Westchester IDA OKs preliminary $6.6M tax break for apartments proposed near Wegmans

The Westchester Industrial Development Agency gave preliminary approval this morning  for nearly $6.6 million in public subsidies for a proposed $134 million apartment complex in Harrison near where Wegmans is under construction.

Marcus Partners Inc. of Boston and Trammell Crow Residential Co. of Dallas want to demolish a vacant office building at 3 Westchester Park Drive and build two structures with 450 rental apartments.

The project would be another element in the transformation of the so-called teardrop area ”“ between Hutchinson River Parkway and Interstates 287 and 684 ”“ from obsolete office parks to residential, recreational, retail and medical facilities.

A Life Time Fitness gym was built on the hill above the project site. Wegmans Food Markets Inc. is building a grocery store on Corporate Park Drive behind the site, next to Toll Brothers Inc.”™s 421-unit apartment project and near Montefiore Medical Center”™s pediatric outpatient center project.

The Marcus/Trammel joint venture is working with a 10.6-acre parcel that Marcus bought last year for nearly $11 million. The developers would replace the 160,000-square-foot office building with 550,000 square feet of residential space, including two parking garages and four retail spaces.

The project would feature a lot of green space, including a walking path and gardens, as well as a fitness center and other amenities.

A road would bisect the apartment buildings and connect to the Toll Brothers apartments and Wegmans.

The builders hope to attract working professionals and empty nesters. Twenty-three of the apartments would be rented at below-market rates to tenants whose income is no more than 80% of the area median income ($67,350 for one person and $95,250 for a household of four).

The blended average rent for the market rate apartments would be about $3,000, beginning at less than $2,000 for a studio.

The project would create an estimated 150 construction jobs and then eight positions when the buildings open.

The public subsidies include $5.4 million in sales tax exemption and nearly $1.2 million mortgage tax exemption.

Final approval for the subsidies could be granted early next year, after a public hearing. The developers want to demolish the office building early next year and break ground by mid-summer. The apartments could open by the first or second quarter of 2022.