AvalonBay sets sights on Somers - Westfair Communications

Targeting the northern Westchester housing market, AvalonBay Communities Inc., the Virginia-based luxury residential developer, plans to build 152 townhouse-style apartments in Baldwin Place, a residential section in the town of Somers.

The estimated $38 million to $40 million project would include 17 two- and three-story apartment buildings, each with eight to 10 units, that would take up 17 acres in an 80-acre planned hamlet.

At a recent Somers Town Board meeting, representatives of AvalonBay Communities Inc. discussed their concept plan, which they said aligns with the town”™s master plan guidelines for the hamlet. The master plan calls for development of up to 80,000 square feet of assisted living space, 40,000 square feet of professional and commercial office space and 30,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

Avalon Bay Communities proposes a 152-unit project on Somers.

“When AvalonBay drew up a conceptual plan late last year, we tried to stay within the framework of the approved master plan for the planned hamlet,” said Grant Jaber, senior development director at AvalonBay”™s Fairfield, Conn. office. The town adopted the master plan in 2009.

The 183,700-square-foot complex would include a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with about 23 affordable housing units.

A 72-unit affordable housing complex for seniors, The Mews, already exists in the hamlet. AvalonBay plans to develop only the 152-unit residential complex and renovate an existing 4,000-square-foot building as a clubhouse for tenants.

With more than 1 million square feet of office space and Pepsi Beverages Co., the bottling division of PepsiCo Inc., headquartered there, Somers is “a tenant-generating community,” Jaber said.

“The empty nesters are going to be living here,” he said. “There will also be a big transitional market of people who just got a job in Somers and want to buy a house, but they need a temporary place to stay while they look. Then there”™s the young professionals who are a growing demographic in our nation and attracted to rental housing.”

Monthly rents would be about $1,800 for one-bedroom apartments, from $2,400 to $2,600 for two-bedroom apartments and from about $2,600 to $3,000 for three-bedroom apartments, Jaber said.

AvalonBay, which owns 273 luxury apartment complexes nationally, has developed residences in White Plains, Bronxville, Greenburgh, Mamaroneck and New Rochelle. Avalon at Ossining, a 168-unit apartment complex, recently opened on North Highland Avenue in that village.

At a Feb. 6 town board meeting, Somers Supervisor Rick Morrissey said AvalonBay”™s conceptual plan provides plenty of open space, which would reduce the environmental impact as the project takes shape.

“We still have more work to do, but we”™re working towards a formal submission of a site plan application to the planning board by mid-May to June this year,” said Jaber. The Somers planning board is lead agency for the town on the AvalonBay development.