Senior citizen building proposed in Yonkers

By Peter Katz / pkatz@westfairinc.com

Michael Mastrogiacomo of Port Chester-based Mastrogiacomo Engineering is expected back before the Yonkers Planning Board at its Sept. 13 meeting with final plans for a 24-unit senior citizen apartment building proposed for 10 Romaine Ave. The applicant is identified as 10 Romaine Plaza LLC and is registered at 321 McLean Ave. in Yonkers. Abraham Rabadi is listed as the contact for the company and owner of the property.

LaMora has been designed to the energy efficiency standard known as Passive House. Buildings designed to that standard require comparatively little energy for heating or cooling. The apartments include low-flow plumbing fixtures, Energy Star appliances, individually controlled high-efficiency electric heat and cooling, and LED lighting and emergency generators that take over when there's a power failure.

Construction is expected to be completed by spring 2024. LaMora is being built where the Longfellow School once stood. The school was closed in the mid-1970s and the abandoned building was demolished in 2015.

The proposed building would utilize modular construction and would have three floors of apartments above a grade-level entrance. Parking would be at grade level. There would be a total of 13 parking spaces provided in accordance with the city's zoning code that allows the number of spaces in a senior citizen housing project to be reduced by 50% from what typically would be required. Of the 24 apartments, 12 would be studios and 12 would be one-bedroom units. Rents would be set at market rates rather than in the affordable housing category.

Mastrogiacomo has previously told Yonkers planners that the developer would be providing an extra parking space to be used by visitors. He said that the developer reviewed the plans and redesigned the parking layout to address comments received questioning whether vehicles would be able to properly maneuver to get into and out of the parking spaces. He said that there would be three parking spaces at the street side of the building with the rest in a rear parking area. He said that the rear parking area also has been redesigned to provide proper safety distances around the support columns for the building.

The plans were revised to provide a mixture of holly trees and evergreens for landscaping instead of just evergreens. Mastrogiacomo said that there would be an outdoor recreation area that would have benches, picnic tables and, possibly, a bocce court or other recreational features.

The city's planners suggested that a deed restriction would be appropriate to help ensure that a future buyer of the property would keep the building as senior citizen housing. The developer agreed to take that route.

Mastrogiacomo prepared a number of illustrations with different treatments of what the building might look like from the front and was going to use feedback from the Planning Board and city staff when proposing colors and materials in the final plans.

The original application that was filed with Yonkers did not provide an estimate of the construction cost.