An application that would have allowed the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles to move its White Plains office from the White Plains Mall to an office building at 3 Barker Ave. has been withdrawn.
The owner of the office building, 3 Barker Avenue LLC, had asked the city to approve a Government Use Permit that would have allowed the DMV to conduct government business in the office building. A public hearing that had been scheduled on the matter for last night”™s Common Council meeting was canceled as a result of the owner withdrawing its application for the permit.
The White Plains Mall is to be demolished to make way for the $585 million Hamilton Green, which is to include four buildings with a total of 860 apartments, more than 85,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 27,000 square feet devoted to coworking space, almost 1,000 parking spaces and a public park.
Plans for a DMV office at 3 Barker Ave. included a first-floor waiting area where people would have signed-in, second-floor space with service windows and other areas for getting licenses, filing vehicle registrations and completing other tasks. There would have been testing rooms, offices and employee lounges on the third floor.
Critics of the plan expressed concerns about parking availability and cost and the extra activity which would be taking place at the building, even though it was only a short distance from the DMV”™s current location at the mall.
When asked by the Business Journal, a source at the DMV in Albany declined to identify other possible sites for relocation of its White Plains office, saying that the state”™s Office of General Services (OGS) was responsible for the leasing of office space.
Heather Groll, deputy commissioner of communications for OGS, told the Business Journal, “This contract solicitation is in the restricted period and as such, OGS is not permitted to discuss it. The restricted period is the time between when a contract solicitation begins and when it is awarded.”
