New Rochelle Diner Manufacturer Wants to Build Near Home Depot

How do you like your eggs?

That could be asked frequently in the future if a proposal for a diner at Weyman Avenue and Main Street comes to fruition.

The City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on allowing the City Manager to enter into a contract to sell two city-owned lots to .

DeRaffele, a New Rochelle-based manufacturer of diners and restaurant facilities, wants to build and own a restaurant near the / complex.

Development Commissioner Michael Freimuth said the city solicited requests for proposals to develop the two lots and received responses from three different bidders that suggested eight variations of proposals.

He said after examining the proposals it was determined that DeRaffele's would "give the city the best bang for the buck for the real estate."

DeRaffele would combine two lots, eliminate a road in between them and construct a "prefabricated diner building and associated parking," according to the agreement term sheet.

The diner would be approximately 5,000 square feet, Freimuth said. The two lots combined would be about three-quarters of an acre.

The sale price would be $600,000, 10 percent of which would be paid as a binder on execution of the contract of sale.

Freimuth said the property would be sold "as is," and the developer would assume all risks and costs associated with closing, surveying, environmental remediation and site improvements.

He said this was the best possible use of the property from the proposals that were on the table, adding that the lots once sold will generate full taxes, which are estimated to be about $57,000 per year, split three ways between the city, school district and the county.

Freimuth said about 60 jobs would be generated by the diner. He said estimated yearly sales of $3.5 million would produce roughly $87,000 in sales tax revenue.

Mayor Noam Bramson said he was pleased with the proposal. He said he remembered the enormous volume of petitions the council received when the Thruway Diner closed. A is now on the diner's former site.

"We have an opportunity to bring back in a different form an institution that was much beloved, certainly in that neighborhood and other parts of New Rochelle," he said, "and at the same time put some cash in the city's coffers at a time when that is very much needed."

CLARIFICATION: This article was modified from its original version to include the day on which the City Council is scheduled to vote on a resolution authorizing the City Manager to enter into negotiations with DeRaffele.