A Harlem-based developer has razed a former auto dealer”™s block on West Post Road in downtown White Plains while its management team continues informal talks with city officials over plans for a 230,000-square-foot retail development on the site.
Grid Properties Inc. plans a pedestrian-oriented development with an open-air design at the former Sholz Auto Group location at 77 W. Post Road, between South Lexington and Odell avenues, the company”™s managing director Scott Auster said a recent retail forum in Mount Vernon sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers. The auto dealer closed operations there in 2009.
It would be the first Westchester County project for Grid, which has developed retail centers in Harlem and Washington, D.C., through Urban Strategic Partners, its joint venture partnership with Gotham Organization Inc. Grid Properties developed and has its headquarters at Harlem USA, a glass-walled, 285,000-square-foot retail and entertainment complex that has helped transform Harlem”™s 125th Street retail corridor.
Branding the White Plains project Boulevard 22, Grid on its website says it will be a “major catalyst” in revitalizing the Route 22 corridor. Its tenant mix will include home furnishings, health and fitness businesses, small specialty retailers and restaurants.
“We think downtown White Plains is dying for this type of project,” Auster said.
