The Farrell Building Company Inc., which purchased the former Ridgeway Country Club in White Plains is asking the city of White Plains to approve subdivision of the property to create parcels for single-family homes. The entire property comprises 129.68 acres. Farrell is based in Brookhaven on Long Island and has become known for building high-quality luxury single-family homes while also branching out into multifamily developments as well as commercial projects.
Attorneys Michael Zarin and Kory Salomone of the White Plains-based law firm Zarin & Steinmetz told the city that Farrell wants to subdivide the Ridgeway development site into single-family lots plus one lot for community amenity space and a clubhouse, and six open space lots.
The property currently consists of four lots. According to information in an environmental assessment document, Lot A on the site is 27.75 acres and it is proposed that 29 houses would be built in that section of the property. Lot B, at 14.04 acres, would have 15 houses. Lot C, which is 15.58 acres, would have 13 houses. Lot D, at 72.32 acres, would have 41 houses. The total number of houses would be 98, according to the environmental document.
Zarin and Salomone said that all of the proposed single-family lots will meet the required minimum size of 30,000 square feet. They said that 58 of the lots would require flexibility with respect to minimum front and side yard dimensions but that the city codes allow for flexibility in such requirements in order to protect environmental features on a parcel.
Twenty-nine of the lots would be targeted for a specified age group, such as seniors, and a “Homeowners Association (”˜HOA”™) will be formed to ensure that all rules and regulations pertaining to age-restricted housing are followed and enforced. Additionally, the HOA will be responsible for maintaining the wide buffer area on the rear of each parcel,” according to Zarin and Salomone.
A traffic study indicates that the proposed development would not be generating too much traffic compared with other types of developments. There would be 73 vehicle trips expected to be generated during the morning peak hours and 98 trips during the peak afternoon hours.
A document on file with the Westchester County Clerk”™s Office shows that Farrell Ridgeway Owner LLC purchased the Ridgeway property from the French American School of New York (FASNY) in November of 2021 for $16.5 million. FASNY, which had owned the property since January 2011, had been unable to develop it after neighborhood groups fought its plans to build new educational facilities on the site. FASNY had purchased the property from the Ridgeway Country Club after the city declined to move ahead with a plan proposed under the administration of former Mayor Adam Bradley to reopen the county club as a municipal golf course and recreational facility.
Shortly after buying the property company owner Joseph Farrell told the Business Journals, “Given the limited inventory of new construction homes in Westchester County and the resurgence of demand for suburban housing following the pandemic, Ridgeway is the perfect opportunity for the Farrell brand to enter the market. We look forward to working with the city of White Plains on the project, which will generate substantial tax revenue for the community.”
In October of 2019, the Business Journals reported on Farrell”™s development business. At that time, Stephen Zagoren, chief development officer for Farrell Communities, told the Business Journals that the company has taken note of shifting populations as people become interested in moving from Manhattan to beyond Westchester and Putnam and into Dutchess and Orange.
“We have 12 to 15 projects in the Hudson Valley in various stages, more like 15. In Florida, we”™ve got five or six projects going on, a combination of self-storage and multifamily. In Massachusetts, we”™ve got four projects going on that are all self-storage,” he said.
Zagoren had been involved in the self-storage business when he and Farrell got together to work on self-storage properties and then expanded into multifamily development, building on Farrell”™s success in constructing luxury homes on Long Island and in Florida.
As of 2022, Farrell reports having completed more than 400 projects through the entities Farrell Commercial, Farrell Communities, Farrell Storage, and Farrell Building Company.
The proposed homes at the Ridgeway site would range in size from 2,700 to 6,700 square feet, with a mix of 4- and 5-bedrooms. Six open space areas proposed in the development would comprise approximately 39.7 acres and include an existing pond, wetland, and stormwater management areas.
Farrell points out that the former FASNY project was a tax-exempt use. while what is now being proposed would bring high-end homes to the site. It is estimated that approximately $4,000,000 in annual property taxes would be generated by the project.
The folks in the neighborhood surrounding the property have the folks that led the fight against FASNY to thank for the construct of 100 new homes in their backyards. The renderings show ordinary homes that will compete with the neighborhood inventory. The property tax revenue at an average of $40,000 per home leads me to wonder what about these new houses is worth the tax tab?