Recap of Reader's Digest Site Given

A group of three people representing or working for the owner of the site stressed the need for the town to lift a zoning restriction on the number on the number of commercial tenants allowed.

"We're all familiar with the beautiful corporate campus facilities that were built in Westchester during the last 50 years for single users, and this is a rare opportunity to have a creative, adaptive reuse of one of these facilitates," said John Marwell, a partner at Shamberg, Marwell, Davis & Hollis, PC, a firm that represents owner Summit/Greenfield.

The owner itself is a partnership between Summit Development and Greenfield Partners, a private equity firm, and purchased the property from Reader's Digest in 2004. It then leased space back, with its initial plans for the Chappaqua Crossing commercial and residential development making the assumption that the property's former owner would stay for 20 years, as per its lease.

Under the current restriction, which was put in place in 2005 by the town that replaced a single-tenant limit, only four commercial tenants are allowed on the site. One of them being at a minimum of 200,000 square feet, said David Walsh, director of asset management for Summit.

"The days of a 296,000 square foot tenant are over for at least the foreseeable future," said Walsh, referencing the amount of space that Reader's Digest currently rents.

The petition itself is not new, as calling for the elimination of the cap was first raised in August 2007.

Walsh also said that the group's analysis will need to change with Reader's Digest gone.

He also described the challenges they will face in breaking up the properties slated for commercial use, which will total 520,000 of the current 700,000 square feet of office space. 180,000 square feet will be demolished to make way for housing units on the northern and eastern sections of the site.

Walsh said that the 100, 300 and 400 numbered buildings will be easy to break up, but that the historic 1939 building with the cupola will be difficult. In an interview after the presentation, he said that its floor plate will be a challenge.

Also raised at the presentation was the issue of housing, with 278 units proposed, which would be a mixture of multistory buildings and townhouses. Two hundred and forty-six of them will fall under age restrictions that will only allow for people over 55 years old. In turn they will not be allowed to have children under 18.

Additionally, 56 units would be affordable housing under county guidelines, with 32 of them as workforce units, which was raised at the presentation. One person in the audience wondered if the county's housing settlement from last year would have an impact, to which the answer was that plans for the affordable units predated the settlement. 

The group present took time to respond to criticisms of the project. Marwell said that because the housing would mostly be age restricted, it would not overrun the schools with new children. He also said that the restriction is legally enforceable. 

Andrew Tung, who is a partner in Divney Tung Schwalbe, a company that is acting as project planners and engineers for the site, explained the potential impact of traffic, which was analyzed in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

He said that there will be less activity during peak office hours because of reduced space, but that Saturdays will see increased activity due to residential use. He also explained that traffic concerns could be helped with a proposed southbound turning land going from Bedford Road (Route 117) onto Roaring Brook Road. In addition, Tung said that a shuttle would be provided for people commuting to the train station from the site.

Asked about the traffic impact after the meeting, he said that it would increase during some parts of the day and decrease during others. He also said that it's difficult to make a simplified comparison of traffic, citing the change in use of the site.