Urstadt Biddle Sells Westchester Pavilion for Nearly $57 Million
John Jordan | March 2, 2017
WHITE PLAINS—The former home of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors—the Westchester Pavilion Mall—has changed hands and is expected to be demolished shortly for a new high-rise mixed-use development.
Greenwich, CT-based Urstadt Biddle Properties sold the vacant existing 185,000-square-foot Westchester Pavilion mall to Maple and Broadway Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of Lennar Corp. through its Lennar Multi-Family Communities, LLC subsidiary, for $56.6 million. The deal was announced on March 1.
In Sept. 2015 the Westchester County Industrial Development Agency Board granted incentives totaling more than $14 million in sales and mortgage tax exemptions for the project to be developed by Lennar Multifamily Communities. Last month the City of White Plains granted approval for the project.
The project calls for 756,300 square feet of residential space and approximately 95,600 square feet of retail space. The project will create 2,895 construction jobs and 72 permanent jobs. The development will feature 707 residential units, 10% of which have been earmarked as affordable.
Willing L. Biddle, UBP’s president and CEO, said Urstadt Biddle acquired the Westchester Pavilion in 2002 and operated it for more than 10 years as a power center mall. In 2013, with the expiration of certain large pending leases, the firm concluded that the property had great potential to be redeveloped into a much larger retail/residential mixed-use project.
“This dream could not have become a reality without the cooperation and support of Mayor Thomas Roach and the White Plains Common Council who understood our plan and ultimately supported a re-development of the property to include two high-rise buildings containing over 700 apartments above 75,000 square feet of lower floor retail,” said Biddle.
He said that with the sale to Lennar Multi-Family Communities, the Miami-based developer would follow through on his firm’s dream of “building a beautiful, new mixed-use complex that will bring new life and vitality to the southeast end of White Plains.”
He added, “We know the site has tremendous potential, and we expect that Lennar’s project will be a success for the community. The sales price is a substantial premium over the price that we paid for the property, and when this premium is combined with the strong annual return we made operating the property, it is clear that the Pavilion was a very good investment for our company.” The company acquired the 99% leased shopping center from the State of Wisconsin Retirement Fund for $39.9 million in December 2002.
Officials with Lennar Multifamily could not be reached for comment at press time.
The Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors relocated from its offices at the Westchester Pavilion and officially opened its new headquarters last July in more than 14,000 square feet of space at the Source at White Plains.
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