Last week, Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone asked residents to urge the City Council to fast-track a project the mayor has called “critical” to the city”™s economic development.
“We cannot afford to let this opportunity pass us by,” Amicone told residents during a meeting at the Will Library on Aug. 25. “It”™s critical that we make sure this project happens and it happens fast. If this project doesn”™t make it because we didn”™t move fast enough, no one else will take a chance on us.”
The project in question is a $1.5 billion mixed-use redevelopment of the downtown and waterfront districts by Struever Fidelco Cappelli L.L.C. (SFC), a partnership comprised of Struever Bros. Eccles & Rose of Baltimore, Fidelco Realty Group of Millburn, N.J., and Valhalla-based Cappelli Enterprises.
SFC Phase 1, in its third year, is awaiting approval of environmental submissions currently under review by the City Council.
The City Council has given an Oct. 7 date for approval of the final environmental impact statement, a deadline that the developer is hoping it will meet.
“It would pose a very serious blow to this project if we did not receive our approvals by the end of October,” said Joseph V. Apicella, executive project manager for the SFC partnership.
Apicella said with the economy in poor condition and financing being very difficult “we have certain thresholds with the banks that are helping us finance this project already, and there is a certain processing threshold to meet in order for the financing to continue.”
The SFC Partnership has already invested “upwards of $25 million” in the project, Apicella said.Â
Apicella recently said the project could begin construction at the end of the year, but “at the rate that this is being processed, right now it”™s not probable.
“We continue to be optimistic and we want to work with the council, but the council needs to understand the economic realities of today,” Apicella said. “This is not a situation that can be dragged out. Now is the time to step up to the plate and process it.”
City Council President Chuck Lesnick said the consultants who work for the City Council have to go through all of the points raised in the public hearing and environmental review process and “no one will be able to argue that the council did not take a hard look at this project.
 “We”™re working cooperatively to get this project passed because we all believe it”™s the best thing for the city of Yonkers,” Lesnick said. “While we all want this project to go forward as quickly as possible, ultimately the city will not agree with the developer on every aspect on everything we”™re doing.
 “There are a lot of approvals, but the most important thing for the council, the mayor and the developer to come to terms on is what the business agreement is,” Lesnick said.
“You can be thorough and fast,” Amicone said. “Thorough doesn”™t mean slow. This is the biggest project in the history of the city. It”™s a little scary for the people who are voting for it, because they don”™t want to make a mistake. Well, they”™re not making a mistake because they know that the people in this city support it.
“I think the city council is taking much too much time,” Amicone said. “The council has said they will try and get everything done by Oct. 7. There is no legitimate reason why they can”™t.”
SFC project at a glance
River Park Center
It will feature a mix of office, residential, retail and entertainment space, including:
? 465,000 square feet of retail space;
? 325,000 square feet of office space (in multiple buildings);
? 80,000 square feet of restaurant space;
? 15-screen, 80,000 square foot movie theater;
? 6,500-seat ballpark located on the roof of the River Park Center for a new team in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball Clubs;
? 950 residential apartments in two buildings; and
? parking facilities with 4,340 spaces.
Cacace Center
? 150,000 square foot office building;
? new 75,000 square foot hotel with 150 rooms on the corner of Nepperhan Avenue and South Broadway adjacent to the Cacace Justice Center;
? more than half the space in the new office building will be occupied by city agencies currently located in a 91,000-square-foot building at 87 Nepperhan Ave. That building will be razed as part of the development plan. The existing government center garage will be torn down to make way for a new parking facility; but
? before that takes place, a new 1,470-space parking structure will be built on the south side of Nepperhan Avenue on a now vacant site adjacent to the Cacace Justice Center; and
? the current firehouse building will be demolished and a new 50,000-square-foot headquarters will be built adjacent to the new parking garage at the Cacace Justice Center at the corner of Nepperhan Avenue and New Main Street.
Palisades Point
? Planned for two Hudson River development sites south of the Yonkers train station, will be comprised of two 25 story residential buildings with a total of 436 condominiums; and
? 9,000 square feet of ground level retail/ restaurant or office space and two parking facilities with 725 spaces.
Reopening of the Saw Mill River
? The river runs underneath parts of downtown or is inaccessible to the public near Getty SquareLarkin Plaza. Project will feature landscaped public river walks along portions of the Saw Mill. and in
