Yonkers' downtown plan gets adjustment
Editorial

Much has changed, in Yonkers and in the world economy, since the developers Struever, Fidelco and Cappelli strode into town in 2006 and proposed a total remake of downtown Yonkers. The land deal newly approved by the Yonkers City Council - it gives the developers the right to build two residential towers on the Hudson River waterfront and a retail-entertainment-residential complex on a run-down parking lot inland - appropriately reflects those new realities.

The land-transfer deal gives the developers more flexibility and more time to build the first phase of the much-needed downtown renaissance, both necessary changes given the difficulty of securing financing these days. In exchange, it promises the city a greater share of the future tax revenue than had been contemplated in earlier versions of the proposal - 40 percent instead of 25 percent.

With a price tag of $1.5 billion, the mammoth project envisions construction of 1,436 housing units, a 6,500-seat baseball stadium, a 150-room hotel, a new municipal justice center, a new headquarters for the Fire Department, a 150,000-square-foot office building and the daylighting of the Nepperhan River - plus a riverwalk. The project would bring in an estimated $153 million in tax revenue over 30 years.

Waiting for economic rebound

The $1.2 million-per-acre land deal, which will allow SFC to build the residential towers on the prime waterfront property first and then decide whether market conditions allow it to move ahead with the River Park Center complex, or pay an additional $2 million and be relieved of that obligation. "There is the possibility that they could just eat the dessert (the waterfront property) and leave the vegetables (the River Park Center)," City Council President Chuck Lesnick told the Editorial Board. That would be a shame; it will take more than luxury housing to jump-start a Yonkers revitalization.

After a thorough environmental review and much negotiation by the City Council, the project long pushed by the Amicone administration contains big pluses for Yonkers - amenities that could well make Yonkers a regional destination. But the economy, of course, will determine just how much gets built and when. The long-off hope is that the project would eventually employ some 5,300 people.

The region can hardly wait.