The Yonkers Planning Board has approved the development of a 17-story mixed-use commercial and residential building containing 282 units at 22 Lembo St., which is in the Ridge Hill lifestyle center. The building, which would be known as The Ibex, would have approximately 4,823 square feet of retail space and approximately 16,406 square feet of residential amenity space.
In its application to the Yonkers Industrial Development Agency (IDA) for financial assistance for the project, developer Saber-Hightower LLC estimated the total cost of the project as $144.7 million. It estimated that construction would start in July of this year and would take 30 months. It estimated that 297 construction jobs would be created.
Attorney Janet Giris of the White Plains-based law firm DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Wiederkehr LLP told the IDA, “Not only will there be benefits to the city and the community in terms of jobs and the investment, but there will also be the secondary economic impact with the people who were living there who will be able to shop there, and that in turn will generate additional sales tax revenue for the city as well and I know you benefit from that directly so that’s another added secondary economic benefit.”
The developer Saber-Hightower LLC is based in Briarcliff Manor. The co-founders of Saber-Hightower are Martin Berger, Gregory Belew and Doug Browne. Among the company’s projects are The Lively Apartments in Jersey City, Rivertown Square in Dobbs Ferry, The Smyth in Stamford and Hudson Heritage in Poughkeepsie.
“The applicant is a very experienced developer, they are doing this as a rental project,” Giris had told the Planning Board as it was close to wrapping up its review of the project. “And they are very confident in their market studies and their ability to deliver a luxury product and to be able to lease that product.”
The developer plans to have 435 spaces dedicated to the building in the adjacent Market Street Garage. Parking spaces on the first, second and third levels of the garage would continue to be made available for public use. Spaces on the third, fourth and fifth levels would be reserved for residents of the building. A gate would be used to keep the public out of those floors and allow access for tenants.
A study by DTS Provident Design Engineering pointed out that the existing garage serves various facilities within Ridge Hill, especially the Whole Foods supermarket. It said that Whole Foods patrons tend to park on Level 2. On Level 1, some Whole Foods patrons park but a large portion of the people parking their vehicles on that floor are employees of Whole Foods, Summit Health and other businesses.
“Observations of the parking garage demonstrate that there is sufficient parking in this garage, including to support the proposed residential use,” the DTS study said. “Many of the existing parking spaces are vacant, especially the upper floors that get further away from the Whole Foods entrance.”
The building would have a unit mix of 33 studios, 127 one-bedroom apartments, 13 one-and-a-half-bedroom units, 97 two-bedroom units and 12 three-bedroom apartments. Planned amenities include a landscaped garden area, outdoor pool, yoga and fitness rooms, and a lounge area located on the ground floor. There would be approximately 4,750 square feet of additional outdoor and indoor amenity space on the 17th floor.
The building would provide new landscaping at ground level as well as green roof areas. It would be all-electric and would be designed to permit installation of solar cells. Each unit would have a washer and dryer.
