Yonkers' Teutonia Hall developer pitches 25-story tower

Ernie Garcia
elgarcia@lohud.com

YONKERS - A developer's proposal for a 25-story downtown tower envisions a building with a hydroponic roof garden, computer-controlled parking garage and geothermal temperature-control systems - all in a new historic district.

Teutonia Buena Vista LLC submitted its urban redevelopment application to the Planning Board last month for the construction of 413 units on Buena Vista Avenue. The developer seeks to connect the Trolley Barn at 92 Main St., which it owns, with a tower to be located at 41-51 Buena Vista Ave., the site of Teutonia Hall, a dilapidated 1891 building.

The project is valued at more than $100 million, according to Metro Partners, which owns Teutonia Hall. The application proposes dismantling Teutonia Hall's decorative brick and terra cotta façade and relocating it south to an adjacent property.

The historic district would run from Teutonia Hall to the Trolley Barn, a 1900 Renaissance revival-style building, and also encompass a 19th-century home across Buena Vista Avenue once owned by the founding family of the Otis Elevator Co. and now controlled by Metro Partners.

The Otis home and adjacent homes would be renovated to create eight two-bedroom apartments. Overall, 20 percent of the 413 units would be affordable housing.

The hydroponic garden, fed by storm runoff collected in underground cisterns, would sit atop a low-rise automated garage that parks drivers' cars after they pull into ground-floor bays.

The Planning Board is expected to continue its review of the proposal at its Nov. 18 meeting.