AvalonBay looks to develop more housing

Though it recently sold one of its luxury high-rises in New Rochelle, residential developer AvalonBay Communities Inc. is intent on acquiring more properties on which to build in Westchester and Fairfield County, Conn.

In Ossining, the company, based in Arlington, Va., has a contract on a vacant 15-acre property at 217 N. Highland Ave. owned by BASF S.E., the German chemical company. Preliminary plans call for two new three-story and four-story buildings with 210 apartments on the site. A stone mansion on the grounds, the former home of the owner of an Ossining chemical company that preceded BASF, will be used as a leasing office and clubhouse for Avalon residents.

Mark J. Forlenza, vice president for development at AvalonBay”™s Shelton, Conn., office, said the proposed project likely will be reduced to less than 200 luxury apartments when the developer submits plans to Ossining village officials this summer. The developer obtained contractual rights to the property from BASF in 2009.

Mark Weingarten, the White Plains attorney representing AvalonBay, told the village board in December the development would be led by Avalon Bay”™s garden apartment and mid-rise division and similar in design to the division”™s Avalon Green development off Taxter Road in the town of Greenburgh. In the second phase of the Greenburgh development, construction is expected to start in August on 440 townhouse-style apartments there.

“It”™s a very unique type of housing,” Weingarten told Ossining officials. “While it”™s housing and you have people that spend in your community, you don”™t have children” in the one- and two-bedroom apartments. That low school-age population and Avalon communities”™ high property value assessment make the project “a grand slam home run for your school district,” Weingarten said.

“I think Ossining has the right demographics for us,” said Forlenza. With no new housing built in northern Westchester, “I think there”™s a dearth of supply up there,” he said.

Forlenza said AvalonBay has leased 25 percent of its 111-unit Avalon Norwalk development in Connecticut. Construction will start in July on 100 luxury units at Avalon Springs in Wilton, Conn.

“We”™re looking for more sites in Westchester and Connecticut,” Forlenza said. “We”™re trying to be very active in Westchester. We”™re sort of in acquisition mode in both Westchester and Fairfield. We want to start new construction.”

In downtown New Rochelle, Hartz Mountain Industries Inc. recently moved into the multifamily rental market with its $107.5 million purchase of Avalon on the Sound, the 24-story, 412-apartment building at 255 Huguenot St. Avalon Bay Communities will remain as owners and operators of the 588-unit Avalon on the Sound East at 588A Memorial Highway in New Rochelle.

The former bird feed company in Secaucus, N.J., that has evolved into a commercial real estate developer, Hartz Mountain bought the New Rochelle property in a 1031 exchange requirement to defer capital gains taxes. Hartz Mountain CEO Leonard M. Stern on the company”™s website said it expects to invest $1 billion to build its new apartment portfolio into a substantial segment of its business.