Critical mass?

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme- mso-fareast- mso-fareast-theme- mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme- mso-bidi- mso-bidi-theme-} “Time is of the essence on this job,” an official for Struever Fidelco Cappelli L.L.C. (SFC) warned again last week, urging Yonkers City Council officials to push through a thicket of issues and concerns arising from the developer”™s proposed $1.6 billion downtown and waterfront redevelopment plan and approve the project this fall.

More obstacles to be cleared as the clock ticks on the costly project in tighter and increasingly restrictive financial markets surfaced last week at City Hall. Those potential delays prompted that public reminder from Joseph V. Apicella, executive vice president at Cappelli Enterprises Inc. and SFC”™s executive project manager in Yonkers.           

The city firefighters union wants the SFC project for downtown Yonkers, but first wants the resources needed to protect its members if fire erupts in the high-rise residences the project would bring.

Hugh Fox, president of Local 628 Yonkers Firefighters, wants a sit-down with SFC and the city”™s fire commissioner to draw up provisions for more manpower, training and equipment. The union also opposes the developer”™s proposed temporary location for a downtown fire station at the Cacace Government CenterNepperhan Avenue during construction as unsafe and dilapidated.    on

An informal alliance of Yonkers churches, nonprofit organizations and residents wants to first negotiate with the developer to guarantee broader benefits from the project in the form of housing, jobs, community services and business development. Some City Council members, worried the alliance is too “loosey-goosey” in structure and legal standing, first want to know more about just who will administer any community benefits programs and developer”™s payments.

Council members, meeting at length behind closed doors last week to discuss property negotiations, also want to know more details about project financing. City consultants have estimated a $52 million shortfall in city-bond financing for project infrastructure costs, and Apicella last week said SFC will not raise its initial proposal for $200 million in tax increment financing through the city and county to pay for infrastructure costs. Council members want to know how and by whom the shortfall will be covered.

Also last week, the Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board was scheduled to hear a resident”™s application to have a six-story city office building at 87 Nepperhan Ave., the former Yonkers Health Center, protected from demolition by the developer as an architectural landmark. The landmark designation is opposed by both Mayor Philip Amicone and SFC officials, who have said that renovating the 1930s Art Deco building is not economically viable.

If the application is approved by the Landmarks Preservation Board, the City Council will have the final say on designating the building a landmark. Council President Chuck Lesnick last week said the council might reach a separate agreement with the developer to preserve elements of the building”™s carved stone facades in the parking and retail structure proposed for the site.  

Apicella said the developer has cut $13 million to $15 million by reducing parking spaces and eliminating noncritical vehicular and pedestrian bridges from the project. “The economics of the project become tighter and tighter as we”™re in a deeper and deeper recession,” he said.