A developer is looking to build a 50-unit residential building on Port Chester”™s Pearl Street, in walking distance to the village”™s train station.
AGD North Pearl L.L.C. is seeking approvals to build a five-story building at 120 N. Pearl St., currently the site of Four Star Auto Glass. The first floor would include the lobby and amenities, with the residential units on the four stories about ground level.
White Plains-based Papp Architects P.C. designed the building targeting young professionals and commuters, according to Philip A. Fruchter, principal with the firm.
“It”™s going to have an urban, young aesthetic,” he said. The property will come with a gym and would add roughly three students to the Port Chester public school district.
The building would have a terracotta exterior that would be complementary to the masonry aesthetics of the neighborhood, near the corner of King Street and around the corner from a newly thriving strip of Westchester Avenue that includes the Capitol Theatre and a number of eateries.
The exterior of the property will include a spa pool and barbecue deck for residents, screened from neighboring properties through the shape of the property and with trees and other plant life.
The building comes with an illuminated tower on the building”™s southeast corner that will act as a beacon for the community and serve as an iconic aspect of the design. “This will be fairly unique,” Fruchter said.
The new building would have 15 studio apartments, 26 one-bedroom units and nine two-bedroom units. In total, the building would have 66,000 square feet of space with the apartment sizes varying based on size. Studios would be roughly 575 square feet, one-bedrooms 750 square feet and two bedrooms 1,000 square feet.
The 28,000-square-foot property is oddly shaped, carved into the side of a hill which is adorned with billboards. The auto glass building, parking lot and billboards would be demolished during construction of the residential building. A 46-space parking lot will be constructed as part of the building buried into the side of the hill.
“We did come up with a design that works with the topography rather than fights against it,” Fruchter said.
The village”™s land use boards had previously approved an application from a former owner of the property to build a 20-unit residential development at the property, according to the Westmore News, a weekly newspaper.
The applicant already presented the site plan to the village”™s Planning Board in March, but a public hearing and a number of land-use approvals are needed before the project breaks ground.
The property owner needs approval to build 50 units, which is about a dozen more units allowed under the current zoning code. Port Chester recently approved a “density bonus” program, which allows the village Board of Trustees to grant special permits in exchange for a developer offering a public benefit. In this case, that will likely mean a payment to one of several of the village”™s public improvement funds.
The density bonus and a variance need the trustees”™ and Zoning Board of Appeals approval, respectively, before the owner can advance to the public hearing stage.
