"We expect to break ground on this project (Bank Street Commons) by the end of June," Gilpatric told the 50 attendees of the session. He added that the first phase will consist of 250 rental apartments and approximately 1,200 sf of retail space.

The development calls for the construction of two, 21-story towers that will feature 500 rental apartments, and up to a 200-room hotel that will total approximately 90,000 sf that will be housed in a third building. The project will have two levels of underground parking. The company hopes to have the first tenants of its rental apartments move in by early 2003.

The second phase would involve another 250 rental housing units, Gilpatric said. The hotel would be built in the third phase. He said that the firm is currently in negotiations to select a hotel operator, but had not finalized any agreement to date.

While the firm has not set asking rents for the apartment units as yet, Gilpatric estimated that one bedroom apartments (725 sf) would run approximately $2,000 per month and two bedroom units (1,100 sf) would cost approximately $3,000 per month. A total of 15 of the units will be affordable units.

The development will be evenly divided between one bedroom and two bedroom rentals. Weinberg noted that rents in the region had escalated and that the development should attract renters who are tired of paying New York City rents as well as empty nesters in the Westchester County area.

The project site has been known as "the hole in the ground" because in the early 1980s, Jack Parker Corp. had proposed to build a hotel and did some excavation work to prepare the site for development. However, the hotel venture, along with a proposed office development and later a multiplex movie theater all failed to break ground.

The excavation hole had been seen by many as a testament to the problems the city of White Plains had experienced during the 1980s and most of the 1990s. Finally, after almost 20 years, the "hole in the ground" will be filled by this summer.

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John Jordan

John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.