Site preparation work, including rock blasting, is underway at what used to be the Lake Street Granite Quarry in Harrison for a 144-unit $42 million assisted living and dementia care community. The Brightview Harrison Senior Living facility is being built at 600 Lake St., following a lengthy approval process.
There had been a lawsuit to stop the project filed by a group of Harrison residents in state Supreme Court in White Plains. The lawsuit alleged that the Harrison Town Board and Planning Board acted improperly in approving the project. A Feb. 22, 2017, ruling from Judge Gretchen Walsh went against resident group Save Harrison, Inc., which had filed an Article 78 challenge to overturn Harrison”™s approval of the project.
The Business Journals reported at the time that residents argued in their lawsuit that the project would bring increased traffic, noise and potential flooding, plus disrupt nearby wetlands. The lawsuit also questioned the thoroughness of the town”™s environmental review and whether the proposal lined up with the town”™s comprehensive plan.
Walsh wrote in the decision that the Harrison Planning Board”™s review gave “exhaustive consideration to all potential environmental problems.”
The four-story 154,697-square-foot facility that is being built on the 7.3-acre site has been designed to be reminiscent of a modern farmhouse. The design was by Market Square Architects, which has offices in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Austin, Texas. Construction is by the KBE Building Corporation, which has offices in Manhattan, Farmington and Norwalk in Connecticut along with Laurel, Maryland, and Scottsdale, Arizona.
The Business Journals reported in 2017 that attempts at commercial redevelopment of the quarry could be traced to the early 1990s when a plan was proposed to build a garden center there. In 2014, a plan was floated to build a shopping center on the site. Harrison and the former owner of the quarry had been at odds over alleged code violations. The town began legal action in 2009 that eventually led to a settlement between Harrison and the quarry owner in 2014.
The Business Journals reported that in the 2014 settlement, the town agreed to no longer pursue $825,000 it claimed it was owed in fines, dropped its pursuit of alleged code violations and agreed to accept an application for a senior living facility. In exchange, the quarry agreed to sell existing inventory, not further its operations and end all litigation against the town.
Brightview Senior Living, based in Baltimore, reports that it operates 45 senior living communities in the East Coast, including Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia. Brightview was an outgrowth of The Shelter Group, a private company founded in 1977 to develop, own and manage residential real estate and specializing in multifamily properties and senior living communities. In 2018, The Shelter Group was renamed Brightview Senior Living. It values its senior living portfolio at more than $2 billion.
