Both the New York State Senate and Assembly have passed legislation that allows White Plains to sell or lease the Galleria garage property for use in redevelopment of the approximately 10-acre site where the 865,000-square-foot shopping mall once thrived. The Home Rule legislation was necessary to lift restrictions associated with the site having been a prime part of the city’s downtown urban renewal program, which was highlighted by the Galleria’s opening in 1980.
The state legislation authorizes White Plains to “sell, lease for a term not exceeding ninety-nine years, or otherwise dispose of, to any person, firm or corporation, without public auction or sealed bids, subject to such conditions as it may impose for the service of the public and the protection of the public interest, four parcels of property owned by the City of White Plains included on the Urban Renewal Plan for the Central Renewal Project (NY R-37).”
The Home Rule legislation had been requested from the state legislature by the White Plains Common Council. The legislation describes the property as having been operated as the former Galleria of White Plains public parking garage. It says that the sale or lease, if the city decides that’s what it wants to do, must be “for the purpose of facilitating a transit-oriented residential and commercial development project that will include affordable housing and contain public spaces, provided that such person, firm or corporation shall make available an adequate amount of public parking, public space, and affordable housing as determined by the City of White Plains.”
John Callahan, the city’s corporation counsel and chief of staff, told the Business Journals that the city has not yet made a decision on the disposition of the property and the garage will remain open for the foreseeable future. Galleria owner Pacific Retail Capital Partners closed the mall on March 31 after bringing in Westchester Developer Louis Cappelli and SL Green Realty for the planned mixed-use redevelopment of the site. An early concept that Pacific had made public showed that the garage would be redeveloped along with the mall’s footprint.
“This (the legislation) gives the council more flexibility to deal with opportunities when they come in,” Callahan said. He said that the state’s requirements that any deal include affordable housing, public space and public parking are three things that the city would require of any developer.
In response to a question about whether people who currently park at the garage need to find another place, Callahan said, “Nobody needs to be concerned in the near future at all. It’s fully open over there. We don’t have the need we once had but there’s no proposal to not have much of that parking available. There’s a possibility we could close off some of it so we’ll have less to patrol, to sort of condense where people are parking. People who are parking in there now shouldn’t be concerned that next week, next month, in six months from now they still wouldn’t still be able to go park in the Galleria parking garage.”
Callahan said that no site plans for redevelopment of the Galleria have been submitted but when they are there will be full public review process, just as the process for reaching a decision on the status of the parking garage will be transparent.
