Yorktown wants your business.
The town”™s top official recently announced a multi-phase revitalization plan to help attract new companies and fill up vacant commercial spaces.
Town Supervisor Susan Siegel outlined the plan June 3. The effort includes creating and distributing a comprehensive database of commercial spaces for business customers and brokers. The town is also focusing on streamlining procedures to expedite approving new commercial buildings as well as renovating existing ones.
Reaching out to businesses
Siegel observed that like many other areas in Westchester, the economic malaise during the last few years has been challenging for local commerce.
“We want businesses to know that we have spaces available for them,” Siegel said. She explained that the planning department is putting together a centralized database of vacant properties including existing structures as well as vacant land. The database will also have information on square footage, possible leasing and current zoning, and contact lists. A companion database will contain demographic information.
Siegel said she is working with local business groups to help distribute the database. “Once completed, our plan is to post the database online and link it to other business development sites such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp., and disseminate it to commercial brokers,” she explained. “The key is getting the information into the right hands.”
Expediting approval process
In addition, town government is working to streamline the approval process, both for new construction and the renovation of existing structures. “The entire town board is committed to working with the business community to expedite the approval process,” Siegel said. “The approval process should not be an adversarial one. We want to adopt a new culture of cooperation in Yorktown.”
As part of the plan, town officials are meeting with local business owners to familiarize them with the town”™s permit procedures.
Siegel said she is also working on a plan to merge building, planning and engineering departments and bring them under one roof, “so that we could set up one-stop shopping, so the businesses could go to one place and find out everything about different permits and procedures. They wouldn”™t have to have duplicate sets of plans for the different departments.”
There are a number of attractive commercial spaces available in the area, she explained.
“We have two major roads through the town: Route 202/35 and Route 6. Route 202 has several large retail buildings that are vacant. We have some auto dealerships along Route 202 that are vacant. We have the Jefferson Valley Mall and they have some vacancies there and then we have some other spot locations,” she said. “We would like to find tenants or purchasers. We really want to work with the business community and encourage appropriate businesses to locate into Yorktown.”
There is serious interest in local commercial spaces, she said. For example, a major retailer may soon file an application for the Yorktown Heights commercial space that used to be occupied by Bed Bath & Beyond, according to the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce.
“Our attitude is, we want to work with businesses looking for space, whether it”™s a vacant parcel of land that is commercially zoned or (an) existing vacant building,” Siegel said. “Anyone can pick up the phone and come talk to me. And I will put them in touch with the correct department. We will work out whatever your plan is. And we will see what we can do to facilitate it. We”™ve got good spaces here.”
Yorktown Chamber of Commerce President Joseph Visconti is a local business leader who is working with Siegel to help implement the effort. He said the revitalization plan is “a good first step” for the town. “It”™s up to the town board to entice these businesses. And we need more businesses to come to Yorktown.”
Siegel added, “We”™ve got 36,000 people. Plus if you add Cortlandt and Somers and Putnam, we are probably over 100,000. We”™ve got the Taconic State Parkway, which is a major north-west thoroughfare. And our demographics are good in terms of the income level. So it is a large potential market for many businesses. We want to encourage companies to come and work with us.”
