SFC’s LDA Made Available to Public, But Negotiations Continue

To view the latest draft of SFC’s LDA, follow the link below: http://www.cityofyonkers.com/index.aspx?page=2025

This LDA is the one that the City Council reviewed over the weekend, but it is unlikely that it will be the final version, as the five votes needed for its passage have yet to be secured, even with recent SFC concessions to build a residential tower at Chicken Island and to build a more substantially complete stadium.

The votes of three on the council – Dee Barbato, John Murtagh and Liam McLaughlin — will be the deciding factors on whetheror not the SFC/LDA will pass.

The developers, and the mayor, need all three votes in order to secure five votes for its passage, which will be combined with Council President Chuck Lesnick’s and Councilwoman Pat McDow’s votes.

Barbato and McLaughlin have asked for detailed revenue figures from the minimum development proposed in the LDA of around $400 million. They have also asked for a detailed list of incentives and infrastructure improvements to be paid for by the city, in the hopes of making a informed decision on whether or not the project is good for the city.

Several on the council have also asked for more time to review the LDA, so the finanical deadline of May 20th from SFC is no longer an issue.

Several new developments were uncovered at the council’s Real Estate Committee meeting last night:

The council is not even close to voting the LDA out of the Real Estate Committee for a  vote up or down — time is needed to read and review the LDA, and to try tonegotiate terms that could win over McLaughlin, Barbarto and Murtagh — remember all three are needed, if, as expected, Sandy Annabi and Joan Gronowski vote no.

This will require serious negotiations and more concessions on SFC’s part. The sale price of city land and properties, and the two-year hold that SFC will have on the city before they are required to build are two issues of concern.

Eminent domain (ED) also came up at the Real Estate Committee meeting, with concerns raised by Gronowski and Murtagh (Murtagh has submitted a resolution against any ED use for devleopment projects with incentives). While Lesnick explained that this deal always had an ED component, if it’s inclusion means that Murtagh votes no on the LDA, the deal’s dead.

Several members of the City Council met with Mayor Phil Amicone earlier in the day, with no resolution. While the mayor wants the council to vote on the LDA, Lesnick realizes that there aren’t five votes, not even close to passing it at this time.

So we wait …

Five Council Votes for SFC’s LDA By No Means a Done Deal

don't make your reservations at the new Yonkers stadium yet

 

Rising Times has learned that the City Council’s review of the new, and final, SFC Land Disposition Agreement (LDA) includes requests by councilmembers Liam McLaughlin and Dee Barbato for revenue and expense estimates for the minimum development required under the LDA, which now stands at around $400 million.

Barbato and McLaughlin are two on the council who want to know whether the final LDA is a good financial deal for the City of Yonkers. Under the original $1.6 billion downtown development plan,  SFC was to receive $250 million in incentives, including $160 million in infrastructure improvement, and up to $90 million in Yonkers Industrial Development Agency (IDA)  incentives.

Now, however, under the minimum development agreement in the final LDA, some on the council are questioning whether SFC should receive the same benefit based on the $400 minimum development as they would have received under the $1.6 billion plan.

SFC and the mayor would argue that SFC is moving forward and plans to eventually build the entire $1.6 billion project.

All of these questions need to be answered quickly, because the council is under an SFC credit deadline of May 20; the LDA must be approved by then.

Five council votes required to approve the LDA (because of the land transfer),  and right now – there ain’t five votes.

Councilwomen Sandy Annabi and Joan Gronowski both appear headed towards no votes. Council President Chuck Lesnick, and councilmembers Pat McDow and John Murtagh are leaning towards a yes vote.

That leaves McLaughlin and Barbato, with both votes needed to get to five to pass the LDA.

Council Doesn’t Get Final SFC LDA; Will Receive Tomorrow

The Yonkers City Council Real Estate Committee meeting held last night was supposed to be an opportunity for the council, and the public, to get a look at the revised, or final, Land Disposition Agreement  (LDA) for the SFC downtown development project. It was also supposed to be a public hearing, where audience members could comment for or against the LDA, which gives SFC wide latitude and control over most of the downtown, while binding them to a minimum development agreement which would require them to build a scaled back $400 million project.

Several sources have said that the new agreement calls for SFC to complete the construction of a minor league stadium at Chicken Island, and for SFC to construct one residential tower, also at Chicken Island, in addition to their prior proposal to build a 300,000-square-foot retail center, new fire headquarters and a parking garage, as well as daylighting the Saw Mill River at Getty Square.

This deal was said to win over the support of Councilman Liam McLaughlin and Councilwoman Pat McDow. McLaughlin wanted a completed stadium built, and McDow wants affordable housing to be built, onsite, as part of the plan.

But no final committments of support from the Council have been made until they see the final LDA.

… Once we get it we will get it to you.

The council is under another deadline for SFC, May 24, so that SFC can continue to work on getting financing for the project.

A council vote of 5-2 last week to permit SFC to get a $4+ million HUD loan is said to be an indication of how the council will vote on the LDA.

But with this City Council, one never knows until the votes are cast.

