Summit Club Intends to Ask North Castle for 15 More Condo Units

The principal partner for the Summit Club in Armonk told North Castle officials he intends to ask the town for 88 luxury condominium units in what would be an additional phase of the project.

The surprise remarks from Jeffrey Mendell came near the end of a nearly two-hour work session last Wednesday where the Town Board and the applicant appeared to resolve a series of issues related to conditions for the golf club’s special use permit. The permit is needed for operation of the golf course, the proposed maintenance building and to allow public use of the golf course until the residences are built.

Approvals for 73 units were granted by the Planning Board last summer.

Once the extended discussion on the permit was completed, Mendell said that after nearly 15 years since purchasing the 156-acre property, he’s close to pulling a building permit to begin construction for the first 36 units. He’s been pre-selling units in order to obtain c

However, with the project having been studied under the state Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) for 88 units before he was forced to settle for 73 units in order to get the 2015 rezone, he now intends to eventually request the additional 15 units.

“We’ve absorbed a lot of negative hits and we’re still standing, and we’re going to build this project,” Mendell said. “And at the end of the day, the town is very lucky we’re building this project. It’s going to be a tremendous asset to the town.”

Mendell stated that he and his partners have sustained millions of dollars of additional unanticipated costs that were not underwritten at the start, including a roughly $4 million extra expense for the residential units’ water supply. The original plan was to tap into wells at Windmill Farm across Route 22, but there was insufficient yield from those wells.

He said the project is estimated to generate an estimated $3.5 million in real estate taxes combined for all the taxing jurisdictions and have virtually no impact on the Byram Hills School District. The community is geared toward empty-nesters and retirees who are looking to sell their single-family homes and be part of a golf course community without having to move away.

“This is the biggest project to be built in this town since Swiss Re,” Mendell said. “I appreciate your help in trying to get this to happen and I’m doing everything I can in my power to make it happen, so thanks for your support.”

Councilman Jose Berra, who has been a frequent critic of the density that he fears is being created with multiple projects being built or under consideration in Armonk, said Mendell’s comment “is really blindsiding me.”

Some of the tradeoffs that were made between the Summit Club and the town relating to the special use permit conditions during the work session, including the maximum number of members, could now be called into question if there were to be 88 units at the site.

“I think this is going to cause an incredible uproar in town,” Berra said.

Supervisor Joseph Rende stopped Berra from commenting further, saying the issue of the additional units was not on the table.

“If the applicant chooses to come in at a later date with a change to the plan requesting more units, than we’d make that decision and determine it at the time it’s in front of us,” Rende said.

Mendell said he did not know when he planned to return to the town, but would likely do so once some of the current issues are taken care of. If he got the go-ahead for 88 units, it would be part of a third phase of the project once the 73 units were built.

He also did not have a projected date to break ground on the project.

But there have been several recent encouraging developments with other agencies, Mendell said. The Department of Health issued final comments on Summit’s water system and were satisfied with its design. The same is true for the sewage treatment facility that must be built. In both instances there are several outstanding conditions that must be satisfied, he said.

Additionally, the state Department of Environmental Conservation recently granted the Summit Club’s water withdrawal permit for the property’s wells.