The development team behind the former AT&T building at 440 Hamilton Ave. in White Plains, which plans to convert the 330,000-square-foot office building to residential uses, has officially filed its plans with the city.
Various White Plains boards will review the plan this month, which calls for 245 apartments, including 25 affordable units and seven “maisonette” duplex units with direct street access. Â The plan would add a 13th floor to the building, which would include five penthouse units and outdoor recreation space for residents.
The 440 Hamilton building was sold by AT&T for $20.5 million to Long Island-based American Equity Partners I LLC and American Equity Partners II LLC in a deal that closed Nov. 10, according to county property records. The building, on the corner of Hamilton Avenue and North Broadway in the White Plains Central Business District, was built in two phases in the 1960s. It formerly served as a regional control center for AT&T, according to a company history.
As part of the residential conversion, the building’s limestone exterior wall will be removed and replaced with a glass wall featuring a series of cascading glass ribbons on North Broadway, according to the project’s architect, Philip A. Fruchter of White Plains-based Papp Architects PC. Exterior walls on the north and south sides of the building will be pulled in from the edge of the structure to create large balconies for each apartment, Fruchter said. A small area of ground-floor retail space would be slated for a neighborhood market and coffee shop with access from North Broadway
The development team, which is being represented by David Steinmetz of the White Plains firm Zarin and Steinmetz, presented to the White Plains Common Council Jan. 31.
Steinmetz called the project a “very exciting, and long awaited” re-purposing for the building.
“In many ways, this is a critical and highly visible gateway building into the downtown,” Steinmetz said. “The conversion to residential use is zoning compliant, requiring only site plan approval from the Common Council, and it is entirely consistent with the city”™s comprehensive plan of development.”
