Forest City Breaks Ground on $600M-Plus Project

YONKERS-Although site clearing work began months ago, Forest City Ratner Cos. officially broke ground on its 1.2 million-sf Ridge Hill mixed-use project here on Wednesday. Company officials reported that the firm has signed lease deals with Banana Republic, New York & Company, National Amusements Cinema, Whole Foods Market and L.L. Bean. National Amusements will operate a 12-screen, 3,000-seat multi-plex cinema in 67,000 sf of space; Whole Foods Market has signed on to open a 62,000-sf store.

L.L. Bean has signed a lease for 25,000 sf and will open its first Westchester County store and only its second in New York State. Fashion retailers Banana Republic and New York & Company have signed leases for 9,000 sf and 6,400 sf respectively.

Bruce Ratner, chairman and CEO of Forest City Ratner Cos. tells GlobeSt.com that “it is a great project. It does a few things. First of all it provides about 4,000 permanent jobs to the City of Yonkers, which is great. Second is the tax base–$62 million a year to Westchester County (at full build-out) and most importantly $24 million a year to the City of Yonkers.” Ridge Hill, which sits on 81.4 acres across the New York State Thruway from Stew Leonard’s, will feature retail; restaurants; cinema and other entertainment uses; 1,000 apartments, including 200 units earmarked for residents 55 years and older and 135 units of affordable housing; a hotel; and conference center. The property also currently contains 154,400 sf of existing office and research related space.