Harrison Metro-North project likely to be announced Friday

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is expected to announce the details of a transit-oriented development project at the Harrison train station, decades after the project was first hatched and nearly three years after the bid process closed.

AvalonBay Communities Inc. is expected to be named the developer out of two companies that bid for the work in 2011. After the bidding closed in October 2011, the company was chosen as the preferred developer by the MTA, which entered into an exclusivity agreement with the developer in December 2012, according to authority documents.

An official announcement can come as early as Friday, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Town and MTA officials and the developer did not return inquiries for comment Thursday. The next MTA board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.

The long-discussed project centers on the 3.3-acre MTA-owned property at the corner of Halstead and Harrison avenues, the main intersection in Harrison”™s downtown. An agreement between the town government and the Metro-North Railroad, which is owned by the MTA, was originally struck with the intention that the railroad would give the three-parking-lot property outside of the train station to Harrison in exchange for the town building a 600-unit parking garage. A development there was envisioned to include residential, retail and municipal uses to create a new Town Center.

The town said in 2011 it had only received two bids to develop the parcel, but due to a confidentiality agreement there was never any public discussion by town officials of the terms of those bids or confirmation as to who the bidders were. AvalonBay was told by the MTA to develop a project plan so the plan could be officially voted on by the MTA board and Harrison town government.

The Town Center project has been a talking point in Harrison dating back to the 1980s, with the hope that a development there would spark a revitalization of the downtown area, which has seen some empty storefronts and light foot traffic in recent years.