Green light for downtown redevelopment
A long-stalled White Plains developer will pursue tenants and financing for a $7 million mixed-use redevelopment project on downtown Main Street after getting a recent go-ahead for the project”™s first phase from the White Plains Common Council.
Anthony “A.J.” Rotonde, a partner in Ridgemour-Meyer Properties L.L.C., said the developer will decide within one month whether to build a residential tower or business-oriented hotel in air rights space above the Main Street block in the project”™s second phase, estimated at $15 million. The project architect told city officials the more likely choice is a 120-room to 140-room, seven-story hotel that would be built atop a two-story retail building.
The city council approved the developer”™s first-phase plans to build nearly 15,000 square feet of new retail space in the former A&P store at 250 Main St. and add a second floor to adjoining Main Street buildings with approximately 17,700 square feet of retail space and 9,000 square feet of office space. Rotonde said he is looking for a single tenant for the office space.
The development would be connected by covered pedestrian walkways to the City Center parking garage. The city, according to a Common Council member, stands to receive approximately $580,000 in fees from the developer for use of the City Center garage.
The Metropolitan Plaza developer already has renovated a row of storefronts with existing tenants at 258-270 Main St. Anthony”™s Coal Fired Pizza, a South Florida-based restaurant chain, and Pearl Yogurt opened there in renovated space in 2010.
Rotonde said Chipotle Mexican Grill, one of the country”™s fastest-growing restaurant franchises, has signed a lease for 2,200 square feet in the former A&P building. The developer also has had talks with a prospective retail tenant for the building”™s second-floor addition and with several hotel operators.
“The market is very, very strong” for a hotel, project architect Conrad J. Roncati told city officials. “We feel very positive about this.”
“I”™d love to build a hotel downtown,” Rotonde said. Another hotel is needed in White Plains to accommodate business travelers, he said.
Rotonde and development partner William Meyer began acquiring properties for the Main Street project in 2002. They later partnered with Ginsburg Development Cos. on a proposed high-rise condominium project, The Pinnacle, and retail development on the block. That project fizzled with the economy and left the developers entangled in legal and financial disputes that led Ridgemour-Meyer Properties to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008. Rotonde presented the scaled-down development proposal after Ridgemour-Meyer in 2009 agreed to pay $5.7 million to Ginsburg Development to settle the former partner”™s claim on the Main Street property.
White Plains Councilman Dennis Power called the Metropolitan Plaza project “a good shot in the arm for downtown White Plains.”
Mayor Adam Bradley said Rotonde”™s project already has made “a tremendous difference” in the look of Main Street. The project, he said, “shows that White Plains is continuing to revitalize at a time when many other communities are having trouble doing it.”