New Rochelle City Council to Vote on Advancing Review of Echo Bay

The New Rochelle City Council will vote Tuesday on a memorandum of understanding whose end result could be a new waterfront development in Echo Bay.

"This is a very significant step that is before us," said Mayor Noam Bramson, "but it is far from the final step."

The city has proposed entering into an agreement with Forest City Residential that would allow the developer to begin an environmental review of a proposed development on the 11-acre site located on the waterfront.

Forest City has proposed building 200-300 residential units and 25,000-50,000 square feet of retail at what is now City Yard on East Main Street.

Abe Naparstek, Forest City Residential's vice president, said the retail space had been upped from 25,000 square feet to square footage up to 50,000.

He said his company continues to revise its plans and now have decided to add a second level of parking that could accommodate more retail space.

"It's not how much retail can you build," Naparstek said, "it's how much retail can you lease and be successful. We don't know the exact number, because there are a lot of moving pieces."

Under the proposed agreement, the city will deal exclusively with Forest City in connection with developing the site for a period of time not to exceed 18 months.

If the agreement is approved, both the city and the developer will be under time constraints.

The city will have one month after the agreement has been executed to draw up a request for proposals for the Armory. The city must also approve an outline—or scope—for the developer to follow in its environmental review in two months. A design for the relocated City Yard would have to be completed within four months after the MOU is executed and financing arranged two months after that.

After the scope is approved, Forest City would have six months to come up with a draft environmental impact statement, and then two months after that to enter into an agreement with the city to purchase the affected parcels.

The environmental study will be paid for by Forest City. The developer will also be required to set up an escrow account initially at $75,000 to cover any of the citys third-party costs.

Council members wondered whether they would get information on financing the proposed move of the City Yard to city-owned property on Beechwood Avenue.

Councilman Louis Trangucci, R-District 1, adding $1 million to $14 million of debt service anually, even if it didn't happen until 2014, was a concern.

"Can the city afford an additional $1 million onto that $14 million?" he said.

City Manager Charles Strome III said that the council would have a financial plan presented to them if the memorandum of understanding was approved.

"Ultimately, it is this council's determination whether they can accept that," he said. "But we have to develop the plan, but we can't get to that today."