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Commercial
New health
club at 1133
By JOHN GOLDEN
Corporate
executives at 1133 Westchester Ave. in White
Plains need not leave the building to work
up a sweat or unwind with a massage with
the recent opening of a 6,000-square-foot
fitness center there.
Commercial
Lender opens
branch in White Plains
By JOHN GOLDEN
Metrocities
Mortgage, a national direct lender and mortgage
broker based in Sherman Oaks, Calif., has
opened a branch office at 333 Westchester
Ave. in White Plains. The company has leased
3,500 square feet of space until 2011.
Residential
Ritzy digs
at affordable prices in White Plains
By JOHN GOLDEN
The
office manager at a downtown White Plains
law firm, Frank Simone had tired of the two-hour
cross-river auto crawl to his home in Rockland
County and the 6 a.m. starts from Nyack to
avoid the rush hour traffic.
Ask
the Advisers
BY GREG RAND
Note:
“Ask the Advisers” is a column offering
advice to business people concerned
about the economy and how it could
affect their bottom lines. A member
of The Business Council of Westchester
provides strategies in a certain area
of his or her expertise. For information,
call the council at 948-2110 or visit www.westchesterny.org.
The
recent volatility on Wall Street and
its rippling effect on the world markets
have nearly everyone on edge. But the
world is not collapsing. read more
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Commercial
Allstate
signs on at Tarrytown office center
By JOHN GOLDEN
Allstate
Corp., the nation’s personal insurance giant,
is a new tenant at RexCorp Realty L.L.C.’s
Tarrytown Corporate Center.
Stark expands
in Harrison
By JOHN GOLDEN
Stark
Business Solutions, a provider of full-time
and part-time office suites for professionals
and small businesses, has expanded its space
at W&M Properties’ 500 Mamaroneck Ave.
in Harrison just 18 months after signing
its initial lease at the site.
Steiner
to sport new city address
By JOHN GOLDEN
Brandon
Steiner, CEO of Steiner Sports Marketing
and Memorabilia Inc., will move his 90-employee
business in downtown New Rochelle early next
year – but not far. The company he started
in 1987 with $4,000 in capital and built
into a nearly $50 million-a-year enterprise
will remain a tenant in the city a displeased
and frustrated Steiner earlier had said he’d
abandon.
WCA moves
east by about a half-mile
By JOHN GOLDEN
A
strong relationship with the landlord and
attractive leasing terms led the Westchester
County Association to move its headquarters
last week to 1133 Westchester Ave. in White
Plains.
Residential
House sales,
prices slide down in county
By JOHN GOLDEN
Sales
of existing single-family houses in Westchester
County took a double-digit dip in both volume
and median price in October compared with
a year ago, according to the New York State
Association of Realtors.
Commercial
Real estate
pros urged to ride out economic storm
By JOHN GOLDEN
While
the credit market for commercial real estate
is “dysfunctional” and nearly dead, the fallout
from Wall Street has been opportune for regional
community banks still active in the market,
real estate professionals heard recently
in White Plains from banking and real estate
veterans.
Medical
offices open at St. Agnes site
By JOHN GOLDEN
North
Street Community L.L.C. has opened a 72,000-square-foot
medical office complex at 311 North St. on
the grounds of the former St. Agnes Hospital
in White Plains.
Residential
Senior housing
on track for January opening
By JOHN GOLDEN
Yonkers
will add to its affordable-housing stock
with the completion of Highland Avenue Senior
Apartments, a privately developed 88-unit
project due to open in January at 34 Highland
Ave.
Real estate
pros see trying times for region
By JOHN GOLDEN
The
unusual praise offered at the recent RealShare
conference in White Plains might be a sign
of the extraordinary economic times. Commercial
real estate and finance professionals discussing
the state of the office market in Westchester
County and Fairfield County, Conn., freely
credited the federal government for its bailout
efforts to avert a financial meltdown.
3 deals
at 333 Westchester
By JOHN GOLDEN
Owners
of 333 Westchester Ave., the former General
Foods headquarters in White Plains, have
inked three smaller lease deals that, following
Amalgamated Life Insurance’s move there from
Manhattan, brings rental activity at the
four-building office complex to more than
140,000 square feet in the last six months.
Two ‘big’
deals for county office market
By JOHN GOLDEN
Westchester
County’s flat commercial real estate sales
market has shown signs of life with two recent
class A office building deals in White Plains
and Tarrytown totaling approximately $130
million and 540,000 square feet.
Greenwich
Hospital expands in Rye Brook
By JOHGN GOLDEN
Greenwich
Hospital has doubled its office space in
Westchester County with a 35,000-square-foot,
10-year lease at 900 King St. in Rye Brook.
Eco-friendliness
gains among interior designers
By
MARY SUE IAROCCI
Lately,
the American Society of Interior Designers
has been raising awareness of sustainable
design through lectures and workshops on
the subject. How are interior designers going
green these days?
Q&A
for the corner office
Keeping it
‘green’ in Greenburgh
By ANGELIQUE CHIELLI
Kermit
the Frog once lamented, “It’s not easy being
green.” Lucky for the lime-colored amphibian,
these days “going green” seems to be everyone’s
prerogative. In the eco-friendly sense of
the term, of course.
