Blue Cube parcel hits the market

After removing 22 buildings, 90,000 tons of contaminated soil and 1,000 cubic yards of debris from 14.6 acres of Yonkers waterfront, Realtor Paul Adler Feb. 18 placed a price tag of $20 million on the parcel with the asterisk, “We’re open to negotiation.”

The site to date has witnessed $40 million of private-sector money toward remediation work across the past five years.

Another $15 million to $20 million, also non-taxpayer money, Adler said, will be spent on the final phase, which involves dredging sediment from the adjacent riverbed, contaminated now with PCBs, volatile organic compounds and lead.

Housing for about 3,700 people across 900 units is envisioned for the site, with a limited retail and restaurant presence. In keeping with Yonkers”™ master plan for the waterfront, the land abutting the river will be public parkland.

Adler said he hopes to sell the parcel even before the dredging is complete. The first scoops will leave the river April 16 once coffer dams are in place, a fish-centric date determined by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Coffers are being placed now that will prevent comingling of upland fill and the river. That work is being done by Long Island-based Pisa Contracting Inc.

At a Feb. 18 announcement of the beginning of the final phase attended by state and Yonkers officials including DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis and Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone, Adler said, “It’s first and goal. We”™ve returned the site to prehistoric conditions and created a new palette for someone to use.” Also present was Debra L. Rothberg, Adler’s co-principal in the company supervising remediation of the property, Blackacre Partners OPS L.L.C.

The parcel includes the Blue Cube soundstage studios where movies and commercials have been made. That building will remain, the only structure from the previous century to survive.