Changed circumstances affect major developers in White Plains

Two major developers have told the White Plains Common Council that they are unable to immediately move ahead with mixed-use projects that have already been approved and asked for extensions of their approvals to keep the projects alive while changes are being crafted. Toll Brothers, through its entity TB White Plains Apartment LLC has approvals to develop Adora Row at 80 Westchester Ave. and 50-62 Franklin St.

Lennar Multifamily Communities, through its business affiliate Maple and Broadway Holdings LLC (“Quarterra”) has approvals to develop 60 South Broadway, which formerly was the site of the Westchester Pavilion Mall. It is looking for the approvals to be extended until March 4, 2024, and then expects to go through the extension request process again.

The Toll Brothers project originally was known as The Collection. In July of 2019, the Business Journal reported that the original developer Saber Chauncey WP LLC sold the project to Toll Brothers for $32 million. At that time the cost to build the project was estimated at $136.2 million. Toll Brothers is asking for extension of its approvals to Nov. 7, 2024.

Attorney David Steinmetz of the White Plains-based law firm Zarin & Steinmetz LLP told a special meeting of the city’s Common Council on Nov. 27 that Toll Brothers faced unavoidable delays on the Adora Row project due to the Covid pandemic and that significant deterioration in the capital markets environment and increases in the costs of construction have affected the financial viability of the project. He said that the developer has been in talks with city staff about making changes in the project that would allow it to be built. The changes being contemplated include increasing the number of residential units by about 50 to about 326 from the currently-approved 276 units. The currently planned 20,547 square feet of commercial space would remain the same. The current number of parking spaces, 753 with 275 spaces dedicated to White Plains municipal parking, might need to be adjusted. He indicated that a new building design was being worked out.

Attorney Neil Alexander of the White Plains-based law firm Cuddy & Feder, who is representing Lennar’s Quarterra, said that it is likely that Lennar would need to ask for additional time extensions in the future for the approved project at the former Pavilion Mall site. Lennar’s project would have 814 apartments in two towers with 28,014 square feet of commercial space, a park covering 18,580 square feet and parking for 957 vehicles. Lennar recently opened The Mitchell apartment complex that fronts on Mamaroneck Avenue in the city’s downtown.

The Westchester Avenue portion of the Toll Brothers project was to have 90 apartment units in three stories above retail space. On the back end of the property, on Franklin Avenue, an 11-story residential building was to have 186 units. The design included a parking garage on the first four stories of the apartment building on Franklin Avenue. Two pedestrian pathways were to connect Franklin and Westchester Avenues with a crosswalk to be added for pedestrians to more easily cross Westchester Avenue.

“A variety of economic factors have presented challenges to get the project off the ground as originally designed and conceived,” Steinmetz said. “We are now working with your professional staff on some modifications of the project to ensure its viability. We have not fully come to closure on the exact design and the parking, etcetera. We are quite close but until I file that and submit that formally I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. Suffice it to say, so that when I come back to you hopefully in a month or two it will be some additional units, it will be some modification of the project. It will still be a mixed-use project with residential and retail at the first floor. There would still be a parking garage constructed for the benefit of the City of White Plains. It will be more than adequate parking and most importantly there will be a viable project that includes even more affordable housing units included within it.”

Steinmetz said that Toll Brothers is committed to the project and they look forward to breaking ground for Adora Row as soon as possible.

“Toll Brothers is under construction all throughout our county in a variety of for sale and for rental projects,” Steinmetz said. “They own this site. They’re not going anywhere. They want to get this project underway. I want to make that as clear as I can. This is a project that they bought, they desire. They want to be in the City of White Plains.”

Alexander said that Lennar is not “getting to the finish line” for its project at the former Pavilion site. Mayor Tom Roach pointed out that the site has been empty for some time and something needs to be done.

“You’ve got a hotel across the street that just put a lot of money into their hotel and they have been really patient staring at that site,” Roach said.

Alexander said that the problem goes back to 2015 and 2016 when “people who are no longer with Lennar in any capacity made a decision to acquire the site for way too much.” Alexander said that an amended site plan that was previously approved with changes to the original design was an attempt to get the project on track. He said that the grade change of the site from South Broadway down to Hale Avenue makes it difficult to unlock a small portion of the site for temporary use as a community amenity of some sort until actual project construction can begin in the future.

“We need to do something on the interior that makes it green,” Roach said. “That’s what I’m going to need to see. Even if there’s a fence, when I look through the fence I don’t want to see what I see. And when people are in their hotel room and they look out the window at our city this shouldn’t be what they see.”

Alexander said that Toll Brothers wants to “get to construction or get to an exit.”

Council member Nadine Hunt-Robinson said that experiential retail should be considered as an option for the site.

“There are so many things that can be done, thinking outside of the box along the lines of museums, aquariums, IFLY (indoor skydiving), you name it, some entertainment zone, major, could work better than more apartments because you’re coming in now on the tail end of apartments; 7,000 that are in the pipeline,” Hunt-Robinson said.

“We are entertaining and open to any and all offers, interest, sitting down with anybody,” Alexander said. “This is not about squeezing out the last bit. The company knows where they are. Near-term we’re trying to figure out ways to be less of an eyesore, be safe, be less of an eyesore, do something maybe with the Youth Bureau, entertain any ideas that you all have or people that you’d like us to talk to.”

The requested approval extensions were expected to be on the agenda at the Common Council’s scheduled meeting on Dec. 11.