BJ”™s Wholesale Club won”™t need to worry about a threat of competition in Yorktown ”” at least for now.
At what was expected to be the site of a new Costco Wholesale store on a vacant site at 3200 Crompond Road in Yorktown, a developer now aims to build a Lowe”™s home improvement center, two eateries and a bank.
Yorktown JAZ LLC, a subsidiary of Garden City-based Breslin Realty Development Corp., presented its amended plan to the Yorktown planning board during a work session in September. The new proposal includes a 120,663-square-foot Lowe”™s store, a 7,600-square-foot restaurant, a 4,500-square-foot restaurant and a 4,000-square-foot bank.
The development replaces a previously approved 151,092-square-foot Costco and a members-only gas fueling station on the 19-acre parcel near the intersection of Crompond Road and Taconic State Parkway. The planning board approved the $60 million project in November 2015. Costco pulled out of the planned development earlier this year, according to Yorktown Director of Planning John A. Tegeder, though no official reason for the decision was given. Yorktown Supervisor Michael Grace said he hoped Costco would look elsewhere in the town to develop a new store.
The amendments to the already-approved site plan represent only “limited changes,” according to Yorktown JAZ.
“There are very little additional issues that are presented by this plan,” Grace agreed. “This plan actually is less intrusive on the environment.”
The proposed development”™s total footprint will be more than 14,000 square feet less than what Costco”™s building would have taken up on the property. The estimated cost of the Lowe”™s project was not available.
“We see no downside on it at all,” Grace said of the new plan. “I think there was a lot of enthusiasm for Costco. Unfortunately, that didn”™t come to be, but I think at this point there is equal enthusiasm for Lowe”™s.”
Both Tegeder and Grace said that spreading the risk and the wealth to four businesses rather than a single business is an advantage, along with the additional tax revenue those additional businesses would provide.
The planning board will decide whether a supplemental environmental impact study is required for the amended project. Yorktown JAZ stated that any significant impacts were addressed in the Costco application.
“I don”™t see any issues whatsoever getting this approved,” Grace said. “It”™s a better plan in a lot of respects.”
Grace expects the amended development to move forward “very quickly” and said it should receive the go-ahead from local agencies by November, though the project will still need to meet other approvals, including one from the Department of Environmental Protection for its stormwater management plan. Grace said he hopes construction could begin as early as spring 2017.
Costco”™s proposed project hit a snag in April 2015 when its on-site gas station was strongly opposed by independent gas station owners in Yorktown. Yorktown Smart Growth, a citizens development watchdog group, Yorktown Gas Mart Inc. and Quick Stop Central Ave. Inc. filed a lawsuit against town officials and Breslin Realty Development claiming the big-box store would hurt local gas station owners and seeking to have the town”™s approval of the project overturned.
The site was formerly occupied by the Yorktown Country Inn, which closed more than 20 years ago and was last used as a county-run homeless shelter.
