A divided Mount Vernon City Council ended the year by narrowly approving measures that will speed the way for New York City development partners to move ahead with plans to build a luxury apartment tower and privatize a city parking garage at a busy corner in the city”™s Fleetwood business district.
Opponents of the $85 million to $90 million project at 42 Broad Street West proposed by Alexander Development Group said they are considering a legal challenge to the council”™s decision to support the residential and retail development and turn over management of an adjacent parking garage on Broad Street to the developer and more than half of its existing 411 parking spaces for exclusive tenant use.
- A rendering of the planned 18-story, approximately 269,000-square-foot building at 42 Broad Street West in the Fleetwood section of Mount Vernon.
Alexander Development, based in Manhattan, and its co-developer, The Bluestone Organization in Queens, plan to build 249 market-rate rental units in a 16-story building and about 14,600 square feet of street-level retail space on a site currently occupied by a MetroFresh supermarket. Responding to concerns heard from Fleetwood residents about living in the tower”™s shadow and its view-obstructing height, the developer scaled down the proposed development from 18 stories without reducing the number of rental units.
By a 3-2 vote, the City Council at its Dec. 23 meeting approved a special zoning permit allowing the multifamily dwelling to be built in the downtown business district.
Based on an environmental assessment form submitted by Alexander Development, the same Council majority found the 42 Broad project would have no significant adverse environmental impact, allowing the developer to skip the costly, detailed and time-consuming environmental impact statements required of most developments of that size in Westchester.
With the City Council”™s approvals in hand, Alexander Development will present site plans to the Mount Vernon Planning Board at its Jan. 7 meeting. The developer also must clear a project design review by the city”™s Architectural Review Board before demolition of the existing building on the site can begin. Construction is slated to be completed in 18 months.
“Our goal would be to complete the approvals process by the end of February or early March,” said Mark Alexander, president of Alexander Development Group.
For the developer, “The (City) Council was the biggest hurdle,” said Mount Vernon Councilman Richard Thomas. Thomas, executive director of the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance in Manhattan, cast one of the two votes opposing the resolutions supporting  the project.
“I am pro-development,” said Thomas, the former director of the regional office of Gov. David Paterson. “I”™m personally conflicted. I want to see a structure go up, but I don”™t want to see it go up haphazardly.” City officials supporting the project as proposed “really have given very little thought to the issues involved in a very important decision,” Thomas said.
Alexander Development, which has said it will not seek any tax abatements for 42 Broad, estimated the project will generate about $3,750 in annual property taxes, or approximately $933,750 annually for the full building.
Thomas, though, claimed the project “is not paying its fair share of taxes.”
Fleetwood business owners and residents opposing the project have blasted the city”™s plan to turn over management of the underused parking garage that adjoins the development site to the developer, who is expected to spend up to $4 million in renovating it. Alexander plans to expand parking capacity to 580 spaces after the residential tower is completed, 331 of which will be available for use by Fleetwood visitors, shoppers, merchants and employees.
Anthony Guarino, owner of Yannantuono Funeral Home in Mount Vernon and a leading opponent of the project among Fleetwood merchants, said the Council decided to privatize the parking garage and award its management to the 42 Broad developer without soliciting competitive bids. He said opponents “are in discussions right now” with attorneys about what legal options they might have to challenge the Council”™s decisions.
He indicated opponents are considering filing an Article 78 petition in court that would seek to overturn the Council”™s approvals of the project.
“The residents and merchants in the area are very concerned about the agreement for the municipal; parking lot,” Guarino said.
Thomas, the city councilman, said it would be cheaper for the city to borrow money to renovate the garage and use a $500,000 state grant awarded to the city for that purpose. “Instead, we”™re turning over the ownership and control of the lease to the developer” without issuing a request for proposals, he said.
Thomas said the 42 Broad project has both supporters and opponents among Fleetwood business owners.
Kenneth Plummer, a project spokesman for Alexander Development at Kensworth Consulting in Mount Vernon, said, “The vast majority of merchants in Fleetwood have put in writing their support or the project.”
Asked about the prospect that opponents will challenge the Council”™s decision with a lawsuit, Alexander said, “It”™s their choice. We think there are no grounds whatsoever. We and the city professionals were very, very diligent” throughout the review and approval process so as not “to provide any good reason for an Article 78 action.”
“We think we”™re going to have a project that benefits everyone,” both its supporters and opponents, Alexander said.
