The Westchester County Industrial Development Agency gave preliminary approval May 26 for $17.4 million in tax breaks to a developer who plans to build a $77 million apartment building and a $20 million municipal center in Pelham.
The village would trade its firehouse and parking deck on Fifth Avenue for the developer”™s vacant property across the street. Then the developer, Pelham Green LLC, would build a new firehouse, police department and administrative offices on the property once occupied by a Capital One bank office. It would replace the firehouse with Pelham House, a 5-story apartment building with retail space and 127 dwellings, including six lower-rent workforce apartments.
“This is my dream project,” Patrick Normoyle, one of the project partners told the IDA board, “to get a chance to develop a great mixed-use building and my hometown”™s municipal center.”
He said the firehouse is in a serious state of disrepair, the city parking deck is structurally deficient, and previous village administrations have neglected public infrastructure.
Mayor Chance Mullin said Pelham has not had any significant development in its downtown core for a half a century, because of restrictive zoning that has killed housing and businesses.
Pelham Green is a joint venture of The Hudson Companies and PJR 23 Development. PJR includes Normoyle, of the Excelsior Housing Group, and contractors Joseph Sisca III and Robert Masiello of Sisca Northeast.
The proposed tax breaks include nearly $1.1 million in sales tax exemptions on construction materials, a $500,000 mortgage tax exemption, and $15.8 million in property tax abatement negotiated with the village. The county”™s portion of foregone tax revenue would be more than $2.1 million.
The developer would foot the entire $20 million cost of building the village center, for a net value to the village of about $13 million after subtracting the value of the land it would swap. The proposed tax breaks do not include any costs associated with the village building.
The project would create about 750 construction jobs and nine permanent jobs. Workers on the municipal building would be paid the prevailing wages, as required by state law, and could increase the cost of that part of the project by 30%.
Construction could begin in August and be completed in three years.
For every dollar the county government loses in foregone tax revenues, the project is expected to create $1.02 in new taxes generated by construction, household spending and new property taxes. The calculation does not include the estimated $13 million benefit the village would gain with the new facility.
A public hearing will be held before the IDA makes a final determination on the project.
