Dick Hubert’s Worldview: An overview of the local real estate scene— what’s being built, what isn’t, and why

July 31, 2024 at 8:53 p.m.
The Real Deal's cover promotes their story on the financially distressed real estate developer Charles Cohen, owner and developer of 975 Anderson Hill Rd.—the former Doral Arrowwood complex.
The Real Deal's cover promotes their story on the financially distressed real estate developer Charles Cohen, owner and developer of 975 Anderson Hill Rd.—the former Doral Arrowwood complex.

By DICK HUBERT | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment
Columnist

There’s nothing like being asked in person by two groups of Westmore News subscribers for the latest on a subject near and dear to their hearts—the local real estate scene.

It’s a genuine concern on the minds of every condo and homeowner in our circulation area. Hence this column.

But fair warning: Rye Brook and Port Chester are not islands unto themselves. They are part of a regional property development boom just a few miles away from a real estate disaster—namely the crash in the value of older Manhattan office buildings.

The boom sees rental apartment construction remaking the so-called “Miracle Mile” bordering I-287 in Harrison; the fresh residential apartment construction around the White Plains Metro-North station; and downtown Port Chester getting rental apartments wherever developers can get Village of Port Chester authorization.

So, let’s drill down.

The Rye Brook scenario

Rye Brook’s three biggest projects are in the hands of developers with huge Manhattan investments: the former Arrowwood complex (975 Anderson Hill Rd.); the proposed project behind the Rye Brook Village Hall (residences for seniors to replace a former IBM office building yet to be torn down); and the now long-closed Rye Town Hilton.

Multi-billionaire Charles Cohen’s vision of a wellness boutique hotel along with apartments and townhouses at 975 Anderson is coming at the same time as major parts of his portfolio of Manhattan office buildings are financially under water.

Stuart Elliot, the editor-in-chief of the real estate publication Real Deal, put Cohen on the cover of their June issue with the headline “Big Ticket Distress” and described the story in a note to readers:

“The story involves billionaire developer and film producer Charles Cohen, who could see the largest debt auction yet for the troubled office sector.

Cohen, a New York real estate scion who channeled his wealth into an indie film empire, is being pursued by his lender Fortress after an alleged $534 million default in late March. It’s a battle between a rich aesthete stretched too thin and a cutthroat firm seen as a ‘lender of last resort.’

As senior reporters Suzannah Cavanaugh and Keith Larsen write, the commercial real estate market ‘has been waiting for a fallout like this. It was anyone's guess it would play out so publicly.’

With banks finally clamping down on properties hammered by low occupancy, remote work and the pandemic, more fallout is expected soon, and some commercial brokerages are expecting a surge in properties trading hands in the coming years.”

When asked if Cohen’s financial problems had affected the progress of his 975 Anderson plans, Village Administrator Chris Bradbury offered this comment:

“We are all aware of the articles about Mr. Cohen but so far their site plan and zoning text amendment applications have been on track and they continue to move forward at a typical pace. Last month the Village Board approved a Scoping Document under SEQRA which defines the environmental impact areas that need to be addressed as they now prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The preparation of the DEIS and the many studies included in that document typically takes 4-6 months to prepare. The applicant told the Village Board that they were already working in the DEIS.”

So, stay tuned on that one.

The property behind Village Hall, 900 King Street, is owned by George Comfort & Sons, whose holdings are detailed on their website, https://www.gcomfort.com/properties/. Take a long, careful look at the Manhattan office buildings pictured. Also listed on the website is a sketch of what might eventually be their senior living center at 900 King Street.

    Screenshot of The Magellan website promoting rental apartments in Port Chester.
 
 

Here’s Bradbury’s optimistic public statement on when that might come to pass:

“The 900 King Street property is moving (slowly) towards the last few steps needed prior to applying for a building permit to first remove the building and then build the approved senior development. They have made an application to the Westchester County IDA (which I understand they have to modify), there is general agreement on the terms of a PILOT [Payment in Lieu of Taxes] which cannot be finalized until the IDA application is approved, and the applicant needs to receive final approval from the Rye Brook ARB [Architectural Review Board].”

As for the former Rye Town Hilton property, the Westchester Business Journal said of its ownership: “The hotel property had been purchased a couple of years ago by Fraydun “Fred” Manocherian, a real estate developer who with his brothers founded Manocherian Brothers and Pan Am Equities. They own and/or manage approximately 85 buildings in New York City. Manocherian is founder of the National Road Safety Foundation and founder of the New York Health & Racquet Club.”

Bradbury has this laconic description of the status of that property: “The former Westchester Hilton property has been maintained by the property owner who has yet to decide what to do at this location. They contact us every few months just to check in and [say] that they hope to talk to us soon about their plans.”

While Bradbury is waiting for the latest Manocherian phone call or e-mail, fasten your seat belt.

As The New York Times reported June 6:

“While the number of office buildings reaching critical stages of distress remains small, the figure has increased sharply this year. And investors, lawyers and bankers expect the pain to grow in the coming months because demand for office space remains weak and interest rates and other costs are higher than they have been in many years. The problems could be especially severe for older buildings with lots of vacant space and big loan repayments coming up.”

Homes vs. apartments

The Journal News had this eye-opening report last week on the prices for, and availability of, homes in our area:

“Westchester single-family home prices hit a new high in June for the second straight month. 

In June, the median sales price shot up by 12.7% to $1.03 million from June 2023, after it set a record of $980,000 in May, according to a report by the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors.  

Meanwhile, home sales in Westchester went down by 13.3% and inventory plummeted by 17.1%.”

As for the availability of homes for sale even at these inflated prices, The JN noted:

“As of Tuesday, there was a 2.4-month supply of homes in Westchester, below the four to six months’ supply that is generally considered a market balanced between buyers and sellers. 

Towns with the highest supply were North Salem (8), Somers (5) and Bedford (3.7). Port Chester (1), Rye (1.4) and Pelham (1.4) had the lowest inventory across the county.” 

If you are relatively young and looking for a starter home to buy and you have limited resources, purchasing a home in Rye Brook or Port Chester would seem to be out of the question.

Regional developers are betting that if you have a job in Manhattan and can’t afford the rental prices, renting an apartment at half (or more) of what it would cost there makes mid-Westchester a good bet.

So investors in Port Chester real estate are looking to build apartments wherever the Village of Port Chester authorities will allow.

I took a quick look at the websites for some of those buildings, and The Magellan at 108 South Main St. is a typically priced and located new offering, with studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments. Promoted rents range from $2,270 to $3,995 monthly.

Over on the “Miracle Mile” in neighboring Harrison, massive apartment complexes are shaping up near both Wegman’s, the Lifetime athletic facility, and across I-287 at 1133 Westchester Ave., where the old IBM office building has been remodeled for a new generation of smaller businesses with a neighboring new apartment block. One sample of prices: The Alexan in Harrison has price ranges from $2,257 to $9,487 monthly.

And downtown White Plains within walking distance of the Metro-North train station looks like a mini-Manhattan—again for those who need or want to commute to Manhattan.

If you own your living quarters, the odds are you can expect rising property taxes and rising costs for everything else associated with living here—like some of the highest auto and home insurance rates in the country.

The political impact of this situation is a column for another day.

Our Olympian County Attorney

Until The Journal News’ Alexandra Rivera wrote a feature story July 26 about County Attorney John Nonna as having been on the U.S. Fencing Team for the 1972 Olympics in individual and foil events, I was unaware that one of our top sources for County news (at age 76) was an Olympian, although not a medalist.

Rivera quoted Nonna: "I really enjoyed my fencing career, although I could not delve into it as much as I could have because I was trying to become a lawyer at the same time.”

Her story continued:

“He remained tied to the U.S. National team throughout the 1970s and even qualified for two Pan American games in 1975 and 1979. Nonna was forced to give up his spot at the 1975 Pan Am Games in Mexico City after the judge he clerked for denied him a month off to compete. However, he was given a second chance in 1979 and won a silver and bronze medal in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Nonna, along with 471 other athletes, made the U.S. Olympic team again for the 1980 games in Moscow. But after Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979, his dreams of competing in another Olympic games were dashed.

‘The Carter administration decided they were going to try to punish Russia by not letting the U.S. Olympic team go to the Moscow Olympics, so we didn’t get to go, but Congress awarded us all the Congressional Medal of Achievement,’ Nonna said. ‘I might have won a medal in 1980 if we had gone, because I was much more experienced then, but this medal is something no other Olympian has unless you were on the 1980 team.’”

Given his love of fencing and his ongoing involvement with the sport, I asked Nonna for his thoughts on what to watch for in the 2024 USA Olympic fencing team.

He replied with some excitement this past Sunday:

“For the first time ever in U.S. fencing, two American women, Lee Kiefer, reigning Olympic champion, and Lauren Scruggs will be competing for the gold medal in the women’s individual foil Olympic finals in Paris this evening. Kiefer won and Scruggs got the silver. This was a first for American fencing. Never have two American fencers finished first and second in an Olympic fencing event.”

I should add that Scruggs is the first Black woman from the United States to win an individual Olympic fencing medal.

As for Nonna, in his role as County Attorney he keeps winning victories in court, most recently, as I reported in Westmore News, winning a lawsuit against the air carrier JSX that requires them to abide by the County Airport’s Terminal Use Protocols (TUP’s) and use the Main Terminal, not the private (Fixed Base Operator) side of the airport. JSX is appealing.

The one thing I can say for certain: the JSX attorneys won’t be challenging Nonna in fencing.


Dick Hubert, a retired television news producer-writer-reporter living in Rye Brook, has been honored with the Peabody Award, the DuPont Columbia Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Journalism Award.

 

Editor’s Note: This column, written by Dick Hubert, represents his opinion and not that of this newspaper.






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