Yonkers council falling behind downtown developer's deadline

Len Maniace
lmaniace@lohud.com

YONKERS - City Council leaders say they don't expect to reach a tentative agreement transferring more than 17 acres of downtown property to Streuver Fidelco Cappelli until the end of the month, missing the developer's May 24 deadline for a final contract.

Council President Chuck Lesnick said he believed the delay would not jeopardize the deal with the builders of the city's massive downtown redevelopment project, as long as a series of other city approvals, including zoning changes, occur next.

"If we have a meeting of the minds by the end of the month that should satisfy the developer's bank deadline," Lesnick said.

The delay, council members said, was due to questions about SFC's responsibilities to the city as contained in the 95-page contract. Council critics of the deal question whether the contract adequately binds the developer to a long list of commitments hammered out last year during negotiations. Those concerns include the share of construction jobs reserved for women and minority workers, and guarantees that the land would revert to the city if the development fell far behind schedule.

SFC's project manager, Joe Apicella, could not be reached for comment. In a statement, spokesman David Simpson said Mayor Phil Amicone considered the May 24 deadline "to be a firm one."

One of SFC's financiers, TD Bank, set the May 24 deadline for the series of city approvals, including the land deal known as a land disposition agreement, or LDA, Apicella said.

"We are far away from moving the LDA." said Councilman Liam McLaughlin, the Republican minority leader, who has become a vocal critic of the land deal. "The council has got to review it. They haven't given us much time to actually read the document."

The latest version of the plan was distributed to council members May 7.

In the past, Councilwomen Joan Gronowski and Sandy Annabi, the Democratic majority leader, have voted against some of the SFC approvals. The addition of McLaughlin could leave the measure with only four votes for approval. Lesnick said that based on conflicting legal advice, it was unclear whether the LDA needed four or five votes for approval from the seven-member council.

Of those council members who could be reached, only John Murtagh, R-5th District, said he believed the council should be able to resolve its concerns by the May 24 deadline.

"I think there are certain council members who will never support this project for their own reasons," said Murtagh, adding that the project would help end the city's chronic economic problems.

"I certainly hope a majority of my colleagues are not prepared to allow the largest development in the history of this city to slip through their hands," he said

Democrat Patricia McDow, who represents the council's 1st District, where the SFC development would rise, said she wanted more certainty in the LDA's language. She wanted firmer commitments that SFC would provide affordable housing as previously agreed upon; that women and minorities would get their share of construction jobs; and that the company would not hold onto the project's waterfront property indefinitely if it was not able to develop it.

Further complicating the matter, McDow said, the City Council was in the midst of reviewing the the city's proposed budget and had worked until nearly midnight Monday and Tuesday dealing with the budget and SFC.

"Our first responsibility under the law is to pass a budget by June 1," McDow said.

Annabi said she feared the council's approval of the current LDA would allow other city agencies to use eminent domain to acquire private land sought by the developer, something she opposed.

In an attempt to resolve some of the differences, McDow and Lesnick are scheduled to meet with SFC developers and the city's consultants today.