2 | LEGAL BEEF OVER BACON SEPTEMBER 12, 2016 | VOL. 52, No. 37
4 | OFFICE PARK APARTMENTS
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Peekskill landlord finds new demand for old buildings BY ALEESIA FORNI aforni@westfairinc.com
S Monica Flaherty in front of The Flatz, the 150-year-old Peekskill building she renovated. Photo by Aleesia Forni.
French-American School scales down campus plans in White Plains COMMON COUNCIL VOTE BRINGS TEMPORARY HALT TO LEGAL BATTLE BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH rdeffenbaugh@westfairinc.com
AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY of White Plains and the French-
American School of New York will create a temporary ceasefire in what a state Supreme Court judge called a “war of attrition”
ome century-old buildings in Peekskill are getting a new life thanks to Monica Flaherty, a resident of the city who, through her development company The Flatz Properties LLC, has shelled out more than $2 million to purchase and rehab five properties. “I am particularly interested in architecturally interesting properties,” she said. “I love the high ceilings. I love the way people used to design for space.” That interest is the reason the 150-yearold building at 1008 Main St. caught her eye. Built as a hotel in 1865, with grand hallways and marble fireplaces, the building later fell into disrepair before it was revitalized in the 1980s. The three-story, 12,000-square-foot property — known by some as The Pugsley Building after former owner Samuel Irving Pugsley and by others as The Pataki
between the city and school over its proposal to build a new central campus in a White Plains neighborhood. The White Plains Common Council voted on Sept. 6 to accept a stipulation of settlement agreement with FASNY that will allow the school to submit a new, reduced development plan for the city to consider. The school’s original plan to
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Building for longtime tenant Gov. George Pataki, later served as a health care facility and an after-school center for children. “A lot of people in Peekskill have been through this space,” Flaherty said. Now called The Flatz, Flaherty’s flagship location features two large retail spaces on the ground floor and office spaces ranging from 300 to 3,000 square feet on the floors above. Nine businesses, from an accountant to a DJ, occupy space on the upper commercial floors, while a Japanese restaurant on the first floor will soon be joined by a sushi and sashimi restaurant. Each floor also has a separate art gallery space. After two years of development, Flaherty still has big plans for The Flatz, which her company is marketing as the “Great Dame” of downtown Peekskill. She aims to transform the building’s 2,200-square-foot basement and its outdoor courtyard into a performance venue and restaurant. She also hopes to make the building energy neutral
construct a $60 million central campus at the former Ridgeway Country Club has been in state Supreme Court since September 2015, after the White Plains Common Council did not reach a needed supermajority vote to close a city road required as part of the plan. In front of a large audience at City Hall that spread to two overflow rooms, the council by a 4-3
» THE FLATZ, page 6
vote accepted an agreement with FASNY that will put the school’s lawsuit on hold while it submits its reduced plan. The plan eliminates FASNY’s previously proposed lower school — nursery through fifth grade — reducing the proposed school population from 950 students to 640 and building square footage by 35 percent. » FASNY, page 6
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