McLaughlin and Barbato Remain Two Key Votes Needed to Pass SFC’s LDA

With the summer season upon us and a budget battle behind them, the City Council’s next big issue will be the Struever Fidelco Cappelli (SFC) $400 million development plan for downtown Yonkers. The council had been working for the past few weeks to amend and adopt a budget, and can now turn its full attention to SFC and the Land Disposition Agreement (LDA), which lays out the project’s terms, payments and benefits to both the city and the developers.

Currently, three members of the council — Council President Chuck Lesnick and council members Patricia McDow and John Murtagh —  appear to support the LDA, while councilwomen Sandy Annabi and Joan Gronowski are opposed. (McDow, however, has recently expressed concerns about the affordable housing component of the plan … more to follow.)

Republican council members Liam McLaughlin and Dee Barbato remain the swing votes, and the two votes needed to pass the LDA. Five council votes are needed because the LDA includes the sale of city property.

While negotiations continue between Mayor Phil Amicone, SFC and the City Council, both Barbato and McLaughlin remain on the fence with serious concerns.

“My concerns are all about the revenue streams in this project. This isn’t what we all signed on for, we thought this was going to bring in a definitive revenue stream,” said Barbato.

Both Barbato and McLaughlin’s concerns regard whether or not the LDA is a good deal for the people of Yonkers. Below are some of the pros and cons of the LDA, all of which are factors both Barbato and McLaughlin are considering.

Pro: The SFC project will create jobs, business activity and vitality to an economically depressed part of the city. The increased traffic could “lift the tide” of other businesses, creating more spending, and sales taxes, in Yonkers.

Con: The project is no longer a guaranteed $1.6 billion development plan. Due to economic conditions, a minimum development guarantee of $400 million is in the LDA.

Pro: The development of the SFC plan would give a boost to the downtown waterfront in Yonkers, the gem that remains underutilized. While there has been some development in the downtown/waterfront district there’s isn’t enough critical mass for a vibrant business and residential district. New office buildings on Main Street are up for sale, and other property owners are waiting and wondering what to do next. The SFC plan would give the boost to the downtown needed so that other projects can follow.

Con: SFC has to layout very little of their own money to move forward with the project under the LDA. Many of the upfront payments by SFC have been removed or modified in the LDA. 

Pro: The $400 million minimum development includes building River Park Center at Chicken Island, a new firehouse at the Cacace center across from City Hall and parking near and around City Hall and River Park Center. At least one residential tower will also be built, along with some form of Minor League Baseball stadium.

Con: One of the biggest pieces of city responsibility to the SFC plan is the $162 million in bonds the city will float to pay for the infrastructure improvements to the downtown. The total cost of the improvements is $212 million, with SFC using anticipated credits from the project to pay the $50 million.

Pro: The construction of residential housing, be it rentals at River Park Center, and/or condos on the riverfront, would bring in new residents, who live, shop and do business in downtown Yonkers. The residential component is currently lacking in the downtown, and a vibrant downtown has activity 24/7.

Con: According to the LDA, SFC has to attempt to secure financing for their project. If they cannot secure financing, they can sit on the two riverfront properties (H&I) that are considered the most valuable piece to the entire plan.

Concerns about how SFC intends to regulate the affordable housing portion of their residential plan have recently come to light. In the LDA, the affordable housing units would transfer to market rate housing after 15 years. McDow called the 15 years “absurd. Fifteen years is a blink of the eye, I was looking for 30 years, which is a good standard.”

“They [SFC] need to come back with something that’s workable for the city,” said McDow, whose vote for the LDA is crucial for passage.

Over the past few months of negotiations, SFC has remained silent, preferring to attempt to win over enough council votes behind closed doors. But the people of Yonkers are talking about SFC.

“I hear from a lot of people two recurring thoughts. One is that this a sweetheart deal for SFC. They are getting everything they want, but who is looking out for us?,” said an unnamed source in City Hall. “And two, how long will this go on for? When will the council vote on this, or when will SFC finally quit?”

City Hall Split Over Who to Support in 4th District Council Race

Dennis Shepard—–John Rubbo

 

The race to replace Liam McLaughlin as councilperson in the Fourth District has gotten more interesting over the past week. At the Yonkers GOP convention last week, Dennis Shepard won the nomination of the party, narrowly defeating Dr. Ron Volino, with Geri Esposito a distant third.

John Rubbo, a former assistant to Mayor Phil Amicone, entered the race late, and did not place his name in nomination at the convention (see previous post). Amicone and others in the mayor’s office advised Rubbo not to run, but he declined the recommendation and resigned from his job at City Hall.

But there is a split in the mayor’s office over who is the preferred candidate in the fourth — with the mayor and his top staff preferring Shepard and the younger staffers wanting Rubbo.

Rubbo shouldn’t expect the public support of any of his young turk friends on the 2nd floor of City Hall — all have been advised not to do so and they have agreed.

All signs point to a GOP primary in the Fourth in September between Shepard, Rubbo and perhaps Esposito and Volino.

Waiting in the wings is the Democratic candidate Mario Degiorgio

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.