French Hill School in Yorktown Fully Rented
After two years of being vacant, French Hill School in Yorktown is now fully rented to several businesses and organizations.
Eight tenants have already moved into the building on Baldwin Road and two more are expected to occupy space in October. The district has a rental clause in each of the contracts, which extend from one to 10 years, that can be invoked if the building ever needs to reuse it as a school.
French Hill was closed in the fall 2010 as part of a districtwide consolidation plan. The 450 students that attended the school were moved to one of the district’s other three elementary schools.
Annual revenue from renting the building is estimated to be $320,000, which will be used for its upkeep, including utilities, common charges and general maintenance. Any money left over will be utilized to reduce school taxes.
“I expect that within the first full calendar year beginning in January 2013 that the building will be completely self-sustaining, with no impact on the Yorktown taxpayers,” said Assistant Superintendent for Business Tom Cole.
Tenants that have already moved in are Eclipse Theatre Group, Energize NY, Laurie Kelleher Chiropractic, Northern Westchester Music School, Oxygen Volleyball Club, Soaring Eagle Physical Therapy, Yorktown Athletic Club and the Yorktown Youth Soccer Club. Coming in October are McGrath Property Management and a daycare provider.
Before the tenants occupied the building, demolition, remediation and restoration of the interior courtyard, which hadn’t been used in 10 years, was completed at a cost of approximately $254,000. The project was funded from contingency money from a 2006 capital bond.
“It was in complete disrepair,” Cole said. “Trees had buckled all the concrete.”
In 2005, the district spent about $100,000 to remediate 590 cubic yards of soil that was contaminated with PCBs stemming from window replacements two years earlier. The problem was discovered after resident Dr. Daniel Lefkowitz, a parent of a student at French Hill, raised questions after finding scraps of caulk from windows that had been removed. Tests revealed PCBs were 350 times above the federal limit.
The cleanup at the time was considered the first of its kind in New York State.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
