A plan has been put together to develop an undeveloped piece of property currently owned by the city of Yonkers with apartments, amenities for residents, commercial space and parking. There would be 340 studio and one-bedroom units in the proposed six-story building, which would have two stories of parking and commercial space with four residential floors on top.
The applicant is Titan Real Estate Development LLC, a New York limited liability company based in Minneola on Long Island. It”™s a related entity of Hudson Blue Yonkers LLC, which recently completed the construction of a 94-unit apartment building located 70 Ashburton Ave.
The development would use an approximately 3.88-acre portion of the property located at 36, 50 and 56 St. Joseph Ave., and 1, 6, 7 and 10 Cavalli Circle. In addition to the apartments there would be approximately 20,000 square feet of commercial space together with 420 parking spaces.
According to Janet Giris of the White Plains-based law firm DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wiese & Wiederkehr LLP, the property was previously part of the 11.97-acre Mulford Gardens Hope VI Revitalization Project and was originally owned by the Municipal Housing Authority for the city of Yonkers, now known as the Yonkers Housing Authority. Ownership of the property was transferred to the city of Yonkers from the Housing Authority in 2019. The revitalization project was categorized as a Planned Urban Redevelopment (PUR).
“The Hope VI Project was originally approved in 2007 and was constructed in phases,” Giris said. “The first phase, ”˜Grant Park Phase I,”™ consists of 100 dwelling units in four buildings located along Whelan Place and Vineyard Avenue. The second phase, ”˜Grant Park Phase II,”™ was approved in 2014 and consisted of the construction of two buildings containing 56 dwelling units and the reconstruction of Loehr Place. The Hope VI Project included an additional 84 units dwelling units that were never constructed on the Hope VI site.”
Titan is proposing to develop the remainder of the Hope VI property and has a letter of intent with the city of Yonkers to purchase the land it plans to use. Titan needs a special permit from the Yonkers Planning Board to allow it to develop the project site as a PUR. The site currently is in the “M” district, which allows medium density apartment buildings.
A purchase price of $6,800,000 was negotiated for the sale of the property to Titan. There was a provision that if the city approved fewer than 340 apartments for the project, the land price would be reduced by $20,000 for each apartment that was knocked off of the total. Closing on the land sale was to take place 60 days after the project had final approvals, a building permit was issued or financing was set.
Giris said that the building would include a landscaped plaza for residents on the first floor rooftop over the parking level. She said that a green roof will be provided on the proposed building, which will direct overflow stormwater into an underground detention system
“The proposed special use will not adversely affect the character of the neighborhood, nor will it pose a threat to the health, safety and welfare of adjacent properties,” Giris said. “The project is anticipated to improve the character of the neighborhood as it will provide 340 units of housing in an area of the city slated for redevelopment. The development has been designed to be aesthetically appealing and will offer retail opportunities for the neighborhood which do not exist today.”
Giris said that the proposed development meets several of the city”™s redevelopment objectives as outlined in its urban renewal and master plans for the Ashburton Avenue area. She added that the applicant believes the proposed building is appropriately sized for the site. She points out that the applicant believes the project would not result in any adverse environmental impacts and that the city should determine that a negative declaration of environmental impacts is appropriate for the project. Titan asked that the Yonkers Planning Board act as lead agency for review of the project, including State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) requirements.
