Cappelli and Yonkers marshal on through untested waters

A narrowly decided vote last week in Yonkers City Council that effectively allowed the city’s master developer to move ahead with site plans for its proposed high-rise waterfront project suggests the council might not have the votes needed to reach a final land transfer deal with the developer.

By a 4-3 vote, the Yonkers council approved a planned urban redevelopment designation for two Hudson waterfront parcels where Struever Fidelco Cappelli L.L.C. (SFC) plans to build its Palisades Point residential development, a 436-unit building with two 25-story towers and a five-story wing. The zoning change permits special uses for the property and was needed for SFC officials to present their plans for the site to the Yonkers Planning Board, also last week.

Two Democrats, Majority Leader Sandy Annabi and Joan Gronowski, were joined by Republican Minority Leader Liam McLaughlin in voting against the resolution.

City Council President Chuck Lesnick said the council might be legally required to produce a five-vote majority for the land disposition agreement still being hammered out by SFC and city officials. A simple four-vote majority of the seven-member council is needed for land transfers in urban renewal areas, which might apply to this project, Lesnick said.

Lesnick said SFC needs to collateralize the prime waterfront parcels in financing its estimated $1.6 billion redevelopment project. As part of the proposed land deal being negotiated, SFC will pay the city $2.85 million for the Palisades Point parcels, labeled H & I on city planning maps.

Council members, though, do not want to transfer title to the waterfront site without guarantees that SFC will not proceed with the Palisades Point project and put off plans for River Park Center, the proposed mixed-use commercial, residential and recreational complex in downtown Yonkers at Chicken Island off Getty Square.

“H and I is the plum” for the development partners, Lesnick said. “We don’t want them to eat the plum without the main course first,” which is River Park Center with its 455,000 square feet of retail space, 160,000 square feet of theater and restaurant space, 6,500-seat minor league ballpark and two residential towers of up to 950 dwellings. “We want to make sure it actually gets built. The balance in the negotiations is to try to put enough positive incentives and negative disincentives to make sure River Park Center gets built.”       

                
After last week’s vote, “The developer lives another day,” Lesnick said. “Hopefully none of the negotiating points are deal-breakers.”

Lesnick said council members are “nervous” about the city’s potential obligation to purchase a $40 million condominium office unit in the new Cacace Center office and hotel complex that SFC might build. The condominium space would replace city offices at 87 Nepperhan Ave., the former Yonkers Health Center slated for demolition by SFC.

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