When Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano reflects on what the city has achieved in recent years, he said that a single word comes to mind: yes.
“Yes invokes feelings of change, renewal, accomplishment and optimism. We have changed the discourse in our city,” Spano said during his State of the City address on March 14. “The days of Yonkers being dismissed are behind us. Now, the state of Yonkers is a really a feeling. It”™s a feeling of transformation, a feeling of arrival, a feeling of fulfilled promises.”
Spano noted that during the year, construction on nearly a dozen projects began across the city. He singled out large-scale developments such as Extell Development Co.”™s 1,395-unit apartment complex and AvalonBay”™s 609-unit complex along the downtown waterfront.
Strategic Capital LLC, meanwhile, held a topping-out ceremony for the final piece of its sprawling 16-acre, $85 million development along the Hudson River waterfront in Yonkers last year. Other luxury projects, including Ginsburg”™s River Tides residences and the Uno apartments at Larkin Plaza opened their doors during the year, while new tenants continue to sign on at the mixed-use development on North Broadway, the Boyce Thompson Center.
“You know what, Starbucks found the west side of Yonkers, so they”™re here,” Spano said, referring to the coffee chain”™s store opening earlier this year.
The addition of more quality affordable housing was also a focus of his administration in 2017, Spano said.
“Our public housing stock has not been refurbished since World War II,” he said.
In December, the Municipal Housing Authority (MHA) and Enterprise Community Partners gave a preview of the renovations at Valentine Townhomes at 162 Helena Ave., the first step in a three-year, $300 million renovation plan to transform more than 1,700 units of public housing across the city.
“Construction is under way and in some locations it”™s completed, with the repair and renovations of every MHA unit across the city,” he said.
The city”™s downtown also continues to attract businesses of every size, Spano said, including marketing and advertising agency Hudson Global. That company will move its offices this year from Tarrytown to iPark, a 24-acre technology and office campus on Wells Avenue, bringing 50 skilled jobs to the city.
Film production in Yonkers has also hit an all-time high, the mayor said, with more than 175 productions shooting in the city during 2017 and accounting for nearly $650,000 in revenue for the city.
“With all this activity here in Yonkers comes a growing economy and most importantly more jobs. We”™ve attracted over 6,000 full- and part-time jobs to our city since 2012, with industries such as construction, hospitality, retail, entertainment and technology.”
During his address, Spano also proposed legislation that would require all retail stores to impose an impact fee when dispensing nonreusable bags.
“Customers at ShopRite, just at ShopRite, use anywhere between 300,000 to 400,000 plastic bags each week,” he said of the grocery store”™s two locations in Yonkers. “Let”™s cut that number significantly, lead by example and be the first big city in New York state to take action.”
Other highlights Spano addressed in his speech included a $2 million investment to the Edward J. Murray Memorial Skating Center, an improvement project underway at the Nodine Hill water tower and a bike-share program set to start in the spring.
“We”™ve faced some challenges, many of them that honestly, I wasn”™t really sure we would get through,” he said. “But I have to say that I am continually reassured by the grit and can-do attitude of our city of Yonkers.”
