Chappaqua-based Wilder Balter Partners Inc. and the village of Ossining are seeking community input on a proposal to build an eight-story mixed-use building with 109 apartments on the site of the Department of Public Works trash transfer station.
In April, Wilder Balter was selected by Ossining to develop the site bounded by Water Street, Main Street, Secor Road and Central Avenue, which is near the Metro-North railroad tracks and the Hudson River.
In July 2019, the village issued a request for qualifications from developers that might be interested in acquiring the property and doing something with it that met the village”™s needs for housing, commercial opportunities, public access along the Sing Sing Kill Brook and included a pedestrian connection between the train station area and upper Main Street. Beginning in Sept. 2019, responses from developers were reviewed by a selection committee consisting of representatives from the Housing Action Council, village staff and members of the Ossining Board of Trustees.
A formal review process of Wilder Balter”™s proposal, including public hearings, must be completed before approvals can be granted and permits issued.
William G. Balter, a principal in Wilder Balter Partners Inc., told the Business Journal that what they”™re proposing in Ossining is consistent with their past affordable and workforce housing successes. He pointed to the company”™s development Chappaqua Crossing on the site of the former Reader”™s Digest headquarters that contains a mix of market rate and affordable housing units.
Among the company”™s almost three-dozen developments is Deerfield Village in Niantic, Connecticut, which is an affordable rental home community of 100 Cape Cod and colonial two-bedroom homes on 64 wooded acres.
Village Manager Karen D”™Attore told an Oct. 26 public meeting held at the Ossining development site, “The process we”™re beginning now is a time for public input. There are a lot of different ways to look as how we do these things. We want to make sure this process gets as much input as possible from people in the community.”
She said that the village in 2017 conducted a study that found a need for affordable housing as well promoting economic development without unduly impacting the local school district and displacing community residents.
Balter told the meeting, “Our developments are a big mix of things. We do mostly residential communities. We do luxury senior housing. We do affordable senior housing. We”™ve built a lot of houses in Croton and elsewhere. We do mixed-income developments. We sort of are specializing in sites like this. It”™s a difficult site, lots of constraints.”
The site was identified as a brownfield site by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation because of pollution and includes sloping terrain as well as a flood plain. Balter saw similarities between the Ossining site and one in Peekskill currently being developed by the company.
The site of Wilder Balter”™s 82-unit Peekskill affordable housing development has roads named Main Street and Central Avenue on its borders, just as does the Ossining site. Peekskill, too, was classified as a brownfield site, and both sites have sloping terrain.
4 to 8 stories
Balter explained that because of the change in grade, the building is four stories tall at the terrain”™s highest elevation and rises to eight stories as the land slopes down toward the waterfront.
“This is a building that has a first floor that has mixed uses in it,” Balter said. “It has about 3,800 square feet of retail that fronts on Water Street, then there are amenities for the building. We have a community space that we”™re proposing that is just under 4,000 (square) feet. And the idea of that space, and it”™s evolved some, is that it”™s going to be a very high-tech space. It”™s going to have high-speed internet, smart board technology, very flexible seating and it”™s going to be free to the school district and any community groups that want to use it and its a big enough space that it”™s very flexible.”
Balter said there would be about 1,900 square feet of amenities for residents, including a gym, workout studio, clubhouse and green roofs on the fourth floor and sixth floor facing the Hudson where residents can relax and view the river.
Parking for the building would be across the Sing Sing Kill Brook that runs through the site. The initial design shows a total of 209 parking spaces provided, with 159 dedicated to residents and 50 offered for use by the public.
“We”™re building parking for our development over there. We”™re also going to offer a level of parking above that that could be just municipal parking,” Balter said. He said it would be basically a three-story parking structure with an extra level on the roof for the village if they would like it.
The site was used for a coal gas plant, the Ossining Manufactured Gas Plant, from the 1850s to the 1940s and at one time had been owned by Con Edison.
“This site is one of about 25 sites that Con Ed has in a consent decree with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation,” Balter said. “In order for this property to get back to being used by anyone, the site has to be cleaned up. So, part of our proposal is to take this property out of the consent order and, working with Con Ed and the Department of Environmental Conservation, clean it up in an active way.”
He said that the cleanup would largely involve removing contaminated soil from the property, something they have experience doing on other projects.
Balter said that as part of the project, they would finish a greenway trail that had been started some years ago to provide access between Ossining”™s downtown and the waterfront as well as building up the retaining walls that contain the Sing Sing Kill. He said the building”™s design is compatible with it being in a flood plain and takes into account forecasts for future rises in sea level.
Balter said that the building is being designed with energy efficiency in mind and would qualify for a LEED Gold designation.
“What that basically means is it”™s built to be very energy efficient in terms of the building envelope. It”™s also designed to use very green materials, a lot of recycled materials, low VOC (volatile organic compounds) and no-VOC products, very little water usage,” Balter said. “We”™ll also have a very large solar array on the roof of the building and the goal will be to have about one-third of the electricity used in the building generated from the building.”
About half of the units in the building would be two-bedroom, with the balance equally divided between one-bedroom and three-bedroom units. Rents would begin at $677 a month for people earning 30% of the county”™s median average income and rise to $2,503 a month for the most expensive three-bedroom unit. The pricing would make units available to families with incomes ranging from $27,000 a year to $100,000 a year, what Balter describes as “a very big range.”
Balter said they would hope to have all necessary approvals within a year of having signed a contract to buy the property from the village.
