Mark Rattner outside the former post office in Mount Kisco, which his company has remade.
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The collective sprint into modernity has been known to bulldoze the past into tomorrow”™s subbasement. That blueprint has taken a detour in Mount Kisco via a public-private partnership both sides see as win-win.
Proponents of history and village character are winners from the sidelines.
Charles Martabano and Mark Rattner, principals of Mount Kisco-based Terrapin Capital Holdings L.L.C., have embraced both the old and the new in the 1936 village post office.
The old: 73-year-old banks of original brass mailboxes, twin Works Progress Administration murals of Native American and settler life in Mount Kisco, glass-panel arched doors at the entrance and a carved marble lintel that reads “Postmaster” in gold leaf.
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Charles Martabano, left, and Mark Rattner flank an old Otis Elevator control in Martabano”™s office inside the renovated post office.
“Part of the deal was that we leave the lobby as it was architecturally,” Martabano said. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. “Virtually every architectural detail that you see was preserved.”
The new: 4,500 square feet of completely modern office space, now ready to be marketed after four years”™ work. Where once the 3-cent stamp ruled, a lobby grand piano promises relaxed business gatherings. Mount Kisco-based Princeton Realty Group L.L.C. is handling the leasing. Rattner said, “We”™re looking for a single tenant.”
Martabano and Rattner demurred on the cost of renovations. “A lot,” said Martabano. Among the details, the “Postmaster” door jamb was used as a template for the remaining doorways, though they have been reframed in oak, not marble.
The building was leased to Terrapin by the village of Mount Kisco.
The post office had moved its facilities to a new building and the village ”“ wanting to preserve the centrally located old mail facility ”“ found itself for 13 years with something of a white elephant that sat largely idle except for occasional book sales. Where ghosts cavorted undisturbed, Martabano, the village attorney from 1980-1985, saw opportunity and approached village leaders with a plan. “They were very much enthusiastic,” he said. But Rattner deserves the credit, Martabano said: “He”™s really the man with the vision that made this happen.”
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Village Manager James Palmer said the deal restores functionality to a dormant building and provides an alternative revenue stream to real property taxes. “It is a unique opportunity for the village and the compensation is fair and not inconsistent with what other tenants would pay,” he said.
The lease is for $121,000 annually, Palmer said, but Terrapin receives a $30,000 break per year for its restoration outlays, bringing $91,000 annually to village coffers, plus, of course, whatever taxes and business activity a Terrapin tenant would contribute.
Palmer cited the post office and three like-themed village-private sector ventures as good for the taxpayers and good for business. Like the post office, the village made available its former volunteer ambulance headquarters, which is now home to Mario”™s Pizzeria. Mario”™s had lost its Main Street lease. Palmer called the deal “the perfect marriage.”
The village also leased vacant land on Kisco Avenue to a landscaper who parks work vehicles there: “It”™s well-hidden, perfect,” said Palmer, who credits Mayor J. Michael Cindrich, Deputy Mayor Peter DiChiara and the Mount Kisco Village Board: “They actively sought underutilized properties with an eye to producing non-real property tax revenues.”
