The Westchester Industrial Development Agency granted final approvals June 13 for $34.5 million in tax subsidies for four construction projects that will cost more than $1.2 billion.
The public subsidies include exemptions of $27.7 million from state and local use and sales taxes during construction and $6.8 million on mortgage recording taxes for financing the projects.
The subsidies do not include property tax abatement that two developers have negotiated with the city of White Plains.
Three projects are primarily residential developments that will create 1,806 rental apartments, including 135 affordable units for renters who make no more than 60 percent to 80 percent of the area”™s median income. They will build garages with 2,203 parking spaces.
The developers estimated that the jobs will require 3,387 construction workers and then create 671 permanent full-time or part-time jobs.
Hamilton Green
WP Mall Realty LLC, affiliated with Street-Works Development of Port Chester, plans to replace the nearly vacant White Plains Mall with a residential and retail complex to be called Hamilton Green. The site is four blocks from the Metro-North Railroad station in downtown White Plains.
The $585.2 million project will comprise four structures and a public plaza with 860 apartments, including 86 designated as affordable, 85,400 square feet of retail space, 27,000 square feet office space and 956 parking spaces.
The job is expected to create 1,437 construction jobs and 500 permanent fulltime or part-time jobs. The first building is expected to be occupied by March 2022 and the last by October 2024.
The sales tax exemption is for up to $14 million and the mortgage tax exemption for $3.5 million, for a total IDA subsidy of $17.5 million.
Maple and Broadway
Lennar Multifamily Communities LLC of Herndon, Virginia, is working with a 3.6-acre hole in the ground that used to be the site of Westchester Pavillion Mall at 60 S. Broadway in White Plains.
Plans for the $501.1 million project call for two towers with 814 apartments, including 49 designated as affordable, 28,056 square feet of retail, a small park, and 932 parking spaces.
The two-phase development is expected to create up to 700 construction jobs in each phase, with up to 250 working during peak times. An estimated 60 to 70 people will be employed full time or part time, when the towers open from September 2022 to September 2024.
The sales tax exemption is for up to $10.9 million and the mortgage tax exemption for $2.5 million, for a total IDA subsidy of $13.4 million.
Waterstone
ND Acquisitions LLC, a subsidiary of National Development of Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts, plans to build a 5-story, independent senior living facility at 120 Bloomingdale Road in White Plains.
The $120.1 million project will be built on a parking lot next to an office building and across the street from Bloomingdale”™s department store. It will create 132 apartments, a small park and 315 parking spaces.
The work will require an estimated 1,250 construction workers and require 48 full-time or part-time employees when it opens in 2021.
The company will pay $1.2 million to the White Plains Affordable Housing Fund. The sales tax exemption is for more than $2.4 million and the mortgage tax exemption for $780,482, for a total IDA subsidy of more than $3.2 million.
POP Displays
CounterPoint Capital Partners of Los Angeles is moving its POP Displays USA headquarters from Yonkers to an office park at 1 International Drive in Rye Brook, owned by George Comfort & Sons.
POP manufactures point-of-purchase displays that showcase products at drug stores and other places.
The company has budgeted $4.75 million to $5 million to renovate and equip 25,000 square feet of office space for 53 executives and support staff.
Westchester will lose jobs on the project. POP Displays is firing about 388 people at its facility at 555 Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers. It is moving manufacturing and distribution operations to East Point, Georgia, where it expects to employ 280 full-time workers and 165 temporary workers at the new location.
The Rye Brook work is expected to require seven to 10 construction workers. The IDA subsidy is for up to $330,178 in sales and use taxes.
