Westchester County Signs 99-Year Lease for Development of $1B Bioscience Park

TARRYTOWN—At a meeting of the Westchester County Association on Thursday, Westchester County Executive George Latimer announced the county had signed a 99-year lease for 60-acres of county-owned property to be developed as a $1.2-billion biotechnology park that could total between 2 million to 3 million square feet of mixed-use space.

The concept of developing a bioscience facility in Westchester has been discussed for about a decade, but took hold in January 2016 when then Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino announced the county hoped to finalize a long-term lease deal with Fareri Associates of Greenwich, CT to develop the bioscience park called the “Westchester BioScience & Technology Center on county-owned property called the “North 60.”

In April 2017, the Westchester County Legislature approved the long-term lease, but the deal was never signed off on by Astorino prior to leaving office in December 2017. The Latimer Administration has since been studying the deal and signed the lease at a ceremony at the WCA meeting held at the Westchester Marriott. It should be noted that three years earlier, the initiative with Fareri Associates was first announced by former County Executive Astorino at a WCA event held at the Westchester Marriott.

Fareri Associates president John Fareri tells Globest.com that the first phase of the project would involve the development of approximately 500,000 square feet of space, including an approximately 135-room hotel, biotechnology-medical and retail space. He put the cost of the first phase at approximately $200 million.

With the lease in hand, Fareri is now in the approval process with the Town of Mount Pleasant to secure zone change and environmental approvals. He estimated the process could take 12 to 18 months, putting possible groundbreaking sometime in 2020. He said the project at full build-out could take 10 to 15 years to complete.

Westchester County officials stated that the lease calls for the development in the first phase of 220,000 square feet devoted to biotech and medical technology use, 100,000 square feet in medical office space, 80,000 square feet in retail space and a hotel with conference facilities.

County Executive Latimer, who praised the Astorino Administration and the Board of Legislators for their work on the biotech initiative, stated, “As I learned in my business life, there is a risk for everything, things don’t always turn out as you plan, but if you don’t take risk—prudent risk—you don’t succeed. In this case, the 60 acres here will be a bio-tech center that can attract people to our area where they will see Westchester as a central place,” he said.

Fareri said, “At long last, we can move forward with what we are confident will be a major economic engine for Westchester County and the region. The concept for The North 60 has been in the works for a decade, and now we are ready to see our vision come to life.”

The biotech park at the moment does not include any housing development, but Fareri said that housing has not been ruled out for the project. Fareri owns a 20-acre parcel that adjoins the North 60 site. At the present time, no portion of the North 60 or Fareri’s parcel are zoned for residential use.

It is expected that Fareri will seeking incentives from the Mount Pleasant Industrial Development Agency for the project.

The effective date of the lease was Jan. 10 when it was signed by both parties. The annual lease payment obligation starts at the time the lease was signed and is payable in monthly installments.

Fareri is responsible for providing the infrastructure needed to serve the development, which includes streets, water, sewer, electricity and other utilities.

The lease calls for the county to initially receive $125,000 per year in rent and then 6% of annual gross rental income from the varied biotech-medical uses, except 3% of annual gross income from the hotel and any assisted living facility.