This proposal has been around for a while, and has undergone another change...
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/p...60/1018/NEWS02
More office space proposed for LeCount Square
By JERRY GLEESON
THE JOURNAL NEWS
July 13, 2007
Developer Louis Cappelli has sharply redrawn his proposed LeCount Square project in downtown New Rochelle, more than tripling the amount of office space while reducing the residential component by half.
Cappelli said strong office demand in neighboring Manhattan contributed to the new strategy.
"I think that every place there's property next to a train station, people should be contemplating office sites - now," Cappelli said yesterday. "For $50 a foot (in rent) it works up here, but you couldn't get that before, because Manhattan was getting $50 a foot. Now Manhattan is getting $100 a foot."
Last month, Cappelli unveiled a plan for a new office complex around a renovated White Plains train station, but was unable to garner Common Council support to move as quickly as he desired.
LeCount Square, currently budgeted at $400 million, would be a block from the New Rochelle train station. The project has undergone changes in recent years.
Cappelli last proposed a hotel, 120,000 square feet of office space and 527 condominiums in two 500-foot towers, rising from a three-story retail and restaurant complex.
The new plan retains the retail complex but changes the mix and look of the other elements.
The entire north tower would be occupied by office space, now measuring 400,000 square feet.
The first two floors above retail would be available for financial trading use, with floors of 40,000 square feet. The remaining floors would be 23,500 square feet.
With a broader area, the north tower would be shorter at 375 feet. The south tower would include a 209-room hotel on the lower 13 floors, plus 200 condos. Another 58 condos would be built in an adjacent loft building.
The south tower would measure 500 feet, plus another 75 to allow for rooftop mechanical equipment.
Retail space would be increased by 20,000 square feet to a total of 200,000.
Restaurant space would be reduced from 22,000 square feet to a total of 12,000.
Cappelli was asked if he would have still changed the LeCount Square strategy if his proposal in White Plains had not stalled.
"I think so," he said. "Because this is going to be able to be delivered probably about a year before I could deliver White Plains.
"As I said to the city council of White Plains, in the last eight months the Manhattan office market has gone through the roof, and there's plenty of tenants up here looking now ... if the right office development was next to a train station," he said.
"Those big tenants need to make a decision two years in advance to move their 300, 400,000 square feet. They're making major league decisions here, they need major league designs. ... I'm not looking for little office tenants here, 10-, 20,000 square feet. I'm looking for 2-, 300,000 square-foot tenants."
Slowing demand for residential housing in the Lower Hudson Valley was not a factor in his decision, Cappelli said.
"I sold almost 95 percent of my first tower at the Ritz-Carlton condos" in White Plains, he said. "The condominium market is good."
Cappelli said condo buyers will be moving into his Trump Plaza at New Rochelle starting early next month. He said 70 percent of those condos have been sold.
The LeCount Square changes were outlined in a supplement to a report on the project that the city requires for review purposes. City officials expect that review will take several more months.
In a statement, Mayor Noam Bramson said he was "encouraged" by the new plan. "Developing office space in close proximity of our new Intermodal Transportation Center is consistent with our city's commitment to 'smart growth' planning," Bramson said in the statement. "The addition of more office space to our downtown will enliven the daytime streetscape and further energize our retail stores."
Westchester's office market is seeing lower vacancy rates, although the troubled subprime mortgage market has led to closings of some offices in the area. The overall vacancy rate for Class A office space in lower Westchester, including New Rochelle, Yonkers, Mount Vernon and Pelham, stood at 7.1 percent in the past quarter, down from 17.9 percent a year earlier, according to data from office broker Cushman & Wakefield.
William V. Cuddy Jr., senior vice president for office broker CB Richard Ellis, said a dearth of recently-built office space in the region keeps demand strong.
"That actually could be a strong competitive advantage for his (Cappelli's) project, in that the building would be built to the highest standards for technology, energy efficiency and the like," he said.