Return of
the natives
Regional species are
in; lawns are out
By JIM GORDON
Landscaping
might seem like an afterthought to business
people concerned about the color of their
bottom line, but the outside of a business
creates the first impression for would-be
customers. And that impression can be green
and progressive in ways that show customers
a positive image while reducing the cost
of maintenance and providing a positive impact
on the environment.
The gospel
of green
Builders, engineers,
architects – even the archdiocese – vow to
go green
By ALEXANDER SOULE
Many
worshippers can recite by heart the second
line from Psalm 23, which begins “He makes
me lie down in green pastures.”
Pastors
may soon have “greener” churches to show
them.
In
June, the Archdiocese of New York quietly
became a member of the U.S. Green Building
Council (USGBC) – specifically its building
commission lodged at St. Joseph’s Seminary
in Yonkers that oversees construction and
renovation projects on church properties
throughout the region.
Candidates offer their
views on green initiatives
By KELLY LIYAKASA
Gas
prices and global warming are two issues
facing presidential candidates Barack Obama
and John McCain. The environment and “green
policies” are viable issues where the two
candidates differ in viewpoint. Here’s where
they stand: read more
Lawmakers
OK bill to cut greenhouse gas
By KELLY LIYAKASA
The
Westchester County Board of Legislators recently
approved a resolution to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions within the county.
Salient
green
Fringe movement enters
the board room
By MARY SUE IAROCCI
“With
energy prices skyrocketing and continuing
to go up, the biggest common problem that
we saw with homeowners and business owners
is that they’re afraid of the energy prices,”
said Frank Treglia, an executive director
along with John Urbanowicz. “We did our
research and trained ourselves in the building
sciences field to be able to really look
at the energy efficiency of both residential
homes and commercial property, and be able
to attack the common problems to help relieve
the high burden of high utility costs.”
Brokers
report ‘healthy’ market, but fewer leases
By JOHN GOLDEN
In
a shaky economy with flat or declining employment
numbers, commercial office tenants are taking
a “wait-and-see” approach this year when
signing new leases in Westchester. Landlords
have tried and largely succeeded in holding
on to leasing rates set during recent boom
years while offering tenants more generous
concession packages in a stagnant market.
At midyear, overall leasing activity in the
county was down nearly 30 percent from the
same period last year, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s
midyear report on the commercial real estate
market.
Real Estate Briefs
By MARY SUE IAROCCI
White
Plains-based New York Commercial Realty Group
(NYCRG) specializing in office, medical,
retail and industrial real estate in Westchester,
Rockland and the Bronx, closed eight deals
consisting of more than 100,000 square feet
within one month. Michael Rao, John Zappia
and Frank Rao collaborated for 100,000 square
feet of deals.
MTA
to buy White Plains building for $15.5
million
By BOB ROZYCKI
The
Metropolitan Transportation Authority is
paying $15.5 million for a building on North
Broadway in White Plains to consolidate operations.
It also plans to open an attached parking
garage to Metro-North Railroad commuters
using the overcrowded North White Plains
station.
Regional
residential report: Westchester, Dutchess
and Fairfield counties
By ANGELIQUE CHIELLI
WESTCHESTER
Though the popular belief is the
price of Westchester County homes has dropped,
the reality is that the market is relatively
stable, industry observers say.
DUTCHESS
Dutchess County's market is “healthy,”
according to Emily Craig, broker for Prudential
Serls Prime Properties in Fishkill.
FAIRFIELD
“The northern Fairfield County
real estate market is soft at present with
more sellers than buyers,” said John Casey,
Realtor-sales professional at Pandolfi
Properties Inc. in Danbury, Conn.
Apartments
celebrate vertical gains
By ANGELIQUE CHIELLI
Sept. 10, Yonkers Mayor Philip
A. Amicone, Arthur Collins, co-founding
principal of Collins Enterprises L.L.C.
and city officials saw a multistory Old
Glory at her finest, emerging from a
plastic tarp red, white and blue to signify,
as she has always done, something worth
a long look and even a bit of wonderment.
The vertical phase of a linchpin in city
development was over.
Walk
this way
New Rochelle unveils a remade, pedestrian-friendly
North Avenue
By BRYAN F. YURCAN
The city of New Rochelle celebrated
the completion of phase 1 of its North
Avenue Streetscape last week, the “College
District.”
Rent!
The fight to stem the young
professional drain
By BRYAN F.
YURCAN
For many young professionals
who grew up in Westchester and Fairfield,
Conn., counties, moving back here is
a desired, if not always attainable,
goal.
In
Orange County, ‘road to nowhere' helps
drive economy
By KATHY KAHN
Maureen Halahan of Orange County
Partnership laughs as she recalls the
initial reaction to Lou Heimbach's “road
to nowhere” when it was introduced more
than 25 years ago.
Stewart
Airport attracts a new office park
By KATHY KAHN
Everything's coming up Stewart?
It certainly appears that way, as another
developer has turned its attention to
the commercial possibilities evolving
around the soon-to-be fourth airport
in the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey's roster.
New
condos in Mount Vernon
By BRYAN F. YURCAN
A five-story condominium project
approved by the city of Mounty Vernon
is scheduled to begin construction in
November.
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