History in the making

 

Out with the old, in with the new…well, except when it has historic value.

But the question is, who is the arbiter of things historic?

There are hundreds of historic buildings up and down the Hudson River and some even have plaques attached to prove their status.

But just because something is old, does it automatically make it historic?

That’s something that’s being debated in Yonkers. About two blocks from the waterfront, the Greyston Foundation wants to raze several buildings and put up affordable housing.

A noble gesture in these times as advocates for work force housing have continually hammered away at developers to include reasonably priced housing for underpaid public servants such as firefighters and police.

But preservationists think it would be a mistake to tear down the old buildings.
We disagree.

The buildings, complete with crumbling brick and broken windows, are eyesores and should have been torn down years ago.

Rehabbing old buildings for adaptive reuse is great as long as the costs are within reason.

Shelley Weintraub, Greyston Foundation’s vice president for real estate, said it would not be economically feasible to save and readapt the buildings.

“We own these properties. We have a history of historic preservation in Yonkers. Were we able to make that work, we would have done that in the first place,” she said.

That there is the bottom line. Greyston owns the buildings.

Since when does an owner have to kowtow to a group that has no interest in the property other than how it looks to them when they pass by in their car?

Greyston’s $36 million proposal includes a 12-story building with 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and a four-story parking garage. The upper floors would include 108 condos to be sold to Yonkers residents who meet the county’s affordable-housing income requirements.

“We think we are the solution,” Weintraub says.

Bring on the wrecking ball and let’s get things rolling.

 

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