Simone, president and owner of Simone Development Companies, was the keynote speaker on Thursday, March 21 at a meeting of the Westchester County Board of Realtors Commercial Investment Division held in White Plains.
Commenting on the pending deal at his firm's 460,000-sf mixed-use office/laboratory project in the Northeast Bronx, he says, "We hope to make an announcement in the next couple of days."
He adds that 250,000 sf of space is the subject of negotiations with a number of prospective tenants at the Bronx site. Simone would not release any further details regarding the pending lease transaction.
The company has all but completed the demolition of the inside shell of the buildings at the complex and is now driving piles to extend the facility in order to increase the size of the complex from its existing 330,000 sf to more than 460,000 sf. The property was formerly a state-owned psychiatric and dormitory facility.
That work will involve the first phase of the project that will cost $40 million to complete. The company eventually plans to spend a total of $100 million at Hutchinson Metro Center and build out as much as one million sf of office/laboratory space there, Simone notes.
In addition to its work on the office/laboratory component, Simone reveals that the company is in discussions with a number of hotel chains for a 150 room-200 room hotel/conference center at the 18-acre site located between Westchester Ave., and Pelham Parkway.
The company is bullish on the prospects for the development and expects to cater to biotechnology/biomedical concerns since the facility is located nearby three Bronx hospitals (Jacobi, Montefiore and Albert Einstein).
The real estate investment and development firm, which has a portfolio of 85 buildings totaling more than three million sf in Long Island, the Bronx, Westchester and Fairfield County, CT., has also recently submitted plans with the Town of Harrison to build a new 48,000 sf office building at its Harrison Executive Park in Westchester County. The complex, located off I-287, currently consists of three buildings that total 155,000 sf.
Simone says that the company hopes to obtain approvals in the near future and will begin construction once it has pre-leased at least 50 percent of the property.
He also told attendees of the CID session that the firm is currently looking to acquire additional properties in the region, particularly in the five boroughs of New York City and in Southern Westchester County.
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John Jordan
John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.
