White Plains Mayor Tom Roach expressed optimism that the upward trajectory in recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic is accelerating in White Plains, telling the Business Journal that preparation of plans for major changes at the site of the Galleria shopping mall continues unabated.
“The owners had the tenants vacate in Macy”™s and Sears, which is what they wanted for their project and we”™re in discussions with them because we, of course, own the parking garage and we”™re in discussions with them right now about that,” Roach said.
Various unconfirmed reports have circulated that the Galleria”™s owner, Pacific Retail Capital Partners, based in El Segundo, California, had been considering replacing either or both of the anchor store structures that had been occupied by Macy”™s and Sears with high-rise apartment towers or possibly a combination of residences and a hotel.
“The proposal would include housing,” Roach said while emphasizing that there”™s no formal proposal yet.
“The concept would be, retain the central core and have it lean over toward dining and entertainment with some retail and, what”™s most exciting for me and what I”™ve made clear from the beginning since I first became mayor, is to eliminate this mega-block impact that the Galleria has. It really just chokes off two parts of the city from each other.”
Roach said that he”™s looking forward to a time when there might be outdoor dining, outdoor entertainment and engagement with Court Street on the Macy”™s side, which he said has been lacking since the Galleria, with its 865,000 square feet of gross leasable area, opened in 1980.
The Business Journal talked with Roach just outside of The Opus, Westchester hotel at 3 Renaissance Square in downtown White Plains, where the Ritz-Carlton hotel had operated since 2007. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was being held to formally open the new hotel, situated diagonally across Main Street from the Galleria.
The mayor could easily see the now-empty Macy”™s building from in front of the hotel. Also visible was the bustle of activity on Court Street where the weekly farmers market was taking place, one of the signs that the city was bouncing back from the pandemic”™s shutdown..
“I think the timing couldn”™t be better,” Roach said of the ribbon cutting. “We”™re starting to see life return to the streets; we have this brand-new hotel joining our community and I”™m very excited about that. I think it says a lot about the confidence investors have in our community.”
Roach said that contributing to the city bouncing back from the pandemic is the fact that it maintained all of its services throughout this difficult period.
“We”™re ready to hit the ground running and that”™s what appears to be happening,” Roach said. “We”™re seeing our traffic counts up markedly, parking is increasing quickly. Life is coming back and I think people are going to want to be in places they associate with having a good time and feeling safe and that”™s White Plains.”
The Opus, Westchester is managed by Crescent Hotels & Resorts, which operates more than 100 hotels and resorts in the U.S. and Canada.
The new facility features 146 guestrooms, including 38 luxury suites. Features include 10,000 square feet of event space, a rooftop heated pool, lobby bar and rooftop restaurant, Kanopi, under the direction of Chef Anthony Goncalves.
Mark Weissman, one of the people responsible for bringing The Opus to White Plains, told the Business Journal that they were able to use the time during which Covid forced hotels to shut down to do the renovation and rebranding.
“A lot of our customers were really looking for an updated experience,” Weissman said. “We also saw that the city of White Plains is really coming alive with a lot of residential projects and hopefully after that a lot of commercial projects so we thought that an updated hotel and a renovated hotel would do really well here.”
Weissman expressed a hope that by September there will be an end to the Covid crisis in at least parts of the U.S. and the hospitality industry will bounce back.
“The Crescent management team is very, very in tune with the needs of the community here,“ Weissman said. “We”™re really excited about moving to the Marriott Autograph Collection which allows us to sort of cater to a much, much wider audience.
“I think the Ritz was a great upscale experience but probably didn”™t allow us to reach a clientele which we really wanted to reach and also some of them, business travelers, weren”™t even allowed to go as upscale as the Ritz.”
Elizabeth Andrews, the hotel”™s general manager, told the Business Journal that business has been steadily growing in the few weeks that the rebranded hotel has been open.
“We”™ve been very fortunate that we”™ve been seeing quite a bit of leisure travel coming back,” Andrews said.
“We have had some very busy weekends. We have a lot of families that are ready to get out of their houses, that are ready to go on vacation, that are eager to have some fun out in the world again. We are also very hopeful and optimistic that business travel will start to pick up again, hopefully come September, maybe even sooner. We”™re starting to see a little bit of business travel here at The Opus, Westchester, and we”™re very optimistic that well see more in the near future.”
