$1.5B Waterfront Plan Clears Hurdle

No public hearings have been set as yet, but it is believed those hearings could begin sometime in April. Struever Fidelco Cappelli LLC consists of: the Fidelco Realty Group of Millburn, NJ, Cappelli Enterprises of Valhalla, NY and Struever Bros. Eccles & Rose of Baltimore.

City Council President Chuck Lesnick says of the council's vote, "This is a small step for the City Council and a giant step forward in creating a renaissance of Yonkers' downtown and waterfront areas." The development plans calls for a massive infusion of new residential, commercial, entertainment and hotel development along with the construction of a new 6,500-seat minor league baseball stadium.

Joseph Apicella, EVP of Cappelli Enterprises, tells GlobeSt.com that once the developer submits the various environmental studies to city and state agencies, the City Council will then schedule public hearings on the Draft DEIS. Apicella says that the goal from there would be to have the city finalize the environmental review in the form of a Final Environmental Impact Statement and then come up with its findings for the project.

Final approvals could be obtained as early as late September or October, he notes. "We would like to begin construction sometime this year, perhaps late October or early November," Apicella says. Concerning the council's unanimous vote on the venture's DEIS being complete, he says, "This is an important first step in the environmental review process and we applaud the City Council and its legal/planning consultants on a job well done. It is our hope that the detailed review process will now cause the balance of the approval process to be expeditious. The public has been waiting for the public hearings and we believe that our outreach into the community all these months will now pay dividends."

Mayor Philip Amicone, a strong supporter of the waterfront revitalization project, says, "when it's complete, the SFC project will be the most significant development in our history and from the beginning we have demonstrated how government and the private sector can partner together to do something truly monumental for the city of Yonkers." The mayor compliments the City Council for its work on the project and adds, "I look forward to a complete, but timely public review period in hopes of getting shovels in the ground this year."

The plan before the city is the first phase of what is projected to be a more than $3-billion effort to revitalize some sections of the waterfront.