The word going around City Hall is that the City of New Rochelle is considering a new location for the Department of Public Works Yard currently located at 224 East Main Street.
City officials have explored the possibility of acquiring the old Charles Sadek Imports warehouse, a 152,000 square feet facility at 125 Beechwood Avenue near the Beechwoods Cemetery and the Amtrak rail lines.
The property has been on the market for about a year and is expected to sell for between $5mm to $7mm. A prior owner of the property was Greis Reproduce, a machinery company.
New Rochelle Development Commissioner Luiz Aragon, reached by email, declined to comment.
For years, the City has planned on moving the DPW Yard to a Beechwood Avenue location under the New York State Thruway. The site is currently used as a leaf transfer station.
If the 125 Beechwood site were acquired by the City, the currently owned Beechwood site would remain a leaf transfer site. That location was purchased for $5 million, half of which went to purchase the land and the other half to purchase a highway billboard sign.
A nearby highway billboard sign reportedly generates $250,000 to $300,000 in advertising revenue. The sign acquired by the City of New Rochelle was torn down; had the sign been left in place the City would have generated over $1.5 million in revenue, sources say.
It Is Folly to Move City Yard to Beechwood
No matter what, it is folly to move City Yard to Beechwood. It is best off staying where it is.
Has the Planning Board at all, considered and reported on the associated, proposed, move of City Yard to Beechwood?
If moved, City Yard should be located further north, more central to New Rochelle, such as the site IKEA almost moved to near City Park.
There is insufficient access for vehicles to travel from Beechwood to eastern, central and northern New Rochelle, although it would be an excellent site for servicing Pelham.
If New Rochelle were to contract to profitably service the Town of Pelham’s Sanitation and Public Works needs, and to use Pelham’s streets to access northern New Rochelle, only then would it make sense to move City Yard to Beechwood.
New Rochelle should make an offer to Pelham, to provide Public Works, Sanitation and Fire Department services, at a profit to New Rochelle, and which would probably also reduce Pelham’s costs. The only way to avoid perpetually escalating taxes, is for our government to run profitably, and to reduce redundant services, as I have described here.
I can tell you, I sometimes
I can tell you, I sometimes drive a truck that is parked on that site. The street is narrow and often difficult for trucks to pass by one another. In the rain, water pours through the drain holes on the thruway and onto the site. To think, that the City is going to kick taxpaying tenants out of there to build a new city yard is indeed a folly. The problem is, they already spent $7 mil to buy the property and the chances of them finding anyone to sell to are slim and none. Nonetheless, we are getting it, like it or not.
5 million dollars to stage leaves and stumps
So you are saying the City of New Rochelle paid 5 million dollars to stage leaves and stumps?
Now they are considering another 7 million for another building due to the fact that the building they bought is not really ideal for moving of the City Yard?
You say that the original Beechwood Ave property had a revenue stream of 250K-350Kper year and they took down the billboard?
The entire group should be at least be brought up on Stupidity charges if nothing else.
I bet you the State was
I bet you the State was laughing all the way to bank when the City paid $7 million for that property. I got some swamp land in Louisiana they might be interested in.