White Plains Skeptical About Extensions for Sites Already Under Construction
With numerous construction projects on the drawing board and several developers having requested one-year extensions as financial and other matters are sorted out, members of the White Plains Common Council engaged in discussion at their June 5 meeting about one site that might not get an extension.
The applicant, Esplanade White Plains Venture Partnership, is repurposing and redeveloping existing buildings at 95 S. Broadway and 4 Lyon Place. Councilman John Martin asked that the developer’s extension request be tabled to the July meeting of the Council because he did not receive information he had requested about the status of the project.
“There is a sidewalk shed, but the project appears to be absolutely inactive,” Martin said.
Councilman John Kirkpatrick agreed, noting, “We have projects that we approve that don’t get built and we keep extending them and I would rather not do that, but in those cases things have not changed. This reminds me more of an infamous ‘hole in the ground’ project that existed for years at the corner of Bank and Main Street that eventually became a wonderful project. In the case of this project [Esplanade], it is an eyesore, it is a danger. There needs to be progress on this project or the building needs to be stabilized as it is.”
Expanding the discussion to other projects in similar situations, Councilwoman Milagros Lecuona spoke about the Salvation Army project on North Broadway. “The Salvation Army is also asking for a year extension and there is already a fence around the house demolition site, but nothing is going forward as I assume the Salvation Army is working on the finances to bring the project forward,” she said. “The fence is a concern to the neighbors.”
“Regarding the Esplanade,” Lecuona continued, “scaffolding installed along the sidewalk looks dangerous and feels very unsafe. It impacts the appearance of the neighborhood and gives the impression that the city does not care about the neighborhood. The residents are suffering the consequences of a developer trying to put together the finances. It took nine years for the Bank Street project to begin with all the extensions. We have to protect the neighborhoods against the impact of partial construction.”
The Bank Street project was initiated in the middle of the recession, when many projects required extensions due to financing reasons when the market suddenly went flat.
Councilman Dennis Krolian said he was concerned because the Esplanade management had been in a rush to move forward to move the existing senior residents out of the buildings. “It seems odd now that the project has been slowed down,” Krolian said.
Mayor Tom Roach agreed that the vote should be tabled to the following month and that if the project could not “get going,” then the scaffolding would be taken down.
The item was moved to the July agenda.
Silas White contributed reporting to this story.
