Yonkers hotel, high-rise projects get $1.5M in tax breaks

Yonkers Industrial Development Agency directors this week approved about $1.5 million in tax incentives for a roughly $26 million hotel project at Cross County Shopping Center and an $8 million demolition and cleanup at the future downtown site of a $173 million high-rise apartment building.

The board approved a $266,220 mortgage tax exemption and an estimated $775,023 in sales tax exemptions on construction materials that will be used to convert an office tower at Cross County Shopping Center into a 155-room Hyatt Place Hotel.

The Manhattan developer, Friend Development Group L.L.C., plans to add 17,000 square feet of first-floor and basement space to the 55,000-square-foot office tower. It will be the first hotel at the renovated, nearly 60-year-old outdoor mall.

The 18-month Cross County project will create 80 construction jobs with an estimated payroll of $6.6 million. The hotel will hire for 28 full-time equivalent jobs.

On Buena Vista Avenue, Yonkers developer Metro Partners L.L.C. will begin demolition and an environmental cleanup at the site of Teutonia Hall, a vacant 19th-century music hall, where Metro Partners plans to erect a 25-story, 412-unit apartment tower. The IDA approved a $144,000 mortgage tax exemption and $335,000 in sales tax exemptions for the project”™s first phase.

Metro Partners expects to start construction in 2013 adjacent to the companyӪs Metro 92 live-work lofts in a converted trolley barn. The Teutonia Hall fa̤ade will be preserved during demolition and installed on the projectӪs new 550-space parking garage on Buena Vista Avenue.