Station gets new life
Two brothers with Westchester roots will move their real estate business closer to home as they rehabilitate and return to use a vacated village landmark in Mamaroneck where pigeons have ruled the roost.
Partners in Verco Properties L.L.C., John and Chris Verni in 2008 paid $1.25 million to acquire the Mamaroneck train station from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Built in 1888, the brick and terra cotta station is distinguished by its Romanesque Revival architecture and is the second-oldest depot on the New Haven line.
The building, which overlooks the village”™s Columbus Park and the flood-prone Sheldrake River, was long underused. Most Metro-North Railroad commuters bought tickets on the elevated station platform, connected by a tunnel to the station, rather than at the station”™s ticket booth, which kept only part-time hours. About half of the 4,400-square-foot building had been walled off and abandoned for decades.
Unable to find a tenant willing to sign a net lease on a property needing substantial capital investment, MTA officials in 2007 retained two brokerage firms to market the property. The Verni brothers, whose company has renovated residential, mixed-use and commercial buildings primarily in Manhattan, were contacted by a broker who knew their ties to Westchester. John Verni, a New Rochelle resident, is a law partner at Kent, Hazzard, Wilson, Conroy, Verni & Freeman L.L.P. in White Plains and a former Westchester assistant district attorney. His younger brother lives in Larchmont. They were raised in Yonkers.
“Chris and I climbed around the building,” said John Verni, “climbed up into the rafters,” above which is a long-hidden cathedral ceiling they plan to expose. “We decided this would be a great place to relocate the office” from the Woodlawn section of the Bronx.
The brothers plan to double the building”™s floor space by adding a second floor for their real estate office. The station waiting room will be converted to a 126-seat, approximately 3,300-square-foot restaurant. Retail shops that cater to commuters, possibly including a florist, dry cleaning drop-off service and news stand, will complement the midscale to upscale restaurant.
As requested by village officials, the Vernis said rail commuters still will have access to the station tunnel, either by a new outdoor passage or through the station at the restaurant operator”™s discretion.
The rehabilitation will cost about $1 million, Chris Verni said. Suburban Construction Co. of NY Inc. in Valhalla is project contractor. Building improvements were designed by Stephen Tilly, Architect in Dobbs Ferry, a specialist in historic preservation.
The redevelopers hope to open the converted station by the end of this year or early next year. “We have several restaurants and other transit-oriented retail interested,” John Verni said. A florist is looking to open a second location in Westchester there and most of the potential restaurant operators have other locations, he said.
The brothers”™ grandfather, Italian immigrant Giovanni Verdi, in the 1940s opened Verni”™s Market on an Upper East Side corner; the family lived upstairs. The proprietor bought the six-apartment building, which remains the company”™s sentimentally held flagship property despite lucrative offers from developers, and began buying other properties in his Yorkville neighborhood. The family company also owns and manages properties in Soho and on the Lower East Side.
The brothers a few years ago entered the Westchester market with their purchase of Harrison Cinema, a closed 1920s-era theater on Harrison Avenue in the village of Harrison. John Verni said they plan to follow their Mamaroneck project with a mixed-use commercial and residential development there.
“My brother and I saw the opportunity to do something here,” he said as a demolition crew stacked the station”™s tongue-and-groove ceiling boards to be recycled as wainscoting in the new office. “We”™re local guys and we”™re excited to do something here in our own backyard and return this long-dormant building as an asset to the village.”