A project that would turn two out-of-date office buildings into a 421-unit rental apartment building has cleared a major hurdle.
The Harrison Town Board approved a zoning revision at its April 7 meeting that will allow developers to convert an underused office park site on Corporate Park Drive into luxury apartments targeting millennials and empty nesters. Normandy Real Estate Partners LLC, operators of The Exchange office park portfolio, along with Toll Brothers, developers of luxury homes nationwide, have proposed to raze the two office buildings owned by Normandy to construct the residential building. A restaurant would also be built on the site.
The development, called the Residences at Corporate Park Drive, represents the first conversion of underutilized office space into residential space in the I-287 corridor, a change long anticipated and called for along the Platinum Mile in Harrison.
Seth Mandelbaum, an attorney with McCullough, Goldberger and Staudt LLP, which represents the developers, told the town board in April that this type of project matches a trend of repurposing former office spaces into residential in the county.
“We believe this project is a lynchpin for the rest of the teardrop and the 287 corridor and really is a perfect location for this repurpose,” Mandelbaum said. The teardrop refers to the area in Harrison bounded by I-287, the Hutchinson River Parkway and I-684.
The two office buildings set for redevelopment, 103 and 105 Corporate Park Drive, are mostly unused: one is boarded up and the other home to only a single tenant.
As companies choose more diverse working options such as telecommuting, and require better technological infrastructure, the market for older, larger commercial space slowed and vacancies have increased. This has been especially true along the I-287 corridor in Harrison, a section of the town often referred to as the Platinum Mile for the multiple corporations with headquarters there.
Harrison generated about 60 percent of its tax revenue from the Platinum Mile in 1984. But, by 2012, that amount had sunk to 12 percent, according to the town”™s updated comprehensive plan.
Bulldozing the two Corporate Park Drive buildings means 200,000 fewer square feet of empty commercial space, the Business Journal reported in 2014. At the town board meeting earlier this month, Mandelbaum said the site currently generates $400,000 in taxes per year. If repurposed into the Residences at Corporate Park Drive, that amount could jump to $2 million, he said.
The zoning revision passed by the town board allows for multifamily residential structures in the office park zone, which previously only allowed special exemptions for education, hotels, day-care centers and fitness centers. The change was advocated for in the town”™s updated comprehensive plan in 2013, which suggested it create a new mixed-use zone in the teardrop area for residential and retail development.
The zoning change was passed by the town board with no opposition and limited discussion following a public hearing on the matter.
Three residents spoke against the project during the hearing. One said the project was simply too big and could lead to an increase in expenses for the town. The two other residents questioned the impact on schools.
The developers have maintained that the target market for the apartments, empty nesters and millennials, would limit the number of school-age children who enter the district as a result of the new residents. Mandelbaum used an estimate of 29 schoolchildren, which he said might be too high anyway, to conclude that the costs of new students would be about $400,000 less than tax revenue gained.
During the environmental review process, multiple groups advocated for affordable housing to be added to the project, including the Westchester Workforce Housing Coalition. In the final environmental impact statement submitted to the Harrison Planning Board in December, the developers replied that whether or not the project included affordable housing would not affect its environmental impact. However, another response noted that the “applicant is supportive of an affordable housing component being included in this project.”
Westchester Workforce Housing Coalition founder Alec Roberts noted that the environmental impact statement was “supportive of affordable housing” and added that because the developers have “set aside 10 percent affordable housing in several of their other Hudson Valley developments, we remain hopeful they will include a similar set-aside here.”
Whether or not, or how much, affordable housing would be included in the project was not discussed during the April town board meeting.
Meaghan Knox, a spokesperson for Normandy Real Estate Partners, said in an email that Normandy is “committed to listening to the Westchester community and its elected officials as the county works to balance all its various housing needs.” She added Normandy currently has nothing to add “beyond what is in their public filings and disclosures.”
Bill Mooney, president and CEO of the Westchester County Association, spoke in support of the project. He said the project fits with a vision the county association has pushed to repurpose the 1 million square feet of unused or underutilized office space in the I-287 corridor. Luxury rental housing aimed at millennials and empty nesters is “desperately needed” in the area for employees of businesses nearby, he said.
“On a personal level, I”™d be standing in line for this one,” Mooney added.
With the necessary zoning passed, the project next goes back to the Harrison Planning Board to start the site plan approval process.
