Renaissance Harrison project would create hundreds of apartments close to Wegmans
HARRISON – Hundreds of new luxury apartments, as well as workforce housing and triplex villas, are proposed as a mixed-use, live-work-play development close to the popular Wegmans supermarket.
Renaissance Harrison, a proposed 736-unit project, including apartments and villas, would be built on the 28-acre, 80 West Red Oak Lane site of the former Renaissance Westchester hotel. It would include indoor and outdoor swimming pools, fitness centers, tennis courts, fire pits, and an outdoor amphitheater, according to a statement outlining the proposal.
The housing is aimed at young professionals and older adults, and is part of a shift in the area in recent years away from office complexes and hotel spaces to new housing, the supermarket, and a Lifetime Fitness. The development would also include 2,500 square feet of retail.
"This really is the last piece, this 28-acre site, to complete what has been almost, I would say, a revolutionary reimagining" of that area, Seth Mandelbaum, the applicant's lawyer, told the Planning Board during a Sept. 14 presentation.
Harrison: Renaissance Westchester Hotel has closed
Schools: Rethinking Regents exams: These 10 area educators will help change NY graduation standards
Harrison: Police officer retires after larceny arrest
Constructed in two phases, Renaissance Harrison would have north and south quads. Neither is proposed to exceed 380 units, with a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom luxury apartments, according to the statement.
There would be a mix of two-, three- and six-story buildings constructed in the two phases, Stuart Lachs, of architectural firm Perkins Eastman, told the Planning Board. Most of the parking would be in garages under the buildings.
The developers project the proposal would create hundreds of construction and permanent jobs and generate about $30 million in yearly tax revenue for the town and the Harrison Central School District, according to the statement.
Also proposed are gathering spaces called the Commons and the Mansion. The latter, a 1905 Normandy-style, former home of architect John Merven Carrere, would be preserved, renovated and incorporated into the design. Carrere's firm Carrere and Hastings designed Manhattan’s New York Public Library.
"There will be a selection of gathering spaces for the residents at the courtyards within the residential buildings, at the Commons, at the Mansion," Lachs said.
There would be some seven woodsy acres with walking paths. And the development would also have some retail space.
The town Planning Board will be the town’s lead agency for environmental review and consideration of the site plan.
'Teardrop' transformation as office spaces decline
The former 348-room Renaissance Westchester hotel, built in 1978 under a different name, closed in November 2021.
The proposed Renaissance Harrison site is in an area close to the Windward School, the new 421-unit Carraway housing development, another 450-unit housing development, as well as Wegmans, and a medical facility project that's underway.
Slated to design the new development are architects Perkins Eastman, Moore Ruble Yudell, Sasaki and Studio Valerius. The developers say the designs would evoke Westchester County's historic Tudor and Arts & Crafts architectural styles.
The developers see Renaissance Harrison adding to an emerging area known as the 'Teardrop' − a section bordered by Interstate 287, the Hutchinson River Parkway and Interstate 684.
“The proposed 28-acre community will be unlike any other development in Westchester. It will adhere to 21st-century standards of walking and biking, sustainability, and respect for the property’s outstanding natural landscape,” Leonard Glickman, Rose Equities’ principal, said in a statement, adding: “Renaissance Harrison makes sense for the Teardrop neighborhood. In 2013, the Town of Harrison adopted an updated Master Plan that envisioned a mix of new uses in the Teardrop, including multi-family residential.”
From 1972 to 1988, there were 4.5 million square feet of commercial office space built along the so-called Platinum Mile − which runs roughly along Westchester Avenue − in Harrison, Mandelbaum said. At the trend's height, in 1984, about 60% of Harrison's tax revenue came from the office buildings along the corridor, which spanned White Plains to Rye Brook.
By 2013, the share of Harrison's tax revenue from the offices was down to 18%, as corporate downsizing occurred after the 2008 recession.
'Quality of life' emphasized
Garden Communities and Rose Equities said in the statement they expect to own Renaissance Harrison for multiple generations.
Rose Equities and Garden Communities are doing the 260-luxury-unit The Residence at Main, in Trumbull, Connecticut. They are also doing development in California’s Orange and Los Angeles counties.
Garden Communities owns and manages more than 50,000 apartments and more than 25 million square feet of retail, office and hotel space. The company and its subsidiaries offer home rentals in Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.
“Quality of life is our priority, and we are emphasizing this ideal with large living spaces. We envision amenities that will thrill the spirit and soothe the soul. Our idea is to deliver an unprecedented residential lifestyle that reflects the surrounding communities’ tastes and expectations,” Scott Loventhal, of Garden Communities, said of the Harrison proposal in the statement.
Michael P. McKinney covers northern Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Valley for the Journal News and USA Today Network.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Harrison apartments near Wegmans would be built in proposal
