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June 30, 2014 | VOL. 50, No. 26 JOHN GOLDEN
INSIDE
Summer 2014
With Kellye Davis®
WHERE TO UNWIND for Your Downtime
arianna huFFington
STOP THE STRESS •! NOW! NOW W W! INSERT
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ChICken IslanD FaIr game agaIn For DeVeloPers
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BY JoHn GoLDEn jgolden@westfairinc.com
S FACES & PLACES• 27
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Environmental Advocates of New York, an advocacy group, opposed the issuing of the loan in a joint letter to the EFC, which was scheduled to formalize the funding in a June 26 meeting, after press time. Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of the group, said the state’s drinking water and sewage systems were in a state of deterioration that will cost $36 billion to repair. “The state should be aggressively working with municipalities to make sure they got the money they need to undertake the projects, instead of unilaterally repurposing these funds without proper
ix months after scrapping a 4-year-old agreement with private partners picked to lead the city’s downtown redevelopment, Yonkers officials will try again to turn a barren and polluted city parking lot called Chicken Island into a thriving, pedestrian-oriented civic center of offices, retail stores and restaurants where new residences could be part of the mix. The city, along with the Yonkers Community Development Agency and the Yonkers Industrial Development Agency, this month issued a request for proposals from developer teams interested in redeveloping the approximately 6-acre site off Getty Square. Chicken Island takes its name from a former island in the Saw Mill River on which a chicken farm stood in the 19th century. The city plans to uncover a stretch of the buried river on the site as part of its four-phase Saw Mill “daylighting” project to attract visitors to new downtown parks and walkways along the exhumed river and spur more development there. The redevelopment site includes 19 cityowned parcels the private developer would acquire through a land disposition agreement with the city. The developer also might acquire any private parcels needed for the project. The site includes a city fire station at 32 John St. The city wants to preserve the firehouse and has asked developers to include separate proposals for the building’s rehabilitation and future use, possibly by the Yonkers fire department. The city in its request for proposals said it seeks “creative and thoughtful development programs that provide interesting strategies for making downtown Yonkers a place for local and regional visitors and workers.” Though it is not required in project proposals, city officials want developers to partner or collaborate with colleges or arts and cultural organizations seeking a presence in downtown Yonkers.
Tappan Zee, page 6
Chicken Island, page 6
risk masters page 13 Carl de Stefanis, CEO of IVI International Inc., and Robert Barone, IVI’s new president, outside company headquarters in Harrison.
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Environmental groups oppose tappan Zee loan BY MArK LunGAriELLo mlungariello@westfairinc.com
StAtE EnVironMEntAL GrouPS are looking to block Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to borrow $511 million from a clean water fund to help fund the in-construction replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge. The state Environmental Facilities Corp. is expected contribute up to $511.45 million in loans for the $3.9 billion, twin-span bridge, which is yet unnamed and went under construction in October.