New Mixed-Use Plan in Works for Condemned P’ville Building

A Washington Avenue building that was condemned after being abandoned by a developer may get a second lease on life as a mixed-use structure under new ownership.

The three-story building located at 98 Washington Ave. has sat dormant since the village condemned it in 2011 after construction on a planned residential/commercial use stalled.

Village Building Inspector Robert Hughes said the initial project was adopted in 2004 and a building permit was issued in 2005, but the project ground to a halt. The vacant building was condemned to prevent anyone, particularly youths, from entering the structure.

“It’s never been occupied,” Hughes said. “It’s not a legal building. The owner was never given a certificate of occupancy.”

The original plan was to have retail on the first floor, office space on the second floor and apartments on the third.

“They got building permits and got very far along, and for various reasons it stopped,” he said. “We don’t get involved in why a project stopped; we just look for compliance.”

At the Sept. 9 Pleasantville Planning Commission meeting, representatives for a new ownership group, York Funding LLC, appeared before the board to discuss its plan to build 14 apartments on the second and third floors while keeping the ground floor for business use.

The project’s representative, architect Jorge B. Hernandez of ARQ. HT LLC in Ossining, told commission members last week that the most recent plans call for 10 one-bedroom apartments and four two-bedroom apartments, with 19 allotted parking spaces for tenants. The applicant has already received all necessary variances from the village Zoning Board of Appeals, according to minutes from the May Planning Commission meeting.

Two of the 14 planned apartments will be reserved for affordable housing, as required under village code. The affordable units must be mixed in with the rest of the units and not set aside in a separate location.

Village Administrator Patricia Dwyer said that under the village code projects containing at least 10 residences must have 10 percent of its units as affordable housing.

“We don’t have lot of opportunities in Pleasantville to look at development in the downtown that involves mixed use, so it’s rather exciting for us to see that there is some out there,” Dwyer said. “So we’d like to see this project move in the right direction.”

The building incurred infrastructure damage from vandalism, including damage to the electrical and gas systems, before the bank took control of the property and properly secured the grounds. Hughes said the new owners would be rebuilding most of the structure.

“Even if someone bought that building and wanted to pick up where they left off and occupy it, I would have asked for the whole building to be completely gutted and redone,” he said.

The building department will allow the steel frame to remain if it is certified to be completely intact, Hughes said.

The project is a long way from completion, with plans still being worked on and the more expensive construction work still far off.

“I’m expecting a full, detailed code compliant set of drawings for that building, and I haven’t seen anything close to that yet,” Hughes said.

The planning board will hold a public hearing on the project on Sept. 30. Hughes said he did not anticipate much negative feedback.

“It’s an eyesore, in a sense, for the village,” he said. “They would rather see it alive and going forward.”