Plans by Whole Foods Market to open a grocery store by 2015 on the former Reader”™s Digest property at Chappaqua Crossing could be thwarted by the New Castle town board”™s delay in approving developer Summit/Greenfield”™s retail plans for the property.
Whole Foods has agreed to lease 40,000 square feet of space on Summit Greenfield”™s landmark campus at 480 Bedford Road in New Castle. The agreement, though, includes a spring 2015 deadline for the store opening.
Summit/Greenfield, the Connecticut-based partnership that acquired the 114-acre Reader”™s Digest property for $59 million in 2004, initially sought a zoning change by town officials to allow Whole Foods to occupy the iconic cupola building on the property and an attached facility. Last month, though, the landlord presented a revised retail plan to the town board to build a new freestanding structure on the south side of the commercial campus as requested by Whole Foods.
Frustrated by the town”™s lengthy process to review successive plans to redevelop the property for office, residential and retail uses, Summit/Greenfield a few years ago sued the town in state and federal court, claiming the owners were prevented from making the Chappaqua Crossing property economically viable. The developer a year ago agreed to halt the legal action in exchange for the town”™s approval of a retail zoning district. Summit/Greenfield also paid $1 million in fees the town said it was owed.
Geoffrey Thompson, spokesman for the developer, said the town board agreed to meet certain milestones in its review of Summit/Greenfield”™s plans. “Many of those deadlines slipped, and by the terms of the settlement, Summit/Greenfield can reactivate the lawsuits” if the town does not approve the project by the end of this year, he said.
John S. Marwell, attorney for Summit-Greenfield, recently urged the town board to approve his client”™s revised retail proposal by Dec. 31 or face renewed legal action. The attorney warned that there are at least six years of pending tax certioraris filed by Summit/Greenfield on the Chappaqua Crossing property that could cost the town millions of dollars in tax refunds. He also warned that the town could lose a major supermarket that would substantially increase the municipal tax base.
The town board, however, referred Summit/Greenfield”™s revised retail plan to the New Castle town planning board for review. The city”™s planning board will hold a work session meeting to exchange comments about the revised retail plan on Dec. 17.
Summit/Greenfield argued that the location change doesn”™t warrant another environmental review process because “there really is no material change in moving a store from one location to another because it”™s taking up the same size space in an area that”™s already being used for retail,” Thompson said. He said the board “felt there were certain dynamics that needed to be addressed with the location change, including the traffic and visual impacts.”
Summit/Greenfield”™s retail plan could be further delayed as three newly elected town board members take office in New Castle on Jan. 1 ”“ incoming supervisor Rob Greenstein and council members Lisa Katz and Adam Brodsky. All three in their election campaigns favored postponing the review of Summit/Greenfield”™s retail proposal until the town”™s master plan is updated.
“We know it”™s something Summit/Greenfield had wanted to develop for a long time and we”™ll try to move as quickly as possible,” Greenstein said. “I”™d like to bring Summit/Greenfield into the process. They are a major player. But the process should include not just looking at their piece of property but looking at everything in downtown Chappaqua together and figuring out how we can make decisions that benefit each other.”
If the town board delays review of the retail plan until New Castle updates its master plan, Thompson said the developer and the town might lose Whole Foods as a tenant and taxpayer, given its hard deadline for a store opening.
Thompson said preparing a new master plan “could take years. But the town can also just amend the zoning in its existing comprehensive plan and allow commercial retail to be on the site. I”™ve seen master plans done. It”™s a very lengthy, involved, and complex process. That”™s not necessary for a retail store to come to Chappaqua Crossing.”
The Chappaqua Crossing development plan is in its ninth year of review, Thompson noted.
