PORT CHESTER, N.Y. -- The mayor of the compact, working-class village of Port Chester, N.Y., bordering Connecticut cannot resist the comparison. Like so many boosters of their own towns, he invokes a New York City borough's name as he describes changes in Port Chester over the past few years.
He calls it "the Brooklyn of Westchester County."
Downtown has become a magnet for food, with upscale eateries like Bartaco and Tarry Lodge, a Mario Batali restaurant, competing with a Brazilian steakhouse, a Peruvian cafe and many other ethnic restaurants. A refurbishment of the Capitol Theater music hall has kick-started village night life. And a rezoning of the area several years ago helped spur development of new apartment buildings aimed at young professionals, who can walk to the village's Metro-North rail station and get to Manhattan in about an hour.
"Millennials are moving here from the outer boroughs and other places because of the bang for the buck," said the mayor, Dennis Pilla. "The village is going through a transformation."
But the gentrifying of this former industrial center is also generating tension, particularly as the village considers its biggest development proposal yet. Starwood Capitol Group, of neighboring Greenwich, Conn., wants to build a $300 million, mixed-use development on an abandoned hospital campus at the edge of downtown and near Interstate 287.
The project, which is nearing the end of its environmental impact review process, is to consist of 90,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 217,000 square feet of office space, about 700 housing units aimed at millennials and those 55 and older, and a 135-room hotel, all around a large public square. Starwood purchased the 15.4-acre property about 10 years ago, but put off development when the economy faltered. It is seeking a zoning change that would double the allowable density on the site.
"This is a gateway project for Port Chester, which is really an up-and-coming urban place in the county," said Ken Narva, a managing partner at Street-Works Development, Starwood's lead consultant on the project.
While many residents are eager for redevelopment of the site that has been largely dormant since the hospital's shutdown in 2005, the proposal has also led to a coalition of labor unions and community groups, the Sustainable Port Chester Alliance, which is calling for Starwood to commit to a community benefits agreement. Such a deal might include a labor agreement with the construction trades, standards for local hiring, and a mandated percentage of affordable housing.
"We say, 'If you want to be able to double the size of your project, what does the community get out of it?'" said Christopher Calabrese, an organizer for the Communications Workers of America Local 1103, based in Port Chester, and a founder of the alliance.
Starwood has not yet agreed to meet with the alliance. In the meantime, the group has been pressing its case for stronger community benefits in public hearings and written comments on the plan. As part of its development plan, the company has proposed a one-time, upfront payment of $1 million to a fund for job training, housing or some other community need in return for the density increase. A consultant hired by the village to review the plan has recommended $2.4 million to $3.4 million.
Also proposed are reimbursement fees to the school district if the number of school-age children living in the development exceeds the number projected.
The company is seeking some tax breaks from the village's industrial development authority, including a 20-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes program to help compensate for what it has said are "extraordinarily high" redevelopment costs. The village's consultant agreed that some reduction in property tax payments is warranted for the project to be financially feasible.
Starwood estimates that the project will generate 1,800 construction jobs, and after completion, 970 continuing jobs.
That could be a much-needed boost for Port Chester, which has a population of 29,000 and has struggled for several decades. The median household income is around $56,000 -- less than half of that in neighboring Greenwich -- and about three-quarters of the students in the Port Chester-Rye School District participate in the free-lunch program, according to the village's comprehensive plan.
Once home to major manufacturers like Life Savers and Arnold Bread, Port Chester began to decline in the 1970s as the factories moved out. "In the 1980s, urban decay set in," Pilla said. "A lot of storefronts closed."
A new wave of immigrants subsequently poured in, mainly Hispanic, and their influence now defines Port Chester's downtown, which is dominated by restaurants serving Central and South American cuisine, as well as salons, small groceries and fish markets. As revitalization has become more evident, outside investors have become increasingly interested in Main Street property, but many longtime building owners are holding out, said Michael Rackenberg, a commercial broker in the Rye office of Houlihan Lawrence.
"The building owners think they're sitting on gold, and the investors, while bullish, are not going to pay exorbitant amounts," he said. "So there's kind of a stalemate there."
Looming in the background, toward the southern end of Main Street, along the Byram River, is the Waterfront, a large complex of big-box stores and a cineplex that represents an earlier effort at revitalization. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the village used eminent domain to condemn dozens of properties and free up land for the project's developer.
Joan Grangenois-Thomas, an alliance member and spokesman who has lived in Port Chester for 27 years, said she regrets that she did not pay attention when that project was under discussion. Now, she said, she is concerned that the focus on creating housing to attract millennials is overshadowing the housing needs of existing residents.
"We don't want Brooklyn," she said.
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