Harrison To Decide Its Own Fate on Affordable Housing
The latest development on the saga of the Harrison Metro-North station parking lot—the site of a contentious development project years in the making—is more of a non-development. The MTA, which owns the 3.3-acre property in Harrison where a proposed mixed-use development of 143 rental units and 27,000 square feet of retail space would go, has decided to leave it up to the town of Harrison to decide if the development will include affordable housing units. Local housing advocates have criticized the MTA, saying that 20 percent affordable housing should be a condition in the authority’s plan to sell the parcel to a developer. Most recently, But the MTA’s most recent statement indicates that affordable housing allotments would have to come from a town zoning change rather than as a condition of sale.
Another Round of IDA Incentives Granted
Westchester’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA) recently approved financing and incentives for $51.9 million in new projects in Hastings-on-Hudson and Dobbs Ferry. The two projects—a new rental apartment building and a Hilton Garden Inn—will create 318 construction and permanent jobs. The transaction fees paid to the IDA on the projects will generate $103,989, which will be used to support small businesses and stimulate job creation. For the Saw Mill Lofts in Hastings—a $34.9 million rental development featuring 66 apartments—the IDA approved a sales tax exemption of $380,780 and a mortgage tax exemption of $299,000 to Ginsburg Development Companies. And to assist XSS LLC for the development of a $17 million, 138-room Hilton Garden Inn to be built as part of the Rivertowns Square mixed-use retail development in Dobbs Ferry, the IDA approved a sales tax exemption of $1.2 million and a mortgage tax exemption of $200,000.
Good Economic News for Yonkers
Yonkers is ending 2014 on a string of good economic news, according to Mayor Mike Spano. Unemployment is at a six-year year-to-year low, home sales and sales prices are on the rise, and sales tax revenues are increasing as area residents support the local economy, Spano announced recently. According to preliminary data released last month by the New York State Department of Labor, the October 2014 unemployment rate in the City of Yonkers was 6.1%, down from 7.3% in October 2013. (The October 2012 unemployment rate in Yonkers was 8.4%, 8.6% in 2011, 8.9% in 2010, 8.8% in 2009 and 6.2% in October 2008.) Data also shows Yonkers having the lowest unemployment rate of New York’s so-called Big 5 Cities. Also, for the first quarter of the City’s Fiscal Year 2015 (July 2014 through September 2014), sales tax revenues in the City of Yonkers increased by 5% over Q1 in Fiscal Year 2014; and Houlihan Lawrence, noted that the mean home sale price in Yonkers in October 2014 increased 12.2% from October 2013, while the average sale price was up 4.7%. “Yonkers is a city on the move,” said Mayor Spano. “The downward trend in unemployment is another sign of the positive growth of our economy, and recent groundbreakings are further proof that Yonkers is quickly becoming the city in which to live, work and play.”
McCarthy Fingar Forms New Land Use Practice Group
Leading Hudson Valley law firm McCarthy Fingar LLP recently formed a new municipal law and land use practice group, which will focus on serving the legal needs of clients or municipal entities engaged in developing a comprehensive strategy for real estate projects where there is interplay of zoning and other land use, eminent domain or development issues. The group will also engage in administrative and litigated proceedings both before and on behalf of governmental units, including tax certiorari proceedings. The new group will be led by Clinton B. Smith, with attorneys Lester D. Steinman and Daniel Pozin serving as partners and Anna Georgiou, who will be of counsel. All four attorneys recently joined McCarthy Fingar after working for Wormser Kiely Galef and Jacobs, LLP in White Plains.
