Public officials in Mount Vernon say the Westchester County administration”™s denial of funding for a developer”™s affordable-housing project in the city is a bad business decision and broken promise that will deter other companies from investing in economic development in the county.
A top official for County Executive Robert P. Astorino said the county”™s first priority in allocating housing funds is to comply with its year-old federal housing settlement, which requires the county to develop 750 units of fair and affordable housing among 31 communities with small minority populations. Mount Vernon, seeking approximately $4 million in county housing funds, is not one of the eligible communities.
Atlantic Development L.L.C., a Manhattan developer, made its first business venture in Westchester this year with a three-phase, $120 million residential and retail project planned at the gateway to Mount Vernon”™s Gramatan Avenue business corridor. Atlantic last summer did demolition work at the Gramatan Avenue site of the project”™s $60 million first-phase development, a 337-unit apartment tower with 20,000 square feet of retail space. The cleared site this fall sits conspicuously idle behind a green board fence while the developer tries to pull together a construction financing package without the county”™s expected $4 million contribution.
“It”™s made things a little difficult,” said Atlantic Development spokeswoman Julie Halpin. “Right now, it”™s just a matter of getting the financing together without that money” from the county. “It is having an impact.”
Westchester County Legislator Lyndon D. Williams, an attorney in Mount Vernon and former city council member, said the county made a commitment to partner with Atlantic Development on the housing project during the administration of former County Executive Andrew J. Spano. “These (Atlantic Development) people worked with the Westchester Planning Department for years,” he said. “All they have to show for it is an empty open space in the middle of the city.”
George Oros, Astorino”™s chief of staff, said he and the county executive met last summer with the developer, Williams and Mount Vernon Mayor Clinton Young. Assessing its per-unit development cost, Oros said the administration judged the project was not cost-efficient. “We did indicate that as it was presently structured, we were not going to move it forward,” Oros said. “They were very disappointed, obviously.”
The county does not have a housing fund reserve and must issue bonds to finance projects such as Atlantic”™s, Oros said. “There isn”™t this pot of gold set aside. We do have to focus on the (federal) settlement areas,” though the county will bond for some projects outside those municipalities, he said.
Williams noted the Atlantic project will create 305 construction jobs over its three phases and an estimated 76 permanent jobs in a city with the highest unemployment rate in Westchester. With annual county sales taxes projected at $644,000 when the three-year project is fully built, the county would recoup its $4 million investment in about six years, he said.
Williams quoted Astorino”™s recent remarks at the opening of the new Gateway Center at Westchester Community College, where he said the county must be “proactive partners” with business and “the booster rocket, not the fire extinguisher” for businesses here.
“If the county is trying to boost job creation, then clearly they would be committed to a project that pays back the county investment in the shortest time of probably any project in the pipeline,” Williams said.
Williams said Atlantic Development invested in Mount Vernon “with the expectation that the county would actually keep its word. What message is this sending to another business looking to come in? It says people ought to really be looking elsewhere. It sends a very, very bad signal to the business community.”
At Mount Vernon City Hall, Mayor Young said the county”™s backing off from the Atlantic project “is just not a good business decision” for both the county and city. “We”™re proceeding with hope there will be a mind change in county government. This $4 million is so desperately needed,” he said.
Oros, a former county legislator, said he voted against the federal settlement last year because of “an unintended consequence” ”“ communities with sizeable minority populations such as Mount Vernon would be deprived of affordable-housing funds.
“Mount Vernon has carried this county in terms of low-income and affordable housing,” Young said. “We”™ve carried the county on our own shoulders for so long, and we don”™t deserve this kind of treatment.”
