Yonkers hears two waterfront proposals: one new, the other a change

Len Maniace
The Journal News

YONKERS - Despite the shaky housing market, property owners and developers see high-rise housing in the future of the city's downtown waterfront.

The owners of Altman Lighting last week outlined their vision for the construction of 430 apartments in two 25-story towers on the site that's been occupied by the stage-lighting company since 1969.

Company representatives presented the plan at a meeting of the Yonkers Community Development Agency, which is working on a master plan for the Alexander Street Corridor. That plan would lay out in broad strokes a future for the 112-acre, aging industrial site that's wedged between the Hudson River and the Metro-North Railroad tracks.

The agency also heard a revised plan from Homes for America, which had previously proposed building 1,124 apartments in six-high rise buildings along a different portion of the corridor. The new plan calls for a similar number of units, but now in four, taller buildings. The change would allow for more open space on the site.

Referring to its earlier plan, Homes for America Vice President Daniel Tartaglia Sr. said: "The boxiness of the buildings and the number of buildings created, in our mind, an obstacle to residents who might want to have access to the Hudson."

Tartaglia said the plan also blocked some views of the Hudson River and the Palisades beyond, from streets leading to the waterfront.

The plan, known as Point Street Landing, now consists of four residential towers ranging from 26 to 39 stories, with 4 of the site's 14.6 acres reserved for open space available to the public. The previous plan called for buildings ranging from 12 to 26 stories. The plan also includes 54,000 square feet of office space, 40,000 square feet of retail, parking for 1,830 cars, a marina and a boat storage building.

Tartaglia attributed many of the changes to the work of its consultant, the Project for Public Spaces, a Manhattan nonprofit group that specializes in creating lively downtown parks. Its overhaul of Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan in the early 1990s is one of its best-known projects.

The involvement of Project for Public Spaces brought praise from several community activists, though some were concerned about the height of the new buildings.

"We're unhappy with the idea of such tall buildings on the waterfront," said Terry Joshi, an organizer of the community group Yonkers Committee for Smart Development. "Previous master plans have talked about integrating the waterfront with the rest of the city, rather than creating two separate cities."

Altman Lighting, which employs 130 people, is seeking to sell its site to one of several developers the company is now talking with, said Robert Altman, president and CEO of the company.

The company is flexible in how soon it would move to another site, Altman said. That was dependent on the speed that the city came to a decision on how the site should be redeveloped, he said. The draft master plan called for 22-story buildings, three fewer

than sought by Altman Lighting.

"Any developer is going to want to know what they can put up on the property. The issue is the city has to decide where they are headed with this," Altman said.

The final environmental impact statement on the master plan is expected to be completed by early fall, said Yonkers Planning and Development Commissioner Louis Kirven. That outcome will be based on the city's review of some 500 comments on the Alexander Street Corridor Master Plan draft environmental impact statement that were submitted earlier this year.

The public will be able to view a computer simulation of the master plan, including versions that allow for the Homes for America and Altman Lighting proposals, at a Community Development Agency meeting on July 10.