officials over an alternative development site at Wells Street and North Broadway behind the proposed district. The historic blocks”™s owners would be eligible for tax credits if it were listed on the National Register of Historic Places, he said.
