An Ohio developer has revived plans for an apartment complex next to Willson”™s Woods Park in Mount Vernon.
NRP Group LLC of Cleveland wants to demolish the vacant Laundauer Metropolitan office building and warehouse at 1 Bradford Road and build 120 market-rate apartments.
NRP representatives displayed plans for a $31.5 million project to the Mount Vernon Industrial Development Agency on March 31. The company is asking for a $540,000 sales tax exemption, $400,000 property tax abatement and $236,164 mortgage tax exemption.
It has proposed a 20-year payment in lieu of taxes agreement beginning at $450,000 Â around 2020-21 and increasing by 1 percent a year.
The IDA postponed acting on the application for at least a month.
The proposed project and the requested government assistance are similar to a 2015 proposal by WP East Acquisition LLC. Wood Partners, an Atlanta firm, abandoned the project after encountering community opposition.
Neighbors had objected to the size of that project and to its compatibility with the park. They also expressed concerns about site contamination from a former chemical facility.
Landauer, a home health equipment and supplies company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013 and sold the three-acre property.
Steven D. Horton, president of Grandview Consulting Group, said he has met with 80 people, and their concerns and ideas have influenced the NRP design.
One concern was that the previous developer placed most of the parking spaces in front. NRP will put most of the 155 parking spaces underneath the apartments or behind the building where they can”™t be seen, according to Jonathan S. Gertman, NRP”™s vice president of development.
He said the building will include a courtyard and will appear less massive than the previous design. The company also plans to give Westchester County $350,000 for park improvements.
NRP would build a five-story building with 120 apartments. Rents would range from $1,700 for a studio, $2,150 for 1 bedroom and $2,800 for 2 bedrooms.
The apartments would house an estimated 224 residents, including 10 school-age children. NRP calculated that the Mount Vernon City School District would have to spend $122,430 a year to educate the children, but it will receive about $286,965 from the PILOT, for a net benefit of $164,535 per year.
The project will create 49 construction jobs and pump an estimated $17.4 million into the economy. Four people will staff the building.
New residents could spend about $1.3 million locally on entertainment, restaurants, recreation, personal care and household items, generating from $11,000 to $28,000 in annual sales taxes.
“We went to great lengths,” NRP attorney Michael Zarin said, “to make an IDA proposal based on economic development, job growth and benefits to the city.”
This project is being represented by a disgraced former Mount Vernon Councilman who was recently fired from his Executive Director position at the NRHA due to accounting errors. NRP is a leading developer of Affordable Housing not market rate nor luxury and the City of Mount Vernon can no longer afford PILOT programs for housing complexes. The local economy they speak of benefitting will be Pelham not Mount Vernon and the transit they will use will be the Pelham Train Station. NRP has also been linked to funding excessive amounts of money to Gov Cuomo’s campaign and are currently lost their legal battle in Buffalo. The Mount Vernon City Council did not consider this a NEW application, which denied the City of revenue from the application process, just an extension of the WP one which should have been considered null and void but this is Mount Vernon’s administration doing what it does best, irresponsibility !
NRP’s development at this location will put the health of its future residents at risk. Soil testing performed for WP East revealed that five toxic metals are present in concentrations in excess of NYS DEC limits for unrestricted use. These include mercury, nickel, zinc and copper. Also present is lead at 5 times the allowable limit. DEC regulations call for remediation at these levels of contamination. No such remediation plan has been proposed by NRP.
Although aware of these environmental circumstances, the City Council, in its dubious role as lead agency, determined that no further environmental review is necessary and refused to reopen the SEQRA process for this revised project.Â
I attended the MV IDA meeting at which NRP presented its plans for this development. It was deceptive to say the least. I’d also attended meetings of the city’s various boards when WP East was trying to push through their own plans, and WP East’s reps said the residents would be provided jitney service to the Pelham Metro North station, not to any of the Mount Vernon stations.
As for this residential development hugely benefiting the city of Mount Vernon with the residents spending more than a million dollars locally, the word “locally” is referring to Pelham, which is only a few minutes drive and about a ten minutes walk. Same with the estimate of sales taxes generated – those taxes will benefit Pelham.
NRP stands to benefit from millions of dollars in income from this property, so there should be no PILOT. NRP and its residents will benefit from services provided by the city of Mount Vernon, but will not be paying for any.
For the past two years this property has been sitting empty. Its slowly being vandalized.
What do you think should happen with this property??
It was used for Light industrial & Offices for all of its life. Those tenants or buyers aren’t interested in this property anymore
Do you want a industrial use again ?? or just let it sit empty.
Mr Blackstone you obviously are unaware the the City Council recently did a walk through of 1 Bradford Road and remarked at a City Council meeting that the property was in considerably good shape, no vandalism was reported. You also are unaware that the reason no one is looking at the property is that certain promoters/developers aligned with City Council marketed the property for housing, affordable that is, after the “esteemed” ZBA rezoned it for housing. A new owner should have to keep within the current footprint of the property with out destroying the trees, landscape and the surrounding neighborhood. Mount Vernon does not need any more housing, it needs commerce. And yes, 20 year PILOT being requested for this unwanted unnecessary project…
I lived on Bradford Road for over 50 years. This is a horrible decision. It’s not going to improve the area! Mount Vernon used to be a wonderful place to live! Just as the other commenters have stated, this is going to help Pelham NOT Mount Vernon!! Past and present officials in charge of the city have done NOTHING to improve the community! They allowed the neighborhood to have gangs move in, they’ve allowed the area to be run down. Every summer, when the pool opens, there’s chaos. The public using the park and pool are slobs throwing garbage on residents’ lawns, in front of their homes, vandalizing resident’s cars, houses, etc.. the police do nothing but sit in the park and chat up the girls. I had to call the police numerous times because of young children being on the Metro North railroad tracks throwing rocks down on my cars, pets, and breaking my home’s windows!! Let’s see how long the people moving into this “affordable” apartment will put up with it!! A studio going for $1,700!!!!! I loved Westchester — but I had to move to Mahwah NJ to be able to afford a one bedroom at $1,375.00 in a QUIET beautiful area! I miss my childhood home, but I’m happy I no longer have to live where I had to worry about being robbed or killed.
Mount Vernon government officials never change! Stop the majority of good people from leaving the city!! Don’t you want people to live a lifetime there?? Again, all they want to do is perpetuate the idea of sports’ complexes or rap music as being the answer to fixing the problems in Mount Vernon. They’ve been whining about fixing the city for all of my life — 58 YEARS!! Why can’t Mount Vernon be a JEWEL in Westchester??? They should just level the building, clean up the land, and enlarge the park so it’s a place where people from all over can enjoy it. I always thought the best time there was in the winter — no crowds, the park was beautiful to walk though.