Fareri Associates, the Greenwich-based developer of residential, commercial and office properties, has opened Villa BXV, a 53-unit condominium complex on Kensington Road in downtown Bronxville. The roughly two-year construction project was completed by The Gateway Development Group, a Fareri-owned company.
Eighty percent of the condos have been sold and buyers have been moving into the building, according to a Fareri Associates spokesperson.
The Kensington Road property immediately adjoins the Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line tracks and is the former site of the Lawrence Park Heat, Light and Power Co. plant. The village bought the vacant, environmentally contaminated property in 1986 and in 2004 selected WCI Communities Inc. to develop a 110,000-square-foot condominium building and 300-space parking garage there. But with the 2008 housing market collapse, WCI filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reportedly due mostly to bad investments in the Florida real estate market.
The Village Board, which had approved WCI site plans, in 2014 revived the development effort with a new request for proposals and selected developer John Fareri”™s company. Construction of the project, designed by Sullivan Architecture of White Plains, began in mid-2015.
The challenging development required deep excavation, including the removal of 20,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, to build a 309-space parking garage, of which 203 spaces are reserved for public use by Bronxville residents, shoppers and merchants.
“Construction of this nature is commonplace in Manhattan or other major urban downtowns, but rare in a community like Bronxville,” said James Carnicelli, president of The Gateway Development Group in Greenwich. He said the job required extensive coordination with both Metro-North officials and the village in monitoring truck traffic to and from the site.
The one-, two- and three-bedroom condos range in size from 1,300 square feet to more than 2,000 square feet. Prices start at $1.1 and range up to $3.6 million for penthouses with rooftop terraces.
Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin in a statement on the Villa BXV opening said the redevelopment “fits in perfectly, provides wonderful new residential opportunities, many of which have been taken by village residents who are downsizing from large homes, and replaces what has long been an underutilized site.”
“In many ways,” said the mayor, “it has been the missing piece in the downtown and now it has been seamlessly filled with this great new building.”
Construction began in June 2014, not 2015, unless you’re ignoring all of the site clearing work. However, to do so is to mislead people into thinking the project is not woefully behind schedule.