WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNALS
AUGUST 28, 2017 | VOL. 53, No. 35
3 | NJ BUYER TO THE FORE YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS
15 | MAKING MUSIC westfaironline.com
NY AG squeezes, Simon shrinks no-compete turf for outlet mall BY BILL HELTZEL bheltzel@westfairinc.com
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Summer Science see page 43
Sarah Lawrence College senior Isabel Bilek examines algae specimens in her summer research externship at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Photo by Ryan Deffenbaugh.
Boatyard battle back in court as BLT builds new one at Harbor Point BY PHIL HALL phall@westfairinc.com
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avenport Landing, a new boatyard and apartment complex at Stamford’s Harbor Point, is on its way to completion by 2018. But the approved project, which follows nearly five years of legal action and negotiations between the city and Harbor Point’s
developer over the demolition of another boatyard that has blocked further redevelopment, has sparked another lawsuit from an environmental opponent this year. “We expect the boatyard to be finished this fall,” said Ted Ferrarone, chief operating officer at Harbor Point Development LLC, a subsidiary of the Stamfordbased developer Building and Land Technology (BLT). “The sec-
ond phase of the project is a 218unit apartment complex that is under construction now and will probably open next summer.” Fe r r a r o n e said the Davenport Landing project at 28 Southfield Ave. contributes to a “renaissance to the waterfront.” The boatyard, on a 4.4-acre site where foundation work has begun on a new 25,740-squarefoot commercial building at an estimated cost of $27.9 million, will be “fantastic” for boaters, he said. “It is a modern, well-thoughtout, fully planned, full-service boatyard,” said Ferrarone. “It is very rare to see a new boatyard being built in New England.” BLT in 2007 acquired the » BOATYARD, page 8
f you live in and around New York City and want to shop at an outlet mall, Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in Orange County is the place to go. In fact, it’s about the only place you can go to. The Simon Property Group mall had imposed a 60-mile radius on retailers that blocks them from opening at other locations, regulators say, hinders competitors from opening outlet malls in the region and drives up consumer costs. But on Aug. 21, Simon officials signed an agreement with the state Office of Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman to narrow its exclusive territory and to pay $945,000 to close a two-year investigation. “No business should be allowed to stifle an entire industry at the expense of consumers,” Schneiderman said in a news release. Simon, though, depicted the settlement as the cost of eliminating an unnecessary distraction. “It was always hard to understand the reason the New York attorney general would undertake a meritless investigation into the property,” the Indianapolis company said in a news release. “Simon has never sought to limit competition.” Chelsea Property Group, a real estate investment trust in
Roseland, New Jersey, that was the nation's leading developer and operator of retail outlet centers, built Woodbury Common in 1985. Simon acquired the lower Hudson Valley mall in 2004 as part of its approximately $3.5 billion acquisition of Chelsea Property Group Woodbury is a gem in Simon’s portfolio of 91 outlet malls around the world, generating $1.3 billion in sales annually. It features 240 stores, many of which are high-end fashion and designer brands, and it has become an international tourist destination. Simon also owns The Mills at Jersey Gardens, a smaller outlet center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, 12 miles from Midtown Manhattan. Essentially, New York’s attorney general says, Simon has monopoly power for outlet centers in the New York City area. Woodbury is in Central Valley, about 40 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. The landlord’s 60-mile radius provision creates an 11,000-square-mile exclusive zone encompassing Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, to the west and New Haven to the east, and beyond Staten Island to the south and Saugerties in Ulster County to the north. All of New York City, large swaths of Long Island, northern New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania were off-limits to Woodbury retailers. The retailers typically sign leases for 10 years, » WOODBURY, page 8