The Westchester County Association last week announced a new partnership with Project for Public Spaces, a New York City planning and development firm, as it looks to help make Westchester a more attractive landing spot for young people.
Retaining young talent is central to the WCA”™s economic development “Blueprint” that was unveiled last spring.
Doing so will require an influx of affordable housing options and mixed-use entertainment developments that would ideally draw young professionals who are currently opting to live in New York City or elsewhere, said Marissa Brett, executive director of economic development for the WCA.
“If we can attract the young workforce here to Westchester ”¦ it also attracts businesses because they want to be where the young talent is,” Brett said.
Project for Public Spaces is the ideal partner, Brett said, with a proven record of transforming defunct public venues into veritable attractions. The partnership was announced Feb. 16.
The nonprofit organization specializes in planning, design, community outreach and education. Its previous work in Westchester includes partnerships with the villages of Chappaqua and Millwood, the city of Yonkers, and the state Department of Transportation.
Additionally, Project for Public Spaces is co-founder of the New York City Streets Renaissance campaign, which has included the opening of Times Square, the Meatpacking District and other areas to pedestrians, and has done extensive work on Bryant Park and Rockefeller Center.
The WCA has embraced the “live-work-play” model as part of its economic development plans; however, one of the biggest obstacles has been convincing individual communities to buy into the need for change.
That”™s where Project for Public Spaces enters the equation, Brett said.
“I think you always have to focus on communities that can embrace you but how do you do that? That”™s the critical element that Project for Public Spaces is so good at: engaging the local community at the onset, before you have any grandiose plans,” Brett said. “I think this firm has a proven track record for being able to effectively engage communities so that local community has ownership of whatever plans take place.”
Ethan Kent, vice president at Project for Public Spaces, said the organization has backed successful projects in the past by balancing the desires of the community with its likely future needs.
“These abandoned and underused office parks represent a very exciting opportunity to be hubs for new development and new place-making opportunities,” Kent said. “It”™s a challenge that people around the country are looking at with these commercial facilities and malls that are failing and how they”™re being re-envisioned as community hubs, what we call multi-use destinations. There”™s a market for them if you go through the right process.”
