GM, Developers Still Negotiating: Wray

Sleepy Hollow Mayor Ken Wray recently gave residents an update on the progress of the General Motors site development announced in January.

He said the partnership of Diversified Realty Advisers and SunCal is still negotiating with GM. The next step will be for them to bring an initial site plan to the Planning Board. 

Here's the full text:

"As many of you are aware, working with General Motors to resolve issues at the site has been a long, hard slog.  Negotiations, tests, public hearings, lawsuits, permits, remediation efforts, and more lawsuits have been going on for well over a decade.

When I was elected Mayor five years ago, the broad outline for the site development had been established and voted on by the Board of Trustees: 1,177 residential units a hotel, new commercial space and a significant addition to our park land along the Hudson River.  GM was also in bankruptcy proceedings, placing the entire project in limbo. When GM emerged from bankruptcy I reengaged them. We had very limited negotiating room given where we were in the process, but we were able to make a few, significant changes. One of them will have a profound and long-term impact on the Village: the change in the mix of residential units from mostly rental to mostly ownership. Condominiums pay twice the real estate taxes, for both Village and school, as same-valued rental units.

The Village Board granted GM a Special Permit in 2011. That permit gave General Motors one year to identify a developer in order to keep the process moving forward.  However, the clock on the one-year period would stop if a lawsuit was initiated by a third party.  Enter Tarrytown, which immediately brought suit.  After several failed attempts by Tarrytown to use the courts to challenge Sleepy Hollow’s Special Permit – and to block the project – I reached out to Tarrytown Mayor Fixell as Tarrytown was heading toward yet another appeal. Their appeal had almost no chance of being successful but would have delayed the project for at least another year. A settlement was negotiated that cost Sleepy Hollow nothing and persuaded Tarrytown to drop its legal action. This settlement was subsequently authorized by both Village boards.  After two years, the clock began ticking again in September 2013.

Early this year we learned that General Motors had reached an agreement with a developer to move forward. The developer is a partnership of Diversified Realty Advisers, a New Jersey- based, east coast real estate company and SunCal, a California-based real estate developer with a nationwide portfolio. Their final negotiations with General Motors should conclude soon.  I have already had several meetings with the developer and am looking forward to working closely with them on getting this project underway. The next step is for the developer to present its initial site plan for approval by our Planning Board.  This will be a public process; to ensure that, we will televise those Planning Board meetings."