WHITE PLAINS | 60 South Broadway | FT | 24 X 2 FLOORS

[Hypothalamus]

Westchester Pavilion redevelopment plan goes before Common Council



By Colleen Wilson
August 21, 2015

Plans for an estimated $277 million, 858,000-square-foot mixed-use development at the site of the struggling Westchester Pavilion in downtown White Plains have been referred to the White Plains Common Council this month after clearing a review by the city Planning Board.

The proposed redevelopment of what both the developer and the owner have called an outlived property at 60 S. Broadway includes razing the existing structure and constructing two 24-story apartment towers, 95,000 square feet of commercial space and a below-ground parking garage.

Representatives of Maple and Broadway Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Lennar Multifamily Communities in Herndon, Va., presented a site plan and outdoor dining special permit application to the Common Council at a special meeting in July. With no objections from the city’s Planning Board at its Aug. 17 meeting, the site plan and permit application have been referred back to the Common Council for approval.

Previously zoned as an enclosed mall, the property was rezoned in 2014 to allow for mixed-use residential and commercial development.

Owned and operated since 2003 by Greenwich-based Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc., which paid $39.9 million for the South Broadway site, the 185,000-square-foot Westchester Pavilion has lost several tenants in recent years, including the bankrupt Borders Group Inc. and Toys R Us/Babies R Us, which moved to the nearby City Center at White Plains.

Lennar Multifamily Communities, a division of Miami-based Lennar Corp., a Fortune 500 home-building company, has proposed to build 707 rental units in the two towers, including 636 market-rate residences and 71 affordable-housing units targeted for moderate-income Westchester families. Planned amenities include rooftop pools on the two towers, a garden, pet area, fitness facility and club room.

The property, encompassed by Hale Avenue, Maple Avenue and South Broadway, would include commercial space for a restaurant with outdoor dining, retail shops and a health club.

Designed for greater pedestrian access between the city’s Mamaroneck Avenue and East Post Road business corridor and the Bloomingdale Road shopping area, the project would include an expanded sidewalk and publicly accessible courtyard.

Lennar’s proposed project was designed by Perkins Eastman Architects P.C., which designed a similar plan unveiled in 2013 by Urstadt Biddle. Since then, Lennar’s Maple and Broadway Holdings has entered into a cash-purchase agreement with Urstadt Biddle, but the deal has not yet closed, said Willing L. Biddle, Urstadt Biddle president and CEO.

In an application for financing with the Westchester County Industrial Development Agency filed earlier this year, the developer estimated construction costs at $277 million and presented a timeline that has construction beginning in May 2016. The developer is seeking exemptions on sales and mortgage recording taxes from the county.

[JR Ewing]

Nice! These are better than what's being constructed in places like Charlotte and Raleigh.

[Urbannizer]

Two-Towered, 707-Unit Mixed-Use Project At 60 South Broadway Approved

Back in August of 2015, the two-towered, 707-unit mixed-use development proposed at 60 South Broadway, in White Plains (in Westchester County), was making its way through the approval process. After nearly three years since the project was made public, the White Plains Common Council has unanimously approved the 858,000 square-foot project, Westfair reports. Two 24-story residential towers will sit atop a common 93,840 square-foot commercial base featuring retail and restaurant space. The residential units above will be rental apartments, 43 of which will be rented at affordable rates. There will also be roughly 30,000 square feet of outdoor public space. Finally, a four-story, 1,000-car parking garage will be built entirely underground. Westchester Pavilion, the largely vacant single-story retail complex, must first be demolished. Perkins Eastman is designing, and Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. and a branch of Miami-based Lennar Corporation are the developers.

[chris08876]

Urstadt Biddle sells Westchester Pavilion site for $56.6M

Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. has sold for $56.6 million its vacant Westchester Pavilion property on South Broadway in downtown White Plains to an affiliate of the national residential developer planning a $275 million, three-year redevelopment of the shopping mall site as a high-rise apartment, retail and restaurant complex.

The developer, Lennar Multifamily Communities LLC, is a subsidiary of Lennar Corp., a Miami-based real estate development and management company and one of the nation’s largest homebuilders. The White Plains Common Council one year ago approved Lennar’s plan to raze Urstadt Biddle’s 185,000-square-foot shopping mall on the site and erect two 24-story residential towers with 707 rental units. Designed by Perkins Eastman, the towers will be built above nearly 94,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space fronting South Broadway and Maple Avenue.

The Westchester County Industrial Development Agency has approved approximately $14.5 million in exemptions on a mortgage recording tax and sales taxes on Lennar’s construction and equipment purchases for the project at 60 S. Broadway. Lennar officials said the redevelopment will create an estimated 2,895 construction jobs and 72 permanent jobs.

Urstadt Biddle, a publicly traded equity real estate investment trust headquartered in Greenwich and a prominent owner and operator of retail shopping centers in Westchester and Fairfield counties, in 2002 paid $39.9 million for the former Alexander’s Department Store property on South Broadway. The enclosed mall in recent years was left largely vacant by a tenant drain as new competition in the White Plains central business district emerged with the development of City Center and arrival of Whole Goods and other national retailers on nearby Bloomingdale Road.

Urstadt Biddle initially proposed in 2013 to city officials to undertake the site’s mixed-use redevelopment on its own, but reached a purchase agreement with Lennar about two years ago.

“Recognizing that our company is not an expert in large-scale, high-rise construction,” Urstadt Biddle Properties President and CEO Willing L. Biddle said in the company’s Wednesday announcement of the sale, “we elected to sell the property to Lennar Multifamily Communities, which will follow through on our dream of building a beautiful, new mixed-use complex that will bring new life and vitality to the southeast end of White Plains.”

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http://westfaironline.com/86444/urst...ite-for-56-6m/