An estimated $168 million mixed-use development in downtown Yonkers proposed by developer Nick Sprayregen is among 25 public and private projects in the Hudson Valley selected as priorities for state funding this year by the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council.
Six of the priority projects in the seven-county region would directly benefit Westchester businesses and municipalities. Five of the projects are either in downtown Yonkers or the village of Ossining.
The 21-member Mid-Hudson council is one of 10 regional councils statewide vying for shares of up to $750 million in state grants, loans and tax credits in this fourth year of funding through the competitive regional economic development initiative launched by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2011. The councils are public-private partnerships administered by Empire State Development, the state”™s chief economic development agency, which have developed strategic plans to spark economic growth in targeted industry sectors. The mid-Hudson region in the first three funding rounds was awarded a total of $219.4 million to spur 232 job-creating projects across an area that stretches from the southern Westchester border with New York City to Sullivan and Ulster counties in the Catskills.
The projects endorsed this month for top consideration in Albany were among 111 priority project proposals received by the Mid-Hudson council. Although an unlikely scenario, funding awards to all 25 projects could generate more than $600 million in economic activity, create and retain more than 3,500 full-time jobs and employ about 3,700 construction workers, according to Empire State Development officials.
In Yonkers, Sprayregen”™s Rising Development Yonkers L.L.C. has proposed Exalta, a 550,000-square-foot luxury tower with approximately 400 residential units that would rise on a commercial block of properties acquired by Sprayregen several years ago adjacent to the city”™s new Van Der Donck Park and riverwalk on the site of the former Larkin Plaza. Empire State Development officials said the $168 million development would include nearly 110,000 square feet of parking and 34,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space.
The city of Yonkers in 2012 was awarded $2 million by the state for the first phase of another Rising Development project, a $22 million rehabilitation of five commercial properties on downtown Mill Street as residential and retail space. In tandem with the private developer”™s project, the city that year also was awarded $921,425 to uncover a second segment of the Saw Mill River in the Mill Street area and create a new downtown public space.
The city”™s “daylighting” project to uncover stretches of the concrete-entombed Saw Mill River and so attract more private development and tourists downtown was given priority status again this year by the Mid-Hudson council. State officials said the third phase focuses on the development of a river-themed park near Getty Square along New Main Street from Ann Street to Nepperhan Avenue.
The regional council also gave priority status to the city”™s proposal to rehabilitate Ashburton Avenue with road, bridge and pedestrian walkway improvements. The street work is part of the city”™s ongoing revitalization of the Ashburton Avenue neighborhood with private housing development partners.
In Ossining, the council chose as a priority project the development and buildout of a 6,500-square-foot riverfront restaurant that is part of the $65 million Harbor Square residential development on which ground was broken in June by Ginsburg Development Cos., the Valhalla-based company headed by Martin Ginsburg.
The council also backed as a priority project a proposal to develop a Sing Sing Historic Prison Museum in a former power plant on the grounds of the infamous state prison grounds in Ossining.
In another priority project, Community Capital NY Inc. proposes to create the Hudson Valley Opportunity Fund, a revolving loan fund targeting small startup and emerging businesses and social enterprises owned by minorities, women and veterans throughout the seven-county region.
Marsha Gordon, president and CEO of The Business Council of Westchester and a member of the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council, in a press release said the selected priority projects “represent great opportunities for economic transformation in the Hudson Valley. We are especially pleased to see a diversity of projects, representing small business, infrastructure development in our urban centers, mixed use waterfront development, new tourism initiatives and a growing cluster in micro-brewing, which is also a boon to our agriculture and manufacturing sectors.”
The state”™s funding awards will be announced in December.