Council Approves State Grants Applications for Old Library/Mill Street and Greystone Condos Plans

The City Council, at their meeting on Tuesday night, approved two grant applicaitons for Restore New York grants totalling $10 million for two projects.

The first, to rehabilitiate the old library on Main Street and to redesign Mill Street, a semi-hidden dead end road behind the old library, and the creation of a pedestrian friendly ‘Italian Style Piazza’ on Mill Street, will cost $13.5 million. The Restore New York Grant application requests $5.4 million.

Sharon Ebert from the city’s planning department explained the grant proposal and said that the state has $150 million in restore grants that they are wanting to award and release over the next few months to help stimulate the New York economy. The grant applications are broken down by size of municipality and size of the grant request, those in excess of $10 million are separately reviewed. The total of both these applicaitons is just over $10 Million.

Ebert explained that the library would be cut into two parts, with SFC’s temporary HQ’s occuping the top of the old library, and displaced merchants and businesses from New Main Street occupying the ground floor. The appraised value of the old library and the Mill Street properties (not including a large property owned by Rising Development on Mill St) total $1.6 Million. SFC would be required to get financing for $4.4 million for thier share of this project.

City Councilwoman Joan Gronowski questioned whether SFC had show an ability to pay their portion of the old library-mill street rehab. The council voted 6-1 with Gronowski voting no to approve this grant application.

The Council next approved the Greyston NY Restore grant for their plan to build 100+ units of affordable condos along Warburton Avenue. A deal to preserve several buildings owned by Greyston at the proposed site and keep them as part of the Philpse Manor Historic District are very close to completion. This project total cost is $41.4 Million, with a $4.6 Million grant application. Of the two grants, the Greyston application is deemed to be a bit more attractive to the state because it provides housing to the workforce community.

Councilman Murtagh commented that on a visit to the historic buildings, he found one filled with garbage and excrement on the first floor. Stephen Brown of Greyston assured Murtagh that the property was being cleaned up. The council voted 7-0 voted for the Greyston grant application.

Wild Turn of Events With SFC’s LDA — Five on Council Now Support Modified LDA

SFC project and stadium-alive and kicking

It has been a wild, and wildly unreported, last 72 hours in Yonkers politics, specfically concerning downtown development. As of Monday, six members of the City Council had serious concerns about the Land Disposition Agreement, LDA, negotiated between Mayor Phil Amicone and developers SFC.  It appeared that the LDA would not be passed, and that the entire project was in jeopardy.

On Monday, SFC attorney Al DelBello wrote a memo to the city council in response to their letter by 6 opposing the LDA. Were are in the process of obtaining the letter, but the gist of it was that while SFC viewed all of the council’s concerns and LDA suggestions, over excessive, that SFC wished to negotiate directly with the council, new LDA terms. Mayor Amicone was not CC’d on the letter, nor notified by SFC of its origin.

On Tuesday, this sent the Mayor through the roof, and he called SFC representatives to tell them, in no uncertain terms, how PO’d he was about their efforts to divert his involvement.

later on Tuesday, the Mayor gets a call from Louis Cappelli. Cappelli claims that he knew nothing of the council letter, and offers to come to Yonkers immediately. Note: Cappelli has only been to Yonkers/City Hall on two other occassions over the past 3 years of SFC negotiations.

Cappelli rushes to Yonkers to save the project and win back the Mayor’s support. He lays his cards on the table, saying that he need this project in Yonkers, above and beyond his Catskills plan.

Negotiations ensue, with a plan that they hoped would win a majority of the council’s support. The two major details of the plan, are to add the following to the minimum development requirements in the LDA.

I-build the entire stadium, or at least a roof to the shell proposed.

II-to build a residential component, and construct one of the proposed towers, presumably at River Park Center/Chicken Island/Getty Square

Note: The specific details of this revised LDA have not been released to the public, but these two pieces above have been confirmed to Rising Times.

The Council is briefed on the revised LDA before their meeting on Tuesday. The council meeting on Tuesday night ran long, and was heated, with councilmembers exchanges shouts and accusations, most notably between CCP Lesnick and Councilman Murtagh.

The debate covered a proposal to provide SFC with a sec 108 housing loan of several million to help float their project while they obtain their multi-hundred million bank loan. After the debate the vote for the loan to SFC was 5-2 with Councilwoman Sandy Annabi and Joan Gronowksi voting no.

Several sources have confirmed their belief that the revised LDA now has 5 votes for approval. The Council will hold a public hearing on the LDA on May 5th.

Amicone vs. Gronowski: “Can’t We All Just Get Along …”

    The political relationship between Mayor Phil Amicone and Councilwoman Joan Gronowksi has quickly deteriorated over the past 11 months, ever since Gronowski was elected to the council from the 3rd District.

