The city of Yonkers is poised to issue a request for proposals from developers interested in redeveloping the roughly 6-acre downtown lot called Chicken Island, said Wilson Kimball, Yonkers planning and development commissioner.
Now an underused municipal parking lot for Getty Square shoppers, the Chicken Island site off New School Street could house a new government center and firehouse.Â
“Those are two things we know we need, and then we”™ll let the developer sort of indicate what else they could put on there,” Kimball said.
She said the project RFP will likely be issued this week.
A new firehouse would replace the 89-year-old  Fire House 1 on New School Street ”” “pretty, but not very functional,” said Kimball ”” that was condemned last year. The plans would also likely include tearing down 87 Nepperhan Ave., the former Yonkers Health Center adjacent to City Hall that houses the city Parking Violations Bureau, planning and development offices and other city departments, and the Government Center parking garage.
Chicken Island takes its name from a former island on the site in the Saw Mill River occupied by a chicken farm in the 19th century. Kimball said the area has been underdeveloped for more than 40 years. Plans for a mixed-use redevelopment that included a sports stadium never got off the ground.
“It could be a mini-development,” Kimball said of Chicken Island.
