Memorial scheduled for developer Joseph Cotter

On Saturday, Nov. 9, a memorial service will be held to honor the late developer Joseph Cotter of Greenwich-based National Resources. Cotter died of a heart attack on Oct. 25. The memorial will be held at 10 a.m. at the Robert Halmi Sr. Academy of Film and Television, 463 Hawthorne Ave., Yonkers. The event will be held in a tent and organizers advise those planning to attend to be sure to wear appropriate footwear and outerwear.

Cotter was president of National Resources. Under his and Lynne Ward’s leadership, National Resources engaged in numerous projects in many communities in the New York Metro area and Hudson Valley. National Resources employed almost 100 people.

National Resources transformed Yonkers into Hollywood on Hudson through its work with Great Point Studios to bring the Lionsgate Studios TV and film production complex to downtown Yonkers. Other movie and TV studio campuses followed in Yonkers and include the Robert Halmi Sr. Academy of Film and Television, a public high school for Grades 6 through 12, on the former Leake & Watts property. Plans to build five new soundstages on the campus have been submitted to Yonkers and currently are going through the approval process.

National Resources has played a key role in the development of the Hudson River waterfront including the 24-acre Hudson Harbor community in Tarrytown, and the 26-acre Edgewater Harbor in Edgewater, New Jersey. In addition, National Resources is well-known for its signature i.Park campuses in Yonkers, East Fishkill, Ulster, and Norwalk, Connecticut.

Last year, Cotter was honored at the Business Council of Westchester’s Annual Hall of Fame program, receiving the Entrepreneurial Business Success Award while he and Lynne Ward have received several awards from Urban Land Institute and NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.