Building owners in the year-old Carpet Mills Arts District in Yonkers marked another milestone in their effort to revive the former Alexander Smith Carpet Mills industrial site as an arts and retail destination when the city last month adopted a zoning change for the historic area.
The new zoning, signed into law by Mayor Mike Spano in a May 10 ceremony at the Nepperhan Avenue carpet mills, allows some retail uses and restaurants on the first floors of the warehouse and factory buildings in the nearly 2 million-square-foot, 19-building complex. Two of its red-brick factory buildings already house YoHo, a community of artists leasing work lofts.
A coalition of 10 carpet mill building owners sought the zoning change to allow for ground-floor restaurants and specialty shops, such as retail home furnishings, sports, amusements, art galleries, crafts and import-export businesses. The owners last December were awarded a $500,000 capital grant from Empire State Development, the state”™s economic development agency, for exterior improvements to the area, including streetside banners branding the Carpet Mills Arts District.
Randolph Rose, president of R.J. Rose Realty and a leader of the owners coalition, in a press release called the carpet mills area “an undiscovered gem about to explode with art and retail establishments.”
Spano when signing the zoning measure noted that Yonkers is becoming a city for artists to live, work and exhibit.
“There is so much history and authentic, raw space in the Alexander Smith Carpet Mills buildings ”“ which once housed over 8,000 industrial workers ”“ that it lends itself to becoming a community for industrial creatives,” Spano said. “Yonkers has become home to an emerging arts scene, and creating an arts district at the once thriving carpet mills site is the next step in telling our story.”
