Westchester IDA gets preview of White Plains saloon row makeover

The Westchester County Industrial Development Agency was briefed Thursday on plans for a $7.6 million makeover of a dilapidated saloon row storefront on East Post Road in White Plains that once housed the Thirsty Turtle.

Sackman Enterprises Inc. of Manhattan has proposed replacing the one-story structure with three floors of rental apartments over a ground floor restaurant and beer garden at 199-201 E. Post Road.

Economic development consultant Michael Grella presented a project overview in a video conference with the IDA board. No formal action was taken.

Sackman, through its Chatterton Hill Realty LLC affiliate, is expected to ask the IDA for about $240,000 in sales tax and mortgage recording tax relief.

The developer is still working on a request for real estate tax relief from the city of White Plains. The property taxes are about $55,000 a year now. Assuming that the developer gets a 13-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes deal with the city, Grella said, the property would go back on the tax rolls in 2035 at about $190,000 annually.

The plans call for 18 one-bedroom apartments and a restaurant with a patio behind the building.

Sixteen apartments would be leased at market rates. The proposed average rent of $33 per square feet would be about 18% less than the $40.37 per-square-foot average in White Plains. Two apartments would be leased as affordable units, under the city”™s criteria.

The site has no room for parking, so the developer has agreed to pay the city a $260,000 parking fee.

Grella estimated that the project would create about 17 full-time equivalent construction jobs and about 36 full-time equivalents for the restaurant and beer garden.

Sackman bought the parcel for $800,000 in 2016, according to county property records. In 2018, it took out a $4.4 million commercial construction loan with Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust in Greenwich, Connecticut.

The project could be completed in 2022.

The IDA board also granted an additional $467,302 in sales tax and mortgage tax relief for The Flats at Westchester, a $95 million, 303-apartment complex at 1133 Westchester Ave. in White Plains.

Attorneys Michael Zarin and Kate Roberts notified the agency last month that it expects the costs of construction goods and services to increase to $26.87 million, from $21.7 million. Borrowing costs have increased to $65 million, from $63 million.

The project is a joint venture of RPW Group of Rye Brook and NRP Group of Cleveland. They plan to build three five-story wood-frame buildings on a mostly unused parking lot next to an office park.