Senior developer tries again in White Plains

A national developer of housing for senior citizens who need assistance with daily living hopes its second time will be the charm as it tries again to build in White Plains.

Sunrise Senior Living Inc. envisioned the county seat as the perfect spot for its first Westchester development in 1997,

Now, Sunrise wants to build, near White Plains Hospital Center, 85 assistedliving apartments in a six-story building above a 700-space underground municipal garage the city is planning for a site bordered by Maple and Longview avenues and Cromwell Place.

"This is still at the conceptual stage," said Alfred B. DelBello of the White Plains law firm DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Tartaglia Wise & Wiederkehr L.L.P, which represents Sunrise. "Sunrise had never lost interest in White Plains. It has been looking about for a site. It has been hard to find a proper site for the project."

DelBello spoke a day after Sunrise representatives outlined their conceptual plan during a Dec. 18 work session of the city's Common Council. A formal application has yet to be filed.

In addition to the apartments, which would be leased at yet-to-be-determined rents, the development would include beds for seniors with Alzheimer's disease.

The cost of the entire development has not been calculated. The garage alone could cost as much as $12.95 million, based on the projected $18,500 that would be needed to build each parking space, said George Gretsas, executive officer to Mayor Joseph M. Delfino.

Of the garage's 700 spaces, 300 would be municipal spaces and another 300 would be set aside for use by White Plains Hospital Center. Fifty spaces each would be earmarked for Sunrise and the law firm Cuddy Feder L.L.P.

Part or the project site. consists of three parcels Cuddy & Feder would sell to the city. The proceeds would reduce the amount the city will ultimately have to borrow to build the garage, Gretsas said.

Gretsas said the project would benefit the city by solving three problems at once: The city's need for more parking near its downtown as a $1.3 billion revitalization effort takes shape; the city's desire to see development of housing for senior citizens; and the hospital's need for more parking, especially since its Dickstein Cancer Treatment Center opened in 1998.

"It's a win-win-win solution that satisfies everyone involved," Gretsas said.

The proposed White Plains complex would be Sunrise's third in Westchester. Sunrise operates the 85-unit Sunrise at Fleetwood development in Mount Vernon on Route 22 (500 North Columbus Ave.), and is constructing another 85-unit complex in Yonkers, on Crisfield Street east of Central Park Avenue.

Headquartered in McLean, Va., Sunrise operates about 350 senior housing communities that house more than 40,000 residents in 33 states and Washington, D.C., as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom. During the first three quarters of 2003, Sunrise saw its net income grow by more than one-third over the previous year, to $46.75 million on revenues that more than doubled during that period, to $824.5 million.