225 New Apartments on Horizon in Downtown Peekskill
The largest residential construction project in more than 55 years featuring 150 rental apartments and 400 underground parking spaces is slated to be built in downtown Peekskill, one block from the planned new Central Firehouse on Park and Brown streets.
In addition, a separate development on Main Street that will include 50 art lofts and 25 market rate rental apartments is also getting close to breaking ground.
Representatives of Alma Realty Corporation appeared before the Common Council and Planning Commission at separate meetings last week to update officials on their progress for the more than $40 million project, which Mayor Frank Catalina said was derailed a few years ago under Mayor Mary Foster’s administration.
“This is a great project for Peekskill,” Catalina stressed. “It’s the number one project in the city right now. This project will revitalize the whole Crossroads Shopping Plaza.”
“It really incorporates the hillside and the surrounding area. It’s a great plan,” Councilman Vincent Vesce said.
Planner Jean Friedman said the project will be nine stories high with a penthouse facing Park Street and eight stories high will a penthouse facing Brown Street. The apartments will be one and two bedrooms and a portion of the parking spaces in the three-level garage will be available for public use.
“This is a project that is going to succeed,” said Alma Realty representative Bill Florence. “We’re investing in the City of Peekskill $35 to $40 million until we do it, then it will be more. We’re thrilled being able to do this.”
While presenting requested building materials to the Planning Commission, architect Georgios Georgopoulos said with the weather getting warmer, “We would love to put a shovel in the ground very soon.”
Meanwhile, Ken Kearney of Kearney Realty and Development Group informed the Common Council of funding and tax credits he recently received for The Lofts on Diven Street, a project with a “Manhattan-loft feel” that will also include some retail components and community space.
“We’re very excited about this. We always wanted to work in Peekskill,” Kearney said.
The one and two-bedroom art lofts will have starting monthly rents of $1,075 and $1,225, while the one and two-bedroom apartments will have starting rents of $1,475 and $1,725.
Once built, the development will generate approximately $180,000 annually in city and school taxes, an amount Kearney asked the council to consider freezing for the first 15 years.
“The first 15 years of this project is critical,” Kearney said. “We’re in this long-term.”
Kearney asked for an arrangement where the taxes would only increase if he were to raise the rents on the apartments. He noted in other residential housing complexes he owns rents are never increased more than 4.9%.
Council members said they would consider Kearney’s request, while Catalina expressed a sense of pride in the way Peekskill was developing, a pledge he made when he was first elected in 2013.
“In a few years you won’t recognize this city. I told you that,” Catalina said.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
