Sunrise Development Inc. has proposed building what it describes as “service enriched assisted living/memory care housing” at 99 White Plains Road in Tarrytown. There would be 85 units in a new three-story structure that would incorporate part of the existing Goebel Collectors Club building on the 4.45-acre site.
The developer has addressed the Tarrytown Board of Trustees and the village Planning Board seeking rezoning to permit assisted living on the site along with site plan approval.
“There are a number of different ways for us to accomplish introducing assisted living into your zoning,” attorney David Steinmetz of the White Plains-based law firm Zarin & Steinmetz told the planning board. “One of those would be adding a new special permit use. There”™s a possibility we will be revisiting the floating zone that is the zoning technique that was used by one of the earlier applicants.”
Steinmetz identified that applicant as Artis Senior Living LLC, which has applied for approval of a 64-bed Alzheimer/dementia care facility at 153 White Plains Road, not far from the Sunrise site.
The planning board declared itself lead agency for the environmental review of the project and Steinmetz said that the applicant is finalizing an environmental long-assessment form and would be submitting that along with additional studies.
“I believe that SEQRA (the State Environmental Quality Review Act) requires that we take a cumulative analysis. We came in behind Artis,” Steinmetz said. “The law says that when we come in behind Artis we have to layer our impacts on top of theirs and present that.”
Philip Kroskin, senior vice president of real estate for Sunrise, told the planning board, “Westchester County is one of the counties that continues to see, as it sits today, a demographic profile that”™s not adequately served by assisted living and memory care buildings. This building would effectively be filling in a need that is there, let alone the need that we speak about in the future.”
Kroskin said that Sunrise has 330 facilities in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.
“More importantly we”™re a principal provider of care in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut region,” Kroskin said. “We”™re the largest in that region. We have more than 40 buildings serving thousands of seniors over the last 30 years and employing thousands of employees.”
Kroskin said that Sunrise recently opened two buildings in Connecticut, one in Fairfield and one in Wilton.
“We see ourselves and our competitors at high occupancies and even when a new competitor comes into a market we often see very little degradation, if any degradation, in our own occupancy,” he said. “That”™s really indicative of the current demand and ultimate growing demand. It”™s very difficult to find land and we”™re very fortunate to have found this site (in Tarrytown) that really meets every one of our goals and objectives.”
Andy Coelho, senior vice president of construction and design for Sunrise, said that the design seeks to have as slight an impact on the environment as possible. The plan calls for the west side of the property, now wooded, is preserved.
“Although it looks like a large building, it actually is broken down into smaller units. We call them neighborhoods,” Coelho said. “Smaller groups of people live in smaller areas. There are lots of amenity spaces; 50% of the footprint of the area of the whole building is common area, 50% is residential suites. So, there is ample room for residents to enjoy activities, dining, etc., without being in large groups. There can be lots of smaller groups throughout the building, lots of opportunities to gather in small group settings. The number one thing we have going for us is that the suites are mostly private suites, so there are not shared bedrooms and shared bathrooms and we have found that very advantageous for us across the 300-plus communities that we operate.”
Steinmetz addressed concerns about the high numbers of Covid-19 deaths reported from nursing homes, pointing out that the Sunrise facility is not a nursing home.
“We will come back with data on Sunrise and how it has fared during the pandemic. I think you”™ll be surprised that they have done phenomenally well statistically,” Steinmetz said. “It is obviously not a skilled nursing facility and the result of their measures and the things they have implemented have been quite successful.”
The site where the great Hummel figurine once stood
The structure now known as the Goebel building dates from approximately 1905. It formerly served as the main house on an estate and sustained a fire in 1964, requiring interior renovation. In 1976, the Goebel Collector”™s Club opened a gallery and museum. A giant Hummel figurine stood outside of the building and was a landmark for motorists.
The Goebel Co., established in Germany in 1871 and known for fine porcelain tableware and decorative items, produced Hummel figurines. In 1979, the Village of Tarrytown Historic Architectural Review Board designated the front facade of the Goebel building as a local landmark.
Sunrise plans to incorporate the preserved south-facing front part of the building into its assisted living facility, using it as the main entrance. It has designed the new portion of the facility to blend with the existing architecture. The new construction would cover a footprint of approximately 74,000 square feet and be approximately 3½ feet taller than the existing building.
