Developers Joe Cotter and Lynne Ward of Greenwich-based National Resources on behalf of i.Park Riverdale LLC are asking Yonkers for a zoning change that will allow them to proceed with developing the former Leake & Watts and Rising Ground property at 501 Hawthorne Ave. into a major movie and TV production campus. National Resources has been involved with Robert Halmi Jr.’s Great Point Studios in creating Lionsgate and other studio facilities in Yonkers.
i.Park Riverdale LLC purchased the approximately 28-acre Hawthorne Avenue property from Rising Ground Inc. in December of 2022 for $52.6 million, according to a document on file with the Westchester County Clerk’s Office.
Cotter says that adding a use of “Planned Film and Educational Development” by special permit to the current MG zoning district will allow them to redevelop the property and further the goals of the Yonkers Comprehensive Plan while increasing the city’s tax base by bringing this formerly tax-exempt property onto the tax rolls.
In an initial phase of development, the existing Biondi School Building and Ames School Building on the property have already been refurbished to create the Robert Halmi Sr. Academy for Film & Television. The public middle and high school operated by the Yonkers Board of Education was opened with a formal ribbon-cutting on Sept. 25. Robert Halmi Sr. was a renowned movie and TV producer and the father of Great Point’s Robert Halmi Jr.
i.Park Riverdale is planning to update an administration building on the property to house offices and educational facilities. It expects one or more institutions of higher learning to be active at the site. It would update several residential cottages on the campus.
A preliminary layout of what’s planned indicates that the new construction of a studio complex would include five soundstages. There would be four stages of 20,000 square feet each and one 10,000 square foot stage. There also would be 60,000 square feet of carpentry and set-building shop space along with office space, associated truck parking and an approximately 250-space parking structure in addition to the existing surface parking.
The property is located in southwestern Yonkers at the intersection of Hawthorne Avenue and Valentine Avenue, directly bordering the Riverdale section of the Bronx.
Cotter described the educational goal of the project as being “to promote diversity of opportunities for local students and Yonkers residents in the film and media industry. To support this effort, will be the construction of studios and creative spaces for actual production of film and television. The mission of the school is to prepare a creative workforce by providing arts and academic training through collaboration with industry partners and higher education connections, including the Newhouse School of Syracuse University, New York University, The Juilliard School and the New York Film Academy, among others.”
Ward said that the effort to move ahead with the development reflects the success that has taken place in bringing the movie and TV production industry to Yonkers.
“We are plain and simply out of stages (soundstages),” Ward said. “We have five stages that are complete. They are all full and operating with different shows and we have other shows waiting to come.”
Wards said that the previous owner of the site had been transferring its operations to a new property and had been expected to complete the move out by the end of this year.
“We don’t think that’s going to happen so we are accommodating them along the way,” Ward said. She said that i.Park would be meeting with neighborhood groups to discuss traffic issues, landscaping of the property and any other concerns they may have.
The Yonkers Planning Board has unanimously passed a resolution designating itself as lead agency for the coordinated environmental review of the project.
