With a $277-million mixed-use development planned for the site of its office in the Westchester Pavilion at 60 S. Broadway, the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors will move its headquarters nearby to The Source at White Plains retail complex in early 2016, association officials recently announced.
The association, which represents about 9,500 real estate professionals in Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Orange counties, initially will sublease 15,600 square feet of office and classroom space on the fourth floor of the 1 Maple Ave. building. The Realtors group will sublease from its current Westchester Pavilion landlord, Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc., which in 2008 negotiated a 20-year lease at 60 S. Broadway with the regional association”™s predecessor in White Plains, the former Westchester Board of Realtors.
But the Pavilion mall has been largely vacated in recent years by retail and restaurant tenants that included Borders Books & Music, Toys R Us/ Babies R Us and Sports Authority. McDonalds and Corner Sushi are the only remaining tenants in addition to Hudson Gateway.
Willing L. Biddle, president and CEO of Urstadt Biddle, two years ago pledged to honor his company”™s lease obligations with the Realtors and find downtown replacement space for the office tenant when he first publicly unveiled plans to demolish the 185,000-square-foot building and redevelop the site.
Urstadt Biddle, which acquired the South Broadway property for $39.9 million in 2002, reached a purchase agreement this year for the property with a subsidiary of Miami-based Lennar Corp. The White Plains Common Council is reviewing Lennar”™s plans for an 850,000-square-foot development that includes 700 rental apartments alongside restaurant and retail space.
- The Source at White Plains will add an office tenant above its retail mix early next year.
The Source at White Plains is owned by an entity of Boston-based New England Development, which acquired the property in 2003. Anchor tenants in the 250,000-square-foot shopping center include The Cheesecake Factory, Whole Foods Market, Dick”™s Sporting Goods and Raymour and Flanigan.
A spokesperson for Hudson Gateway said city officials have approved a request by the landlord, Bloomingdale Road Investors LLC, to allow office use on the fourth floor of the retail building at the corner of Bloomingdale Road and Maple Avenue.
Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors CEO Richard Haggerty said in the lease announcement the nonprofit trade association “had initially viewed other properties in downtown White Plains, but determined the 1 Maple Ave. location met the needs of the organization more so than any of the other properties. It”™s ideally located right off I-287 and also has adequate parking.”
Hudson Gateway officials said the new location at The Source will have two large classrooms and about double the conference room space as in its current location. The headquarters will encompass about one-third of the available space on the top floor of the building.
