Yorktown development shows signs of life
On the heels of a $1.1 million tax dispute between Cappelli Enterprises Inc. and the town of Yorktown over Cappelli”™s Trump Park Residences, sales are slowly picking up, the developer said.
Since lowering the asking prices in late 2010, the Valhalla-based developer reported that between 15 and 20 of the 141 total condominium units had been sold over the last six months, compared to fewer than 40 sales from 2007 to 2010.
Approximately 55 of the age-restricted units, which range from 1,400 to 2,100 square feet, are occupied according to Joseph Apicella, executive vice president of Cappelli Enterprises.
“We decided to reduce prices to stimulate sales in the last six to nine months,” Apicella said.
He said the decision to drop prices extended to all of Cappelli”™s developments, which include apartment buildings and residential communities in White Plains, New Rochelle, Dobbs Ferry, Tarrytown and Elmsford, and that the decreases were in line with the rest of the housing market. He added that sales at Cappelli”™s urban developments have not been noticeably faster or slower than sales at the suburban developments such as the one in Yorktown.
“It has resulted in very positive activities ”“ in particular at the Yorktown Trump Park project,” Apicella said, adding that as sales increased, so would prices. “We”™ve already begun a process of incrementally increasing the prices as the market responds to it and gets stronger.”
When the $80 million, 50-acre development was completed in 2007, the asking prices for condos ranged from $500,000 to $1.3 million. Since December, recorded sales of the condos have ranged from $183,232 to $451,800, according to published reports.
Apicella confirmed that Cappelli Enterprises had paid the town $1,112,677.91 owed in back taxes, interest and penalties, but expressed frustration with the town for having to pay the additional taxes despite the community being an age-restricted development for people 55 and over.
“We had a dispute in taxes with the town dating back a few years and we”™ve resolved our tax dispute,” he said. “And mind you, this project has zero school children. This is just a straight-forward windfall for the school district.”
Cappelli Enterprises hasn”™t been the only developer plagued by a stagnant real estate market. P. Gilbert Mercurio, CEO of the Westchester Putnam Association of Realtors Inc. in White Plains said his office has observed price declines for single-family houses, condominiums, cooperatives, and two- to four-family houses for at least a year now.
“We have been seeing price decreases in all of the property categories that we monitor on a year-to-year basis,” Mercurio said.
Mercurio said that when the association last conducted a long-term price comparison for single-family houses in Westchester, data showed prices were down 15 to 20 percent from their peak in 2007.
“Since that time they”™ve gone up,” Mercurio said. “I think that the Westchester experience is not as severe as in other parts of New York or indeed in the country, but nevertheless, the bottom line is, yes, prices are slipping somewhat.”
The association won”™t release its 2011 second quarter residential numbers for Westchester and Putnam counties for another week and a half, but based on preliminary reports Mercurio called sales “mixed” over the past three months.
“In May, when much of the U.S. and indeed large areas of New York experienced sales volume decreases, Westchester County as far as I can tell from the preliminary data had a pretty big increase,” he said. “On the other hand, for April and June there were year-over-year decreases, so I don”™t know how it”™s going to balance out and I don”™t have an explanation for that yet.”
First quarter data for Westchester showed a 5 percent decrease in the amount of sales when compared to the 2010 first quarter, according to the association”™s 2011 First Quarter Residential Real Estate Sales Report.