A New Proposal to Rescue Yonkers’ Waterfront

JOINING Yonkers’ quest to bring life to its ailing waterfront, a developer wants to turn the long-abandoned Glenwood Power Station into a contemporary art museum and a residential complex featuring world-class architecture.

The developer, Erik A. Kaiser, the founder and chief executive of the REMI Companies, based in Hoboken, N.J., has proposed using the deteriorating brick power plant as a base for an ultramodern, color-splattered art and condominium complex, at a cost he estimated at $250 million.

The London-based architect Will Alsop, whose signature style marks buildings in Europe, Asia and Canada, would design the project.

Under the proposal, the main residential tower will be 25 stories, and the complex will have 350 apartments and condominiums, priced for middle-market buyers and renters.

On March 30, at a meeting at the Hudson River Museum, Mr. Kaiser and Mr. Alsop answered questions about the proposal. Mr. Kaiser said the complex would be the state’s first carbon-free building and would use rooftop wind turbines to create enough energy to power the building. Surplus energy could be sold to power companies, he said. Solar panels would also be used in the building’s hot water system.

“Let’s attract people to Yonkers,” he said. “Let’s not build a building just because we can.”

In a telephone interview, Mr. Kaiser said that progress in environmentally friendly engineering would make the Glenwood project a prototype for future construction. “We will be able to create a new standard for what one environmental building can look like,” he said.

While designers hope to incorporate some of the existing power plant into the new building, Mr. Alsop said that most of the plant, including the smoke stacks, would have to be dismantled, despite its historic appeal.

“It’s a beautiful building,” Mr. Alsop said. “But it will fall down if no one does anything about it.”

Mr. Kaiser’s proposal — which he expects to introduce formally to the city in the next few months and is probably years away from groundbreaking — is the latest in a series of proposed ventures aimed at turning Yonkers’ lackluster waterfront into a destination for residents and visitors.

Already in the works is a sweeping $3.1 billion mixed-use plan for the waterfront area south of the power plant by the development partnership Stuever Fidelco Cappelli. That project, which is to include a minor league baseball stadium, is being spearheaded by a partnership that includes Louis R. Cappelli, a Yonkers native who has been involved in recent projects in White Plains and New Rochelle.

While communities usually promote such projects as urban redevelopment, there is some question whether Yonkers’ waterfront has ever been developed in the first place.

“They were talking about redevelopment way back in the late 1800s,” the City Council president, Chuck Lesnick, said at the museum meeting. “For better or worse, urban renewal passed Yonkers by.”

With builders now chomping at the bit, however, some residents warn that unwieldy development could bring too much too soon, blocking views of the Hudson River and clogging streets with traffic.

Vincent J. Wilson, a marketing executive with American Express who recently moved to Yonkers, said that while he welcomed development that would improve the area, he was concerned about its affect on affordable housing and traffic. “It’s a feeding frenzy here,” he said. “I think smart development is what we need.”

Barbara Segal, a local artist, said she was concerned about trading history for skyscrapers, but added that Mr. Kaiser’s plan intrigued her.

“I love incredible architecture,” she said. “I’m all for it to set us apart and push us into the future.”

By DIANA MARSZALEK

New York Times