A top development company in Westchester County is relocating its headquarters from New Rochelle to the Bronx, the borough where the family business began and is developing its flagship commercial property.
Joseph Simone, president and CEO of Simone Development Cos., said the company, with about 50 office employees, has until Feb. 28 to complete its move of headquarters from 1000 Main St. in New Rochelle. He said the approximately 25,000-square-foot building, built by his company from 1989 to 1990, will be the regional headquarters for Tutor Perini Civil Inc., the infrastructure construction division of California-based general contractor Tutor Perini Corp.
Tutor Perini”™s civil construction office is at 1022 Lower South St. in Peekskill. Company officials there declined to comment on their plans in New Rochelle. Simone and Tutor Perini closed in January on the $4.6 million deal.
Simone, a commercial and residential developer, will consolidate operations in a penthouse office in Tower One at the Hutchinson Metro Center, the mixed-use development in the Bronx where Simone has built two office buildings totaling 740,000 square feet and plans to add three more towers in a 2-million-square-foot development on a 42-acre campus.
Like the company”™s New Rochelle address, the company”™s Bronx headquarters is within a 75-mile driving distance of the developer”™s roughly 5 million square feet of metropolitan-area properties in Westchester, Fairfield County, Conn., Long Island and the boroughs. “Geographically being in this location is important to us,” said Simone. In building an approximately 90-property portfolio of standalone office buildings and office parks, retail stores and retail centers, residential and industrial properties, “Our strategy has always been big population and good transportation,” he said.
Simone said the developer will continue to be active in Westchester. In the spring, he said, he plans to begin building two luxury homes on speculation in Purchase to jump-start sales of custom-built, multimillion-dollar homes at the company”™s Sarosca Farm Estates.
Simone recently completed two condominium towers in Long Island City, Queens, with 230 units. “Our big focus right now has been retail and medical,” he said. At the Hutchinson Medical Center, the company has leased more than 250,000 square feet of medical space.
Simone said the company is committed to helping in the redevelopment of the Bronx, where Simone Development in 2010 leased more than 100,000 square feet of class-A office and medical space.
Simone Development evolved from the Bronx auto parts recycling business started by Pat Simone ”“ still active in the business at 83 ”“ and developed by his son Joseph. That family business, Hunts Point Auto Parts, was acquired by LKQ Corp. in 1999, when Simone switched its focus to its growing real estate portfolio in the Bronx and lower Westchester.
