A Long Island-based developer has been picked by city officials in New Rochelle to explore a residential development with retail shops in place of run-down public parking areas on downtown Main Street.
Albanese Organization Inc., a privately owned commercial and residential real estate company in Garden City, will work with city officials on a 90-day due-diligence review of the mixed-use project. That could lead to a more formal memorandum of understanding between the city and the developer.
Albanese was chosen from four developers that submitted qualifications to the city to redevelop a 4.5-acre site that includes the municipal Church-Division parking garage and Prospect Street parking lot. The underused area is within walking distance of the New Rochelle Transit Center, the city”™s hub of mass-transit-oriented development and sustainable planning.
The city”™s 2009 planning analysis for the Main Street project area envisioned mid-scale residential construction on the site consistent with its neighborhood context. City officials said the 90-day review, for which Albanese will contribute up to $150,000, will allow the developer and the city to explore policy issues such as replacement municipal parking, affordable housing, residential density and retail uses and to assess the physical condition of the properties. Project finances also will be examined, including construction costs, financing options and constraints and whether any public investment will be needed. Either the city or the developer can end the agreement after 90 days.
A leader in sustainable design, the Albanese company has won numerous awards from architectural, construction, environmental and planning groups and publications for the Visionaire, a 35-story, 500,000-square-foot condominium and retail tower completed in 2008 at Battery Park City in Manhattan. The developer”™s other notable residential buildings include the 52-story, 500,000-square-foot 100 United Nations Plaza apartments, and The Solaire, a 27-story, 400,000-square-foot apartment building that was the nation”™s first “green” residential tower when commissioned in 2000. Albanese has built about 3 million square feet of residential and commercial space, including several office buildings in Garden City.
Recommending Albanese to the city council, New Rochelle Development Commissioner Michael Freimuth cited the firm”™s “record of creating residential properties with distinction, quality and architectural merit that optimize value and environmental responsibility, while enhancing the communities in which they are located.”
New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson said Albanese “offers our community a fresh and creative outlook and a record of employing forward-looking planning and urban development strategies.”
