The would-be developer of an aborted project on New Rochelle”™s Echo Bay says it”™s withdrawing its demand that the city reimburse the company $2 million in out-of-pocket expenses.
Forest City Residential Group Inc. announced Feb. 25 that it was moving forward only three weeks after the company”™s attorney, Mark P. Weingarten, sent the city a letter saying Forest City was entitled to payment of up to $2 million out of a total $3.1 million it had spent during the planning stages.
Jonathan Gertman, a spokesman for Forest City, said in a press release that the company wished New Rochelle success “as the community continues to pursue its goals at the waterfront.”
“While the city of New Rochelle and Forest City Residential have different perspectives about the manner in which the Echo Bay waterfront redevelopment concluded, we have agreed together that the interests of both parties are best served by moving forward,” Gertman said.
In the Feb. 5 letter from Weingarten, of the White Plains firm DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Wiederkehr L.L.P., the attorney said Forest City was entitled to reimbursement due to the provisions of a memorandum of understanding signed by the developer and the city April 2012. City officials responded by saying New Rochelle wouldn”™t pay and was ready to “take all necessary actions to defend itself.”
On Feb. 25, after Forest City announced it wouldn”™t be pursuing collection, the city released a written statement saying that during their relationship New Rochelle developed “great regard” for the company”™s plans and team.
“New Rochelle recognizes Forest City”™s significant investment in the Echo Bay site and is, therefore, grateful for Forest City”™s decision to set aside its claim for expenses,” the statement said. “New Rochelle and Forest City”™s partnership at Echo Bay began in the spirit of mutual respect, and now it concludes in that same spirit.”
The developer, an affiliate of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises, was looking to build 285 luxury apartments, 25,000 square feet of retail space and a waterfront park on an area that includes an unused armory building and a city public works yard. A City Council vote in November 2013 effectively scrapped the project and severed ties with the developer after increasing community resistance that reached confrontational levels at several council meetings last year.
New Rochelle first sought to develop on Echo Bay a decade ago, with Forest City chosen as the developer in 2006 with what was initially a much grander-scale undertaking that would have cost an estimated $450 million. That initial, pre-recession plan proposed 425 more residential units and 125,000 more square feet of retail space than the final plan. It also included two 150-room hotels and would have encompassed 26 acres as opposed to the roughly 12 acres that were included in the final plan.
The original proposal would have razed the armory building and both plans would have relocated a city maintenance yard, which officials said needed to be entirely rebuilt or moved despite whether or not the area was redeveloped.
New Rochelle and the city signed a memorandum of understanding in May 2008, then signed a “re-stated” memo in April 2012 after the project had been significantly downsized. It was the provisions of that re-stated memo that led the company to contending it was entitled to reimbursement.
Many opposition group members said they took issue with the reduction of retail space, saying the project wouldn”™t have a great enough return in exchange for city land and expected tax breaks.
The City Council also voted May 2012 to accept a scoping document for the project and accepted a final environmental impact statement July 2013. The council was set to vote last fall on several items related to the project, the centerpiece of which was a land disposition agreement. The agreement was a necessary first step that would have transferred the city-owned land to the developer.
But the council changed course and voted against the agreement by a vote of 6-1, after several months of council debates and fierce community opposition, which included a civic group formed with the singular focus of stopping the development.
Even with Forest City”™s recent announcement, several issues remain unresolved after coming to the surface during debates about the project. The fate of the armory building remains unclear and the City Council has yet to decide whether or not to proceed with relocating the city yard now that the Echo Bay project has been scrapped.
Mayor Noam Bramson, a Democrat, has said the city is still committed to redevelopment efforts on the city”™s waterfront.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A shorter version of this article first appeared online Feb. 26.
