The inherent uncertainties of large-scale residential development in New York have been further exacerbated by the uncertain economy, according to representatives of four high-profile residential developments in the northern Hudson Valley. But each of these projects at least is continuing, albeit at a cautious pace.
“We are going to be slow to start the projects up,” said Dan Simone vice president of engineering and planning for AVR Development of Yonkers, which is creating the 1680 unit Hudson Landing project on the shores of the Hudson River in Kingston and the town of Ulster.
The Hudson Landing project has completed an onerous eight-year environmental review process and may begin roughing out the internal road network this summer. AVR is hoping to present a site plan this fall, but is watching the market. “Hopefully we”™ll get some sense of what the market is going to do and carry us through to a  preliminary site plan with a couple of hundred units,” said Simone. “But right now we don”™t really know what is selling because nothing is selling.”
The Knolls of Dover in the town of Dover in Dutchess county is a mixed use development by the Benjamin Companies of Long Island: a 931-acre transit-oriented project on both sides of state Route 22  around the Metro-North Railroad Station in Wingdale.
The project is seeking a walkable community on two parcels, including the 848-acre site of the Harlem Valley Psychiatric hospital purchased from the state for $4 million in 2003. The proposed development has 1,376 housing units, approximately 240,000 square feet of commercial space and 100,0000 square feet of community or recreation space.
“We”™re completing baby steps,” said Kathy Schibanoff, the local liaison for Benjamin Company. “We finished with our SEQRA process on May 12. After six and a half years, the town board of Dover adopted the findings. Our next step is to do site plan application.”
The Silo Ridge Resort in Amenia has received the last in a series of approvals, completing the regulatory process and moving the project to the site plan review phase, raising hopes for a grand opening of the complex in 2012.
Situated on state Route 22 in the town of Amenia on the current site of the Silo Ridge Country Club, the 670-acre site master development plan calls for a 300-unit condo-style hotel, an 18 hole golf course, a hilltop winery, 338 dwelling units consisting of 297 condominiums including town homes, golf villas, vineyard cottages and 41 single-family homes; and a village center.
“We are in the final stages of securing financing and expect to start next year,” said Mike Dignacco, vice president of construction for Millbrook Ventures, the company developing the Silo Ridge Resort Community.
The Carvel Property Development in Pine Plains a “golf and second home community” as described by developer Douglas Durst, will feature an 18-hole golf course as the centerpiece of a development that contains 624 residential lots, ranging in size from quarter-acre to more than 10 acres. Of these lots, 195 are pre-existing residential lots in the previously approved Sports City Estates subdivision. Pine Plains holds 572 of the total proposed lots; 52 are in Milan. Of the project”™s 2,200 acres, about 1,400 acres are to be protected as open space,
The company is working with the town to finalize a new zoning regimen and is keeping an eye on the market, but believes a recovery will aid its marketing efforts by the time it is ready to build. “We”™re still a few years away from going to market on this project, so we”™re not really hurt by it (the current slump),” said Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for the Durst organization.
