AWARD WINNING EDITORIAL
INCLUDING THE HUDSON VALLEY JUNE 27, 2022 VOL. 58, No. 26
westfaironline.com
Norwalk residents asked for input on Wall Street area’s future BY JUSTIN MCGOWN jmcgown@westfairinc.com
A Rendering of Glenwood Hill Manor.
$79M APARTMENT BUILDING PROPOSED FOR CITY-OWNED LAND IN YONKERS BY PETER KATZ Pkatz@westfairinc.com
A
team of developers hopes to be able to buy 15 lots from the city of Yonkers this coming January so that it can move ahead with a plan to build a 14-story building that would have 177 apartments, all priced in the affordable category. The developers are Lemor Development LLC and Empire Development Capital Holding LLC. Lenor, Empire and the city
have a nonbinding Letter of Intent that would have the city selling the lots for a price to be determined through an appraisal process. The properties are at 297 Glenwood Ave. and 146 and 164 Lake Ave. The properties currently are vacant and when combined would create a site of just over 0.9 acres in size. The proposed building would cost an estimated $79 million to construct, not including the land cost. The total height would be 176 feet and there would be parking on the first through fourth floors
for 138 vehicles, in addition to space for building mechanicals and a gymnasium for residents. Floors five through 14 would be for the apartments. The development would be known as Glenwood Hill Manor. There would be 10 studios, 70 one-bedroom units, 77 two-bedroom apartments and 20 three-bedroom units. The units would be priced to be affordable to people earning from 40% to 80% of the area median income for Westchester County.
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s Norwalk continues to grow, efforts are being made to ensure that the Wall Street area not only benefits from the rising population and increasing number of visitors to the city, but can also contribute toward driving those numbers. The area was once the heart of one of the five separate municipalities that joined together to form the current city in 1910 but was heavily damaged by hurricanes and flooding in the 1950s and never managed to generate the revitalization seen in South Norwalk. On June 14, the city sought input from residents in an event at the Wall Street Theater. Garrett Bolella, the assistant director of transportation, mobility and parking for the city, helped organize the event. “This is just the design kickoff,” Bolella explained. “It’s an open-house style event to really get feedback from the community, so we can go back to the drawing board and come up with actual designs according to community views on things they want to see like railway improvements, intersection improvements, streetscape improvements.” The theater’s doors were thrown open to the public at 4 p.m. and the attendees were
encouraged to move through a series of stations where they could share their views on different aspects of the redesign. Some tables encouraged them to write sticky notes about what most needed to be preserved or changed, while others invited guests to mark up maps of the area to suggest revisions to traffic flow or take surveys about potential redesigns of public space. Historical pictures of the Wall Street area were on display throughout the space, inviting guests to consider how the area had evolved in the past and if old design elements might be worth revisiting. Local restaurants, including Rebel Daughter Cookies, Sonia’s Kitchen, Café Aroma, Pontos Taverna and Sabor Ambateño Bakery, also offered up free samples for guests. According to Bolella, the neighborhood’s rich history as a transportation hub where maritime traffic, rail transportation and local trolley service all came together with little planning has caused some of the challenges in redevelopment. For instance, he pointed out that the current traffic flows predate I-95 and the Route 7 connector, which would have been almost impossible to predict. He also admitted that this was not the first attempt to produce a plan to drastically reform the
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