Peekskill”™s desire to fill empty commercial space and expand its business base prompted the city to offer a bus tour May 18 for commercial real estate brokers.
“We are here to work with you and your clients,” said Brian Havranek, executive director of Peekskill”™s Industrial Development Agency. “We have streamlined our pre-planning process so there won”™t be any surprises for anyone coming in with a project.” PILOT programs, mortgage tax and construction material tax abatements and low interest-rates for debt incurred as part of the project are part of Peekskill”™s strategy to fill its empty commercial space. A façade improvement loan program is available for business.
The Grow Peekskill Fund, created between the Grow American Fund Inc. and the city and authorized by the Small Business Administration will allow for loans from $100,000 to $2 million to eligible borrowers at floating or fixed rates for a term of up to 25 years.
The state Department of Transportation”™s reconstruction of Route 9 is scheduled to be completed before the end of 2010. The two-year, $73 million project will replace three aging bridges and improve the city’s waterfront infrastructure.
The city bought the Depression-era Paramount Theatre on Brown Street and refurbished the interior, creating an anchor for the arts community it created in its downtown area. The city”™s live/work loft condos are 95 percent full, Mayor Mary Foster said. The result, she said, has been a revitalized downtown, where artists and affordable housing has made it popular for those priced out of New York City and its immediate surroundings.
With Martin Ginsburg out of the city”™s waterfront redevelopment plan after the recession hit, most of the revitalization efforts were stalled. Now, the city is getting ready to invest more than $8 million to continue the work Ginsberg started. There is currently no developer of record, said Foster. A grant from Empire State Development Corp. will allow the city to create a walkway between its two waterfront trails. “We are committed to making the waterfront a destination for visitors and residents,” Foster said.
Brokers got a one-hour tour of 15 private and city-owned properties, including White Plains Linen on John Walsh Boulevard, which bought additional property in February for $2.8 million to merge its two locations in one site. White Plains Linen is the city”™s largest employer, with 450 full and part-time employees. Foster said the company donated the building it is vacating to the city.
“It will be available for commercial use,” she said. “We are not focusing on any affordable housing right now. Peekskill has plenty of affordable housing stock available already. We need to grow our business base.”
A proposed LEED-certified Holiday Inn Express on John Walsh Boulevard has its foundation poured, but construction is on hold because financing dried up, Foster said. “We”™re anxious to see that project finish. The city has no facility like the one planned. A hotel and conference center with easy access to the highway is most desirable for us. We”™re more than ready for financial markets to ease lending restrictions, and so are owners and developers.”
Foster said city planners hope that its commercial spaces will be filed with small to mid-size businesses and is not looking to create a center for big-box retailers. “We”™re focused on building a stable commercial base,” the mayor said. “We”™re going to find stability in businesses with 500 employees or less.”
Green, clean manufacturing is on Peekskill”™s wish list, a growing trend in the region as manufacturing continues to dwindle.
“The tour was well structured and I think brokers will be interested,” said Gil Mercurio, president of the Westchester-Putnam Board of Realtors. “Right now, we need to see the credit markets loosen up and start lending.”
Paul Hoffman, vice president of brokerage services for CB Richard Ellis in Stamford, said the tour “was a good opportunity to see what Peekskill has to offer and what they”™ve put in place to make the approvals process more user friendly.”
