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May 20, 2013 | VOL. 49, No. 20
RifT ON ThE RidGE
INSIDE
HV
BY JOHN GOlDEN jgolden@westfairinc.com
ROCKIN’ DESIGNS • 10
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GOOD THINGS HAPPENING • 30
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S I X - C ARD DR AW
A half-dozen zones to vie for three upstate casinos
BY Bill FAllON bfallon@westfairinc.com
A DOZEN YEARS AFTER THE CATSKILLS region was promised three casinos – and none arrived – the governor’s office this month released a plan to revive the process across upstate New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed breaking the state into six districts, three of which would be awarded full-blown casinos. Westchester and Rockland counties, the five boroughs and Long Island are excluded, as are current Indian gaming enterprises. Prospective developers of the gaming resorts should expect to spend a minimum of $250 million to $500 million in capital investment. “This has such a long history,” said Jonathan Drapkin, president and CEO of Pattern for Progress, the Newburgh-based planning and advocacy nonprofit. “We have been at it for
so long neither the upside is as big as it once was nor the downside so bad. As states like Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have gotten into gambling, the market shrinks. But the total negatives – things like traffic and unknowns associated with casinos – have gone down. Let’s come up with a thoughtful way to say where and let’s have at it.” “You hear of the negatives of things like traffic,” said Laurence Gottlieb, president and CEO of the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp. for the past two months and previously economic development director for Westchester County. “The reality is that what usually follows is investment in critical infrastructure.” The driving force behind the governor’s initiative, according to Gottlieb, is “the competitive nature of gaming” among revenue-seeking states. Six-card, page 6
evelopers at Westchester’s Ridge Hill are clashing in a state court over more than $1.6 million in payments that the owner of the mixed-use development in Yonkers claims to be owed by the company that built and owns a condominium tower in the 81-acre commercial “village” overlooking the Thruway. owners of The Monarch, a 162-unit, glasssheathed building planned as the first of four luxury residences in a 500-unit, estimated $300 million condo complex on the western flank of Ridge Hill, were seeking a buyer for the underoccupied property this year, according to a source in the Westchester real estate industry. Newsday reported in February that 55 units – about one-third of those marketed – had been sold in the 13-story tower that opened in early 2012. The Monarch’s developer, Horizon at Ridge Hill L.LC., is the defendant in a complaint filed last summer in state Supreme Court by FC Yonkers Associates L.L.C., an entity of Ridge Hill’s Brooklynbased developer, Forest City Ratner Companies. Forest City claims the condo developer defaulted on contractual payments that total at least $1,606,955. Attorneys for Forest City said the unpaid sums include $588,900 for infrastructure and site development work done by Ridge’s Hill’s owner at Horizon’s nearly 7-acre condo site; an additional The Ridge, page 6
Executive, OLD MALL, NEW MALL • 2 page 1