Echo Bay enters next phase - Westfair Communications

Having just reached “a significant milestone” in the Echo Bay development process, New Rochelle now prepares for the lengthy environmental review of the project, said city Mayor Noam Bramson.

Last month, the city Common Council approved a memorandum of understanding with Developer Forest City Residential Inc, which is building the project.

“It describes the development program and lays out our timetable for proceeding,” said Bramson. “It”™s a very significant milestone along the road to reclaiming the waterfront.”

The next part of the process will be the environmental review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).

Bramson said the SEQRA process could take 18 months to 24 months.

“That”™s a reasonable estimate,” he said.

There will also be public hearings conducted throughout the process, he said.

As it currently stands, Echo Bay is a mixed-use development on 20 acres of waterfront that would include 600 luxury apartments, 100,000 square feet of small-shop retail, 62 waterfront town homes and 42 condominiums.

The project would also include a 15,000-square-foot community building, which would replace the old Armory building, which, amid controversy about preserving it, faces demolition.

The $450 million estimated price tag on the project would be financed through a public-private partnership, though Bramson has previously said that a large part of the cost would be borne by Forest City.

Forest City has estimated it will cost around $20 million to do the necessary environmental cleanup at the site.

Around 20 percent of the 600 apartments would be designated for affordable housing, which would be defined as 50 percent of the average median household income for the region.

The Echo Bay project is expected to break ground in 2010 or 2011.

Development of Echo Bay, an old waterfront industrial area, has been discussed since 2002, when the city hired a consulting firm to conduct a redevelopment study. In December 2006, Forest City Residential was chosen as developer for the project after the city sent out RFP”™s for the project.