It was a concert night at The Capitol Theatre, which meant on-street parking in Port Chester”™s downtown was scarce. A regular customer of Los Gemelos Restaurant and Tortilleria on Westchester Avenue did a few spins around the block, couldn”™t find a spot and parked at St. Peter”™s Episcopal Church.
Parking in the private lot is illegal, but the customer figured he could run into the restaurant, grab a two-taco takeout dinner and be back out before his rogue parking bothered anyone. Turns out he was wrong: The customer emerged to a booted car and a $75 penalty fee.
Last week, Rye Town officials agreed to sell Town Hall and its parking lot on Pearl Street for $1.85 million to a development partnership headed by the owners of The Capitol and Neri”™s Bakery. The partnership plans to convert the parking lot into an 850-spot, tiered parking garage to address the area”™s dearth of parking, particularly on event nights.
Neri”™s, headquartered on Pearl Street adjacent to the Town Hall parking lot, has been in business for 100 years. Dominick Neri, the bakery”™s president and CEO, said the partnership formed in response to the blossoming of the neighborhood.
“I think it”™s a good marriage for Neri”™s and The Capitol,” he said. “We need the parking weekdays during the days, we don”™t need them after 6 o”™clock, which is when they need them.”
Neri said there were several other parcels that he and his associates may look to buy for added parking or further development. Some envision the neighborhood catering to The Capitol crowd by bringing in cafes or cocktail lounges that will further entice out-of-town visitors to make an evening out of going to a concert.
The village, once an industrial hub that housed the headquarters of companies such as Life Savers and Fruit of the Loom, fell on hard times in the 1970s and 1980s as commercial enterprises left en masse and the Italian-American population Port Chester was known for moved elsewhere in the county.
Today, as a renewed downtown emerges as a dining and entertainment destination, parking issues abound on the often overlooked west side of the Metro-North Railroad tracks. Revitalization projects, including the construction of big-box stores and a movie theater, have mostly focused on the east side of the tracks near the Byram River.
When The Capitol relaunched last year ”“ bringing national acts and an influx of visitors to the village ”“ the buzz spread off the Main Street corridor to an area where parking was already at a premium. The Capitol, on Westchester Avenue at the intersection near Pearl Street, has a capacity of a couple thousand and has welcomed marquee talent such as Bob Dylan, Courtney Love and Billy Idol since its relaunch. The owners currently lease nearby lots for use on concert nights.
Adelo Ramirez is the owner of Los Gemelos, which has been in business 13 years, and Pollos Al Carbon on Pearl Street, which opened only five weeks ago. Ramirez, who called the parking situation in the area “crazy,” was pleased by the prospect of the parking garage.
“When I heard about that, it blew my mind, that”™s what we needed,” he said. “Now people will have a place they know they could park that”™s safe and secure.” Ramirez lobbied the village to change its parking regulations in order to keep on-street parking turning over in the evenings.
Just last month, Port Chester increased its parking meter rates, from 75 cents to $1 for an hour, and extended paid-parking hours from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on streets and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in municipal lots. Ramirez hoped that the addition of a parking garage, combined with the new parking regulations, would encourage diners to visit eateries even on event nights at The Cap, as the theater is informally known.
Ken Manning, the president of the Port Chester-Rye Brook-Rye Town Chamber of Commerce, said the new lot would be a “big relief” to those scrambling to find spots in the area. He has discussed the possibility of establishing a trolley that will take passengers from the epicenter of the downtown to the area near The Capitol and farther up Westchester Avenue to other restaurants on the periphery.
“Everyone has a fair shot, it would be a terrific idea,” Manning said. “You”™re getting thousands of different people coming from different areas, so (with the trolley) they”™re not just targeted to the downtown area.”
Town Hall, made up of 11,800 square feet over three floors and a basement, will be leased out by the partnership, which will allow town government offices to remain in the building rent free until the end of the year. The building is nearly half vacant and in a state of disrepair, according to Rye Town Supervisor Joe Carvin. The sale of the property will put the currently tax exempt property back on the tax rolls, generating an estimated $65,000 in combined annual property taxes for the village, town, county and Port Chester school district. Selling off the property will save the town $100,000 in annual maintenance costs and $1 million that will be needed to renovate the building, Carvin said.
The town had sought to lease out the property, but eventually hired Harrison-based New York Commercial Realty to find a buyer instead. “We”™re not in the real estate business, we”™re in the municipal services business,” Carvin said.
Four bidders came forward, with the town choosing the partnership due to its flexibility in allowing Rye”™s municipal offices to remain in the building until year”™s end.
Town government in recent years has been downsizing and is considering dissolving altogether. Rye offers limited municipal services and in essence exists only in name. The town encompasses Port Chester, Rye Brook and a sliver of the Rye Neck section of the village of Mamaroneck, meaning there is no geographic area of the town that is not part of its villages. If the town were to dissolve, its villages would become coterminus town-villages similar in operation to Mount Kisco, Scarsdale and Harrison.
Carvin said that the sale of Town Hall is the type of move governments must make at a time when property taxes are becoming unaffordable for residents and businesses. “Our cost structure in this country is too high ”“ look at Detroit ”“ the cost of government is too high,” he said. “Ultimately the only way you can reduce tax rates is to reduce expenditures. ”¦If we don”™t do this at every level, there”™s no hope for business in New York state.”
The sale of Town Hall, approved by a majority of the Rye Town Council last month, comes with a 30-day waiting period before an agreement can officially be signed. When the town offices are moved out, they will be relocated to Port Chester Village Hall on Grace Church Street. Although a lease with Port Chester hasn”™t been confirmed, town officials expect to pay $67,500 per year in rent to the village.
