Shelbourne Assisted Living told the Greenburgh Town Board that it wants to buy a longtime nursery property in the Edgemont section of town and build a roughly 2.5-story assisted living complex.
Representatives of the company spoke with town elected officials for the first time at their May 13 work session and offered a general framework of a plan that would construct roughly 90 units offered for monthly rents of $3,000 to slightly more than $6,000.
Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, a Democrat, said he expected that the entire review process for any proposal would take two years or longer. He said he has advised Shelbourne to meet with local civic groups, the fire department and public school leaders as it shapes an official proposal.
“This is a very preliminary discussion ”“ first discussion that the Town Board has had with the applicant,” Feiner said in an email. “We want to advise the community what”™s happening early in our process.”
Feiner said he was looking to convince the company to agree to build a pocket park and walking trail near the complex that could be used for facility residents and also the community at large. Feiner said he had seen a similar trail built around an assisted living facility in the state of Florida. The company has so far been receptive to offering several of the units at discounted rates, Feiner said.
Armonk-based John Meyer Consulting P.C. is the consultant for the project, Feiner told the Business Journal. A call to the company seeking comment or verification of the logistics of the proposal was not returned.
The assisted living complex could generate as much as $600,000 in property taxes without increasing the number of children in the Edgemont public school system, according to early estimates. Half of the property taxes would go to the schools, Feiner said.
“Edgemont and local residents who require assisted living will have more options to age in their local neighborhood,” Feiner said. “And members of the community who would like to live close to their elderly parents who need assisted living services will benefit from a neighborhood complex.”
The property in question is the former Sprainbrook Nursery, known as a community mainstay and destination for organic gardening products. It was in business for nearly 70 years, but financial hard times brought owner Al Krautter to close the store in 2012, reopen in 2013 and eventually decide to close again.
When Krautter announced the closing in 2012, residents formed a group to try to preserve the area as open space for fear of the property being developed.
When an official proposal is formulated, the developer will need to obtain several variances from the town. The consultant to Shelbourne told the town that Shelbourne anticipates a decrease in traffic during peak times as compared with the traffic generated by the nursery.