    While there was never a chance for the two to invite each other over for dinner, the hope was that they could peacefully coexist. But those hopes are dashed with both the Gronowski and Amicone camps exchanging barbs, both in the media and off the record to Yonkersrising.com.
    Let’s remember that Gronowski worked in city government for 20 years before being fired by former Mayor John Spencer. Gronowski sued the city for wrongful termination and won.
    Amicone, who served as deputy mayor under Spencer, has had to deal with the baggage from the Gronowski-Spencer battle in his administration once Gronowski won the council seat.
    On the record, Gronowski told the Home News & Times that she had not been invited to a recent council briefing by the mayor over the Struever Fidelco Cappelli (SFC) development project.
    While the mayor has publicly admitted that Gronowski was not invited, officially the briefing was for the council leadership of President Chuck Lesnick, Majority Leader Sandy Annabi, and Minority Leader Liam McLaughlin. Councilwoman Pat McDow was also invited because of her role as co-chair of the Council Real Estate Committee.
    Off the record, the Rising Times blog has heard a lot of grumblings from both sides. They include:

I-From the Mayor’s Camp: “Joan will never forget and forgive her firing, which she now blames on the mayor. With this as a backdrop, it’s impossible for them to work together on anything. Her vote against the FEIS was the last straw.”

II-From a City Council Source: “The mayor’s latest episode with Councilwoman Gronowski is another example of how bad relations are between the mayor and the council. While the mayor has some allies on the council, there’s no one willing to carry his water and go to bat for him, partly because of his treatment, by him and his staff, of council members like Joan. The mayor should realize that the council needs to work together, and they can’t support his shunning of her.”
     Back on the record, the mayor did hold a separate meeting with Gronowski to update her on the progress of drafting a Land Disposition Agreement (LDA) for the SFC project. (See our other entry entitled “SFC update.”)
     Another thorn between the two is Gronowski’s inquisitions into the use of city-owned vehicles and the civil service hiring practices of the Amicone administration. And on both issues, Gronowski’s actions are supported by the vast majority of Yonkers residents, and by Yonkersrising.com.
     To the mayor’s credit, his administration has reduced the size of the city’s car fleet and has reduced the number of non-civil service employees in City Hall.
     While tensions between the two remain strained, let us end with the hope that during this holiday season, “Can’t we all just get along?”

SFC Update

     Tonight, the Yonkers City Council Real Estate Committee met and set a date for next Wednesday, November 5, to vote on the Findings Statement for the SFC redevelopment project. While the council has reviewed the massive $1.6 billion plan for downtown Yonkers for more than one year, the vote next week will be the first in which the people of Yonkers find out where the council stands on this project.    

     A previous vote last month to accept the Final Environmental Impact Statement as complete was not a vote for or against the project, just a vote to conclude the environmental review. The council vote on accepting the FEIS was 5-2, with Councilwomen Sandi Annabi and Joan Gronowski voting no.

     Whether or not Annabi or Gronwoski’s “no” vote is a prelude to their opposing the project is anyone’s guess, and it is still unclear what the final vote is on the Findings Statement, which outlines some of the details of what the council would like to see as part of a final agreement between the developers and the city.
     But it is expected that there will be at least four votes to approve a findings statement next Wednesday. This would move the project along to the next step, which would be for the council to approve a Land Disposition Agreement (LDA) for the SFC plan.

     The LDA is where the details of the project are finalized, after negotiations between the mayor, the council and SFC. Mayor Amicone, in an effort to move along the process, has begun to draft an LDA and has had briefings on it with the City Council (these meetings are the subject of our other blog entry — mayor and Gronowski).
     Eventually, all parties must get together and negotiate the term of the LDA. These sessions have not yet begun, in part because parts of the Findings Statement will determine the details of the LDA.
     Look for LDA negotiations to take some time, because the council and the developer remain far apart on a few issues. They include:

I-Affordable housing — SFC has proposed that 6 percent of the residential units they build be set aside for affordable housing. The City Council has proposed 20 percent, led by Councilwoman McDow on this issue. The developers claim that 20 percent won’t work. An agreement north of 10 percent is the most likely outcome.

II-Yonkers Fire Department (YFD) — Yonkers Firefighters Local 628 President Hugh Fox has commented again and again at council meetings on his concern about the ability of his members to safeguard the community if the SFC project is built, without more manpower and equipment. We’re hearing mixed messages from within the Fire Department on SFC, and while Fox is opposed to the project, without increases to the YFD budget, others claim that SFC is already doing enough (building a new firehouse and fire headquarters) to more than adequately protect the public. More on this in next week’s Home News & Times.
    The issue remains unresolved, with several councilmembers questioning the SFC plan for the YFD, based on Fox’s comments.

III-Sale of land by the city to SFC — In order to build their project, SFC must acquire several parcels of land from the city. This includes parcels in and around Getty Square and Chicken Island, and riverfront property downtown.
    It’s the riverfront properties, known as parcels H&I, that are the most valuable asset. With a looming budget deficit facing the city, look for the City Council to try and negotiate a multimillion-dollar payment for the H&I parcels to ease next year’s budget pain.

    The issue of the landmarking of 87 Nepperhan Ave. appears to have fizzled, with a majority on the council not in favor of landmarking. No council vote has been planned to designate 87 Nepperhan a landmark, an indication that council may take a pass on this issue.