Felix M. Petrillo has a second chance to build in his hometown.
A former highway and utilities construction contractor as the founding head of Felix Industries in Westchester, Petrillo is a principal in Petro Real Estate Development Corp. Petro is a 10-year-old Mamaroneck company led by his sons, principals Michael V. and Felix J. Petrillo.
In Mount Vernon, Petro has teamed with Glenmark Partners L.L.C., a Manhattan real estate development and investment company, to buy at bankruptcy auction and resume work next month on an eight-story condominium building in the city”™s Fleetwood section.
Petrillo has history with Mount Vernon
For the senior Petrillo, a return to Mount Vernon “is like I”™m coming home.” He was born in an apartment building about two blocks from the unfinished 70-unit brick condo at 550 Locust St. He worked in the construction business in the city for 20 years.
“I always wanted to do some building in Mount Vernon,” he said. “I know the city by heart. ”¦ I was always looking for some kind of a situation in Mount Vernon. I saw this opportunity with the building.”
Michael Petrillo, president of the family company, said Petro is looking for transit-oriented developments in southern Westchester and had tracked this condo project, two blocks from the Fleetwood Metro-North Railroad station, since its inception in 2004. Judelson Development Group L.L.C., a residential developer in the Bronx, in 2005 obtained a $15.5 million loan from the Bank of New York Mellon for The Vista at Fleetwood construction.
“We watched this project develop and thought it was a great project and a great location,” Petrillo said.
Built on a slope bordering Macquesten Parkway, “It really shows out against other buildings” in the neighborhood, Felix M. Petrillo said. “I felt that I missed the boat because someone else was building it.”
Judelson had acquired the site, a former construction equipment rental yard, from a family with whom Petrillo did business in his contracting work.
Construction of the condo tower was about 70 percent complete when it came to a halt in 2008, with rails not yet mounted on concrete balcony terraces. Judelson defaulted on project loans and declared bankruptcy.
Developers to finish off condo building
Petro and Glenmark Partners bought the property at auction this year for approximately $6.18 million. They expect to spend $5 million to $8 million to complete the building and upgrade interiors.
“Sometimes bad luck for one person can wind up good luck for another,” said the senior Petrillo. “Lo and behold, we have a building two blocks from where I was born.”
Michael Petrillo said the partners are in the process of hiring a general contractor and expect construction to start by September and be completed in eight months.
“We found the quality of the existing building is terrific,” said Glen M. Vetromile, principal at Glenmark Partners and a former senior vice president at The Related Cos., the prominent commercial and residential developer in Manhattan.
Vetromile said the partners have hired Fogarty Finger Architecture/Interiors, a Manhattan firm whose interior design projects include the Avalon Bay luxury apartment buildings in White Plains and New Rochelle, to work with the project”™s original architect, Peter F. Gaito & Associates in White Plains, in redesigning elements of the 90,000-square-foot building. A fitness center will be enlarged to about 2,500 square feet and a common library and game room added. Kitchen cabinetry and flooring and bathroom fixtures will be replaced. “Tastes have changed in the five years” since the condo project began, Vetromile said.
The building includes a common roof deck and a three-level, 92-space underground parking garage.
The new owners are mulling their choices for a change of name from The Vista at Fleetwood. The condos, 42 two-bedroom and 28 one-bedroom units, will be marketed by Houlihan Lawrence. Vetromile said though condo prices are not yet set, “It”™s going to be a value proposition. Relative to condos in Westchester, this will be a good value. There”™s not much coming on the market in the next two years.”
Mount Vernon ”˜an untapped resource”™
He said empty nesters and young single and married professionals commuting by train to New York City are potential buyers in Fleetwood.
“We feel Mount Vernon is an untapped resource,” Michael Petrillo said. “Fleetwood specifically, but Mount Vernon in general. We feel there”™s a market for this.”
The city”™s prospects for transit-oriented redevelopment have drawn other developers northward from Manhattan. Mount Vernon officials this summer approved a three-phase, $120-million residential and retail project proposed by Atlantic Development L.L.C. near the city”™s Hartley Park, planned as a gateway to the city”™s downtown Gramatan Avenue commercial corridor. Construction of a $60-million, 159-unit apartment building could begin this year, followed by a work on a 60-unit, $18-million apartment building for senior citizens.
Another Manhattan company, MVP Realty Associates L.L.C., reportedly wants to acquire vacant and deteriorated city-owned parcels on Mount Vernon”™s south side for a mixed-use redevelopment project.
“I think the sentiment of the city is very pro-development,” said Vetromile. “They”™ve been very rigorous in the review, but also very fair.”
