$125M Hudson Park North Tops Out

(Read more on the multifamily market.)

YONKERS-At a ceremony held at the project site on the Hudson River waterfront, city and state government officials helped celebrate the official topping out of the $125-million Hudson Park North rental housing development. Mayor Philip Amicone, city council president Chuck Lesnick, council majority Leader Patricia McDow, State Assemblyman Michael Spano and State Sen. Andrea Stewart Cousins were among the more than 100 attendees of the event orchestrated by joint venture developers Collins Enterprises LLC of Stamford, CT and AIG Global Real Estate of New York City.

Hudson Park North is the second phase of the Hudson Park rental housing project. In 2003, the 266-unit Hudson Park South was completed. That $75-million development is now nearly 100% leased. The Hudson Park North project, currently under construction, will feature 294 one- and two-bedroom units in two tower buildings of 14 and 12 stories that are connected by a four-story building. The project will also feature 20,000 sf of retail, restaurant and professional office space and a public esplanade along the waterfront that will be linked to an existing waterfront boardwalk. Eventually, the city and Westchester County hope to complete approximately 4.5 miles of public walkways to the Hudson River extending from Riverdale in the Bronx to Hastings. Other amenities at Hudson Park North will include a health and fitness center, riverfront courtyard, community rooms and a business center. Monthly rents will range from $1,850 to $2,300 for one-bedroom residences and $2,530 to $3,600 for two-bedroom units.

Arthur Collins, co-founding principal of Collins Enterprises, says construction on Hudson Park North will be completed by April 2008. “A decade ago our company came to this great city with a vision of transforming a vacant industrial site into a thriving residential waterfront community,” Collins says. “Today that vision is a reality. Yonkers is now home to a vibrant waterfront with luxury rental housing, first-class restaurants, a beautiful public esplanade and the most spectacular views to be found anywhere in the region. We’re proud that Hudson Park has served as a catalyst for this riverfront renaissance.”

Amicone credits Collins with being the first developer to take a chance and make a significant investment in the city. Today, billions of dollars worth of new development initiatives are in the pipeline to be built in Yonkers. “Collins Enterprises shares my vision for a revitalized and improved Yonkers and was willing to invest in our city’s potential at a time when no one else was,” the mayor says. “We’ve had tremendous success with Hudson Park and we anticipate even more with Hudson Park North.”

Collins credits the city with promoting public and private investment of about $150 million, which helped attract investors for the first phase of Hudson Park a few years ago. A host of state brownfield credits and other state and local tax deferral programs have keyed the development of the second phase, he notes. Collins says he hopes the state will reimburse his firm for approximately $16 million in infrastructure improvements the firm has undertaken in connection with the project and notes that talk in Albany to cut some of these incentive programs will threaten other pending redevelopment projects in the city. Collins asserts that without the brownfield credits and other incentive programs, developments such as Hudson Park North would not be possible.