The city of White Plains is looking to redevelop the “functionally obsolete” transit hub at the downtown train station into a vibrant corridor, according to its request for bidders to study the idea.
A $1 million grant awarded to the city by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority through its Cleaner, Greener Communities program is helping to back the yearlong project.
The grant and $250,000 from the city will fund the salary for a new position that will oversee the stakeholder task force and a consulting firm to research and develop preliminary planning, design and engineering ideas for the roughly 0.5-mile radius around the train station.
- Map courtesy city of White Plains
The NYSERDA money was granted to the city in December 2013, but moving forward with the request for proposals has been held up by talks between the agency and the city about final agreements on the project, according to Karen M. Pasquale, senior adviser to White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach.
During that time, the city”™s planning commissioner, Elizabeth Chetney, was replaced by Christopher Gomez in June. Chetney held the position for about two years before being fired for unspecified reasons in January of this year.
White Plains is offering no more than $800,000 to the chosen consultant who will be expected to accomplish the project”™s five tasks starting in October and ending September 2016.
The five tasks are communicating regular project updates between the consultant and city; coordinating meetings with the stakeholder task force that includes representatives from the city, Metro-North Railroad and Westchester County; developing a public outreach plan; conducting baseline studies and producing an existing conditions report; and developing a preliminary projects plan and identifying funding sources.
The study is called the White Plains Multimodal Transportation Center Redevelopment Project and will consider the possibility of turning the current site into a transit-oriented development with complementary housing, retail and office space, according to the proposal document.
The area currently includes the Bee-Line TransCenter for the county buses, the train station, a parking garage and surface lot, White Plains Fire Department Station No. 2, the west portion of the business district, the east portion of the Battle Hill neighborhood, the Bronx River Parkway and the Westchester County Center.
The mayor hopes that redeveloping the area around the train station, which he said is the busiest north of New York City, will better connect visitors, residents and commuters with the city”™s downtown.
“A lot of people that come in on the train overestimate how far it is to downtown ”” it just seems longer when you”™re walking down sterile corridors,” Roach said. “It”™s not efficient, not attractive, not in keeping with the volume that has developed there.”
- Street view of the White Plains train station.
And the traffic numbers likely will not be decreasing any time soon.
The project proposal instructs applicants to account for a bus rapid transit system ”” composed of seven lines, five of which would intersect in White Plains ”” that has been proposed to connect Westchester and Rockland counties via the new Tappan Zee Bridge.
Two residential and retail towers were approved by the Westchester County Industrial Development Agency earlier this year at 55 Bank St. that will include 562 combined market and affordable apartment units and 6,400 square feet of retail space. The address is less than a quarter-mile from the train station, which Roach described as “extremely valuable real estate.” “We want to have this study to determine what”™s best for this city and then go out to developers.”
This way, he said, the city can get a better development proposal later on by “giving people a target to shoot at” and create goals that align with needs voiced by the stakeholders.
The study”™s completion, Gomez said, and a “formulated strategic plan that”™s based in reality” is going to inform a “strong, fundable plan moving forward.”
The city”™s announcement of the request for proposal revives a nearly decade-long hiatus of serious discussion about redeveloping the area around the train station.
Developer Louis R. Cappelli had proposed a $1 billion mixed-use concept in 2007 that would have incorporated three towers and 1.5 million square feet of office space near the station. Facing the onset of the Great Recession and criticism from city officials and competing developers, Cappelli withdrew his proposal the same year.
Applications for project bidders will be accepted until 4 p.m. Aug. 28.
