With much of Armonk up in arms following the news that a CVS pharmacy would replace the town”™s A&P grocery store in early 2012, the developers of the long-stagnant Armonk Square project saw an opening.
On June 17, the square”™s developers submitted revised plans to the North Castle Town Board that included a 25,000 space for a grocery store, a move that has made the development relevant again, said the attorney representing the developers.
“We”™ve had a lot of activity from restaurants, banks and other potential tenants since we”™ve started talking to the town about the food market,” said Anthony Veneziano, owner and principal of Veneziano and Associates in Armonk, which represents primary developers Alan Zaretsky of AZ Reservoir L.L.C., based in Scarsdale, and Dominic Dioguardi of  Poughkeepsie Development L.L.C., based in Poughkeepsie.
The “Market in Armonk Square,” which Veneziano has dubbed the addition, replaces three of the five buildings that were part of the previous Armonk Square plan that was approved by the town board in 2008. To account for the extra traffic that will likely be generated by the addition of a grocery store, the current plan brings the total parking spaces from 118 to 190.
“The Market in Armonk Square allows us to lease 25,000 square feet, which will anchor the project and allow for the build-out of the entire project,” Veneziano said.
At the June 17 meeting, the town board referred the proposal to the planning board, which will review the amendments to the 2008 plan along with updated traffic studies and other materials.
“They (the developers) will have to come back and get amended approval from the Planning Board,” said North Castle director of planning Adam Kaufman. “This is an important project and we”™re going to review it quickly and thoroughly,” he said. Following planning board approval, the developers would then need the town board to give its final blessing to the plan before they could start construction.
The recent acquisition by AZ Ventures L.L.C., another Zaretsky company, of the half-acre property at 29 Maple Avenue in Armonk, formerly the site of Beascakes Bakery, opened the door to the possibility of incorporating a food market into the plans, Veneziano said.
That purchase brought the total size of the Armonk Square property to 3.43 acres and the total square footage of the proposed development to 52,995.
That number includes 10,324 square feet of residential space, 4,301 square feet of retail space, 2,930 square feet of office space, 3,814 for a bank, 2,425 for a restaurant, and 3,601 square feet of commercial space ”“ all of which would be housed inside two two-story combined-use buildings adjacent to Main Street in Armonk that are unchanged from the 2008 plan.
“We”™ve spoken to food stores that are in the area and others that want to penetrate this area as well as brokers representing those interests,” Veneziano said, but added that more formal discussions would have to wait until after the plan”™s approval. “We haven”™t advanced it because we want to continue to work with the Town Board and the Planning Board to move this forward.”
Because roughly half the site will remain identical to what was already approved in 2008, Veneziano hopes for plan approval by the town board within six months.
In the amended plan, the developers asked the town board to include the former Beascakes property in the Armonk Square zoning district as well as requesting special use permit approval for the grocery store, because the store encompasses more than 5,000 square feet.
Both Veneziano and North Castle Supervisor William Weaver said that there is widespread support for having a grocery store in Armonk Square.
“The origin for the food market comes from others approaching my clients, who are both Armonk residents,” Veneziano said. “Many of the property owners and existing tenants support the financial energy that comes from having a food store adjacent to the core portion of the hamlet.”
The only possible sticking point Kaufman foresees is truck access to the property during construction.
“We had a traffic study for the first Armonk Square project,” he said. “It”™s certainly going to be something we”™re going to look at and confirm that it”™s going to be okay.”
“We”™re going to have our traffic consultant work with the town”™s consultant with both construction-related traffic and operational traffic to ensure that all issues are mitigated,” Venezianosaid, adding that he does not see any major changes to the initial traffic study that was completed for the 2008 plan. In addition, he said additional parking should help to lessen congestion in the area once it is competed.
