Urban Opportunity Demonstration Project

Jonathan Rose Companies is advising nine of the largest municipalities in the Lower Hudson Valley Region of New York on downtown, transit oriented, urban revitalization strategies and redevelopment projects. The designated municipalities include: Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, White Plains, Port Chester, Peekskill, Beacon, Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie. Partnered with the Pace Land Use Law Center, Jonathan Rose Companies is providing redevelopment and revitalization strategies to the municipalities that have a combined population of a half million, over fteen percent of whom live at or below the poverty level. Sponsored by a grant from the Metropolitan Opportunity Unit of The Ford Foundation, our work with the municipalities is intended to demonstrate how an informed predevelopment and project feasibility process can in uence the creation of livable, equitable and sustainable neighborhoods in older towns and cities.

Specific projects covered under the scope of the grant include a transit-oriented development strategy for the Mount Vernon West station area, a transit-served neighborhood with a compelling combination of underutilized properties, redevelopment potential, economic development opportunities; and a redevelopment strategy for the New Rochelle station area.

The nine municipalities of the Lower Hudson Valley have committed to working together to create a regional approach to development that considers the links that tie them to the same regional marketplace, infrastructure and environmental networks. The work is intended to build from conversations initiated at the Mayors Redevelopment Roundtable, a quarterly convening of mayors and other municipal leaders about local and regional challