The city of Yonkers has lost three industrial businesses to other states within the last three to four years and Mayor Philip Amicone wants to ensure it doesn”™t happen again.
“We didn”™t lose them because they went to another country where the labor was cheap,” Amicone said at a recent Westchester Putnam Association of Realtors”™ Commercial and Investment Division meeting. “We lost them to other states because their incentives were better. We lost them to Texas, New Jersey and South Carolina. I”™m talking major employers. And we can”™t afford to do that.”
The two-term mayor called on the state to rid itself of costly mandates that put a chokehold on towns and cities, forcing unpopular tax hikes.
“More importantly, we need to provide incentives for business,” said Amicone, who cannot seek re-election due to term limits. “Give them a reason to come here and stay here and expand here because they”™re the ones that employ people and those employees are the ones that spend the money and buy the houses and do all of the things that keep our economy running.”
Amicone touched on development within city borders.
“There will be a big, grand opening at Ridge Hill late in October,” he said of the Forest City Ratner Cos. mixed-use development along Interstate-87. “They originally said it was a $600 million project, but it”™s probably closer to $1 billion now.”
He priced The Cross County Shopping Center redevelopment at $350 million. Scheduled to open this fall are retailers Adidas, BGR The Burger Joint, Chipotle, GNC, Green Cube, Noodle House and TGI Friday”™s. A Red Lobster eatery is planned to open in 7,916 square feet this winter.
Redevelopment of the former Cross County Hospital depends now on lease negotiations.
“They”™re going to take the old building, rip everything out but the steel and the floors and then put a hotel in the spacing of the columns,” Amicone said. “The space is just fine for a hotel, and they do have a major brand they”™ve been talking to. Hopefully, you”™ll see construction start before the end of this year, certainly by spring of next year.”
Discussing development in the downtown and waterfront corridor, the mayor said the Struever Fidelco Cappelli (SFC) River Park Center project planned for Chicken Island remains in a “holding pattern.”
Now overseen by The Fidelco Group out of Newark, N.J., and developer Louis Cappelli of Valhalla-based Cappelli Enterprises, Amicone said the standing partners have already invested some $30 million with additional financing and “they”™re not walking away from it.”
“The market is still extraordinarily skittish about that kind of lending,” he said. “We”™re talking over $1 billion. But it”™s still alive. It”™s got all of its approvals in place and it”™s just waiting for an economy to recover enough that the money becomes available to start building it.”
He expects construction to begin within the next 12 to 18 months.
On a separate front, work is under way on the Fleet Mill Street rehab project to convert the old Main Street library into 16 residential units with retail and parking below. Over the next six to 10 months, Amicone said, the interior will be built out. The Yonkers Community Development Agency obtained a $5 million NY Restore grant from Empire State Development Corp. for the project.
Construction also continues on the $17 million Saw Mill River “daylighting” project to create a river park in Larkin Plaza. It is scheduled for completion this spring.
