Yet he says things started to change with Mayor Delfino took office, stating, “We can't survive by being stagnant. We need to grow. We saw huge changes with residential, retail, restaurants starting to grow. That's spreading throughout the county.”

Ellman stressed that while Westchester has been a great traditional single-family haven, “that's not the reality of today. Today you've got an aging boomer population that's starting to downsize and the Millennials, who want a more active lifestyle.” The South end of Stamford, CT is a good model to follow, he noted. “We need to build more modestly priced, good quality multifamily for younger people. We have a great quality of life, good transportation and an educated workforce. Those are great bones on which you can build.”

The solution to a lot of those issues, asserted Ellman, is less government: “I always thought we had too much government in Westchester County; that's why taxes are so high. The solution to a lot of the issues is basically, less government—the same services but with fewer people, just by unifying government departments.”

The good thing, he added, is that the government attitude is beginning to change. Harrison and White Plains, for instance, are starting to rezone areas once permitted for office parks. “Real estate is generating taxes, economy is growing and big tenants are coming into the county,” he said. “In order to keep doing that, we have to be welcoming. We have to provide more multifamily housing so people can afford to live here, and we have to deal with the aging building stock. The future for the County is bright. People are starting to understand we can't just sit still for the past 40 years and remain successful.”

Government officials are trying as well. Westchester County Deputy County Executive Kevin J. Plunkett admitted that living in Westchester can be tough for the younger generation, and the taxes are high. “What we need to do is turn the ship around, and that takes a while,” he stated during the Town Hall Meeting at RealShare. “We have an open door policy—we want people to come in and tell us what we can do. [Westchester County Executive] Rob Astorino always says we don't create jobs; we help the creators of jobs. We can provide assistance and incentives to companies looking to come here.”

To do that, officials needed to create a climate where businesses felt welcome, he explained. One thing the County government did was work with the investor and commercial real estate community to repurpose properties in Westchester. That is, to understand the days of the single corporate tenant owning properties, such as IBM, was over. “We had to let the business community know that if they wanted to stay or expand in Westchester, we'd be there to help with incentives,” said Plunkett.

Business groups have responded as well. Marissa Brett, executive director of economic development for the Westchester County Association, a business membership association that's been around for over 60 years, says the group has been “laser focused” on two areas over the past few years: economic development and healthcare. “We realized we couldn't rest everything on government because it doesn't have the resources to do everything we needed,” she said.

Westchester had what she termed a “six-million-square-foot problem,” referring to the outdated, vacant office space once languishing in the market. Once they understood that the space wasn't going to be occupied by traditional office tenants, the community had to look for different uses, specifically, mixed-use development to bring economy back to Westchester. The second step was to market the County to promote the opportunities that exist here. The WCA kicked off a marketing program to promote different towns within the County, not only on a local and national basis, but also internationally.

“One of things I'm most proud of is accelerating and repurposing Westchester now,” Brett said. “The future of Westchester lies in entrepreneurial community.” So the WCA reached out to commercial real estate owners, and those who teamed up with the association have signed on to offer new tenants one year of free rent, and subsequent years are graduating discounts to market-rate rents, for select companies. So far, the association has selected seven companies to incentivize, located throughout the county. They are now “thriving and growing.” Some office space has also been converted to be healthcare and life sciences use. “Our mission is to create communities of live, work and play,” she said. “Whatever we need to do to make that happen, we'll do.”

Other speakers on the Town Hall Panel, titled “The Future of Westchester County” included moderator Howard E. Greenberg, president of Howard Properties Ltd.; John M. Flannery, a partner with the law firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP; Jeremy Leventhal, managing partner with Faros Properties LLC; and Kevin McCarthy, a vice president with CBRE.