Politics & Government

Sleepy Hollow Mayor Announces Former GM Site Has a Developer

When it’s usually Tarrytown that gets all the development love, Sleepy Hollow may see an exciting 2014.

Mayor Ken Wray announced at Tuesday night’s board meeting that General Motors has chosen a developer for the nearly 100-acre brownfield gaping alongside our lighthouse. 

Some residents, burned by this news before, may say they’ll believe it when they see shovels in the ground, but the modest group of Trustees and village officials present despite the Polar Vortex temperatures outside were applauding.

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After would-be developer Roseland pulled out from a promising plan in the '90s, there was the litigation from neighboring village Tarrytown which Sleepy Hollow blamed for GM's silence. Now, with the air clear between the villages, per their official agreement in August, a developer announcement arrived as anticipated.

“We look forward to working with them very closely in the next few months,” Wray said, specifying that GM had selected a partnership between two firms, Diversifed Realty Advisors, a New Jersey-based real estate company doing many east coast projects, and SunCal, a California-based developer with projects more “nation-wide.” 

Find out what's happening in Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollowwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“It’s been a long sixteen-seventeen years,” Wray concluded.

After so many of years of stagnation, the riverfront promises to change fast: River’s Edge is getting higher daily; more cranes arrive constantly with the giant Left Coast Lifter en route for what will certainly be five-year bridge view like no other. 

In other big news, the water supply deficit that posed a problem for any new development approval should see rising levels soon as Mt. Pleasant has recently approved plans for the new construction of a reservoir tank on Rockefeller land.

The announcement of the GM developer followed a lengthy presentation from a fire department consultant on the need to upgrade or replace the one tower engine. What the mayor referred to as "interesting news" emerging in this discussion was the consultant's expert opinion that the current fire department fleet would be more than adequate to service the needs of a growing demographic. 

It's the volunteers, he said, that are harder to come by.

The looming development also highlights that long-discussed needed upgrade to a Master Plan for the village. Trustee Karin Wompa announced that the old one, though dated, has been unearthed. This document should help at least provide a framework to launch from as the village readies itself for the downtown revitalization that will surely coincide with this brownfield development at the end of Beekman. 

But don't call it a brownfield. The state Department of Environmental Conservation announced at the end of November that the last stages of clean up of the east (60 Continental Street) and west parcels (199 Beekman Avenue) of the former GM lot “to address contamination has been complete.”

To read the full report on the final recent remediation steps of river dredging, dirt restoration, and installation of a cover system click here or see attached PDF.


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