Plans for Bradford Road apartments revived in Mount Vernon
An Ohio developer has revived plans for an apartment complex next to Willson”™s Woods Park in Mount Vernon.
NRP Group LLC of Cleveland wants to demolish the vacant Laundauer Metropolitan office building and warehouse at 1 Bradford Road and build 120 market-rate apartments.
NRP representatives displayed plans for a $31.5 million project to the Mount Vernon Industrial Development Agency on March 31. The company is asking for a $540,000 sales tax exemption, $400,000 property tax abatement and $236,164 mortgage tax exemption.
It has proposed a 20-year payment in lieu of taxes agreement beginning at $450,000 Â around 2020-21 and increasing by 1 percent a year.
The IDA postponed acting on the application for at least a month.
The proposed project and the requested government assistance are similar to a 2015 proposal by WP East Acquisition LLC. Wood Partners, an Atlanta firm, abandoned the project after encountering community opposition.
Neighbors had objected to the size of that project and to its compatibility with the park. They also expressed concerns about site contamination from a former chemical facility.
Landauer, a home health equipment and supplies company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013 and sold the three-acre property.
Steven D. Horton, president of Grandview Consulting Group, said he has met with 80 people, and their concerns and ideas have influenced the NRP design.
One concern was that the previous developer placed most of the parking spaces in front. NRP will put most of the 155 parking spaces underneath the apartments or behind the building where they can”™t be seen, according to Jonathan S. Gertman, NRP”™s vice president of development.
He said the building will include a courtyard and will appear less massive than the previous design. The company also plans to give Westchester County $350,000 for park improvements.
NRP would build a five-story building with 120 apartments. Rents would range from $1,700 for a studio, $2,150 for 1 bedroom and $2,800 for 2 bedrooms.
The apartments would house an estimated 224 residents, including 10 school-age children. NRP calculated that the Mount Vernon City School District would have to spend $122,430 a year to educate the children, but it will receive about $286,965 from the PILOT, for a net benefit of $164,535 per year.
The project will create 49 construction jobs and pump an estimated $17.4 million into the economy. Four people will staff the building.
New residents could spend about $1.3 million locally on entertainment, restaurants, recreation, personal care and household items, generating from $11,000 to $28,000 in annual sales taxes.
“We went to great lengths,” NRP attorney Michael Zarin said, “to make an IDA proposal based on economic development, job growth and benefits to the city.”