New Rochelle has given site plan approval to ML Garden LLC for the construction of the third and final phase of its Garden Street project. The first phase is a six-story building that was completed in the summer of 2021. It includes the new home of the Westchester Family Court that serves the area, with two courtrooms, three hearing rooms, judge’s chambers, and offices for non-judicial staff. There are two floors reserved as commercial space on top of the court facility. The second phase of the project was for a 24-story tower that has 186 affordable housing units.
The third phase of the project is for a 28-story apartment building along with the construction of elevator access to the two floors of commercial space above the family court. All of the units in the new building would be priced as affordable housing.
Kathleen Bradshaw general counsel of ML Garden LLC, told the New Rochelle Planning Board that the project is on approximately 0.44-acre.
“We are proposing 211 apartments all to be affordable,” Bradshaw said. “We have approximately 2,763 square feet of retail space at the ground floor and there will be some office space, which is going to provide an elevator and lobby as well as some parking for two floors of commercial space.”
She said that rental rates for the apartments will be priced to be affordable to people earning from 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI) to as low as 40% of the AMI.
“We have 36 studios, 106 one-bedrooms and 69 two-bedroom units,” Bradshaw said. “The retail space on the ground floor is going to be at the level of the sidewalk and the facade will accommodate the commercial spaces as well as the lobby entrance for the building. We have 321 parking spaces in the building. Two levels will be below grade and 10 levels will be above grade. We are proposing that the exit from the parking garage onto Garden Street is going to have a ‘right turn only’ exit heading toward North Avenue.”
Architect Brian Newman of the firm Newman Design said that the architectural style of the new building would blend with the designs of the completed buildings. He said that the two lower levels of parking are anticipated to be for use by the commercial spaces with the upper levels for use by residents of the building. He said that the eleventh floor would be the lowest residential floor of the building and would have a recreation room of about 2,000 square feet along with an outdoor roof terrace with a seating area that could be used by residents.
In July of 2019, the Westchester County Board of Legislators approved a 30-year lease for 35,000 square feet of space for the new Family Court. Among the matters Family Court handles are adoption, child custody, guardianship and paternity, as well as cases of child abuse and neglect and cases of domestic violence.
