RealShare Westchester: Development Pipeline Gets Deeper

WHITE PLAINS, NY-During the most recent recession, the private development pipeline, which had been valued in the billons of dollars in cities like Yonkers and White Plains in Westchester County, all but dried up. In recent times, however, new projects, particularly in the health care and biotech arenas, have emerged and some have even broke ground.

At the RealShare Westchester Fairfield Conference on Thursday, the private sector pipeline got just a bit deeper as panelists revealed plans for three significant projects at the event held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains.

Martin Berger, managing member of Saber Real Estate Advisors of Armonk, NY, told conference attendees that he expects to announce in the next week or two plans for a 600,000-square-foot mixed-use project somewhere in the White Plains area. Joseph Kelleher, president of Simone Healthcare Real Estate of the Bronx, NY, reported that his firm is in the approval process to build a 100,000-square-foot cancer center on a site adjacent to Tuckahoe Road near the Ridge Hill shopping center in Yonkers. He said the firm has filed for a building permit with the city. He would not divulge the hospital or operator Simone is working with on the cancer project, but told Globest.com that he hopes to break ground later this year or in early 2014 on the venture.

In addition, Robert Weisz, president of RPW Group of Rye Brook, NY said that he plans to build 300 units of residential housing in a separate building on approximately 10 acres adjacent to his 1133 Westchester Ave. office building in White Plains. He told Globest.com that the project is in the conceptual-design stage and that no plans have been filed with the City of White Plains as yet on the development that has been estimated to cost between $50 million to $60 million to construct. He said he expects to begin the approval process on the project later this year.

Simone Healthcare recently announced plans to begin construction on a new four-story, 85,000-square-foot office building for the WestMed Medical Group at 3030 Westchester Ave. in the firm's Harrison Executive Medical Park. Saber Real Estate's largest project at the moment−the mixed-use Rivertowns Square project center in Dobbs Ferry—is being delayed due to an Article 78 proceeding filed by the village of Ardsley.

The “Dynamic Development and Redevelopment” panel touched upon the growing trend in Westchester County of adaptive reuse of underutilized and aging office buildings, particularly along the I-287 or what has been commonly known as the “Platinum Mile” in White Plains and Harrison. The panel featured moderator Joseph French, senior director of the national retail group of Marcus & Millichap of White Plains; Marissa Brett, executive director of economic development for the Westchester County Association; Gary Stevens, vice president real estate for Life Time Fitness, Inc. of Chanhassen, MN; Kelleher of Simone Healthcare Real Estate of the Bronx, NY; Berger of Saber Real Estate Advisors of Armonk, NY, Wilson Kimball, interim commission of planning and development for the city of Yonkers, NY: and Kathy Welch, executive vice president of Forest City Ratner Companies who is overseeing the completion of the company's 1.3-million-square-foot Ridge Hill shopping center project in Yonkers.

The WCA's Brett, who also heads the associate's Blueprint of Westchester initiative whose primary aim is to find ways to fill office space in Westchester, discussed the emerging trend of adaptive reuse in the county and noted that the city of White Plains had already changed its zoning to allow for alternative uses besides office in the I-287 corridor and that Harrison is in the midst of updating its master plan and zoning ordinances. Life Time Fitness' Stevens discussed the company's 209,000-square-foot facility that is currently under construction at the site of the former Journal News headquarters and printing facility on Gannett Drive in Harrison.

The final panel of the day—“Who's Driving the Big Westchester and Fairfield Deals”—was moderated by Howard Greenberg, president of Howard Properties, Ltd. of White Plains; and featured panelists: Weisz of RPW Group; Jose Cruz, senior managing director of HFF of Florham Park, NJ; Jeff Weingart, senior vice president capital markets, UC Funding, which is headquartered in Boston; Laura Woznitski, senior director, leasing and development for BioMed Realty Trust, which is headquartered in San Diego, CA: and Al Gutierrez, first vice president of CBRE based in Stamford, CT.

CBRE's Gutierrez says that Westchester has provided to be a “resilient” market and has recently benefitted from “strong organic growth,” such as the retention of PepsiCo and the$250-million improvement of its headquarters complex in Purchase that has cut the county's availability rate down to 18%.

RPW Group's Weisz says that he expects market conditions to remain the same with slight improvement in the availability rate and small increases in asking rents in the short term. He also predicted that the county's growth markets would be in the medical/healthcare, financial services and accounting and legal arenas over the next few years.

He concluded that “We are not out of the woods yet, but we are headed in the right direction.”