After a plan languished for a couple of years while the City of Mount Vernon worked on its new vision for the downtown, Manhattan-based Alexander Development Group now is actively pursuing a plan to build a 21-story mixed-use building at 140 E. Prospect Ave. that would have 350 apartments and approximately 7,000 square feet of retail space. There would be 201 parking spaces. All of the apartments in the building would be priced at market rate. The developer is not asking for a PILOT agreement to lower its property taxes.

Alexander Development is asking the city to create a new Mount Vernon East TOD (transit-oriented development) High Density District for the property at 140, 146 and 152 E. Prospect Ave. The three lots comprise approximately 0.828 acre. In addition to a zoning petition, the developer has submitted a new environmental assessment form, conceptual site plans and related architectural documents.

In 2018, the developer floated a plan for a 30-story building at the site. In 2021, a modified plan with a 26-story building was prepared. Nicholas Alexander of the development firm said that after the City Council adopted the Downtown Vision Plan the application that had previously been presented to the city was modified to be in conformance with the Vision Plan. He described the site as being one-half block north of the Mount Vernon East train station.

According to developer Marc Alexander, “We’ll bring a dynamic to downtown Mount Vernon that doesn’t exist right now. Not a single unit is set aside for affordable housing. Why is that a good thing for Mount Vernon? Because the city has for 50 years pretty much only built affordable housing as multifamily housing.”

Marc Alexander said that Alexander Development’s recently opened multifamily building at 42 Broad St. W. in Mount Vernon was the first large scale market-rate project to have been approved recently in Mount Vernon and is now 75% rented.

“We want to pay full freight,” Alexander said. “Why do we want to pay full freight? Because the city needs the funds. The city’s got to operate somehow. The taxpayers of the city, the homeowners of the city, have experienced many, many years of significant increases in their taxes.”

Attorney Steven Wrabel of the White Plains-based law firm McCullough, Goldberger & Staudt LLP said the plan calls for providing 0.5 parking space for each studio and one-bedroom apartment and 0.75 parking space for each two-bedroom or larger unit. He explained that while the requested zoning would allow 18 stories, a height bonus is available that would allow the building to go up to 21 stories.

Marc Alexander said that the completed building would produce about $1 million a year in real estate taxes for Mount Vernon. He said that during the construction period, an estimated $5 million in fees and sales taxes would be produced for the city. He said that during the construction period they would try to purchase about $30 million in goods and services from local businesses and contractors. He said that the projected median income of residents at the building would be $125,000 a year and the residents would generate increased sales taxes for the city and new revenues for businesses in Mount Vernon’s downtown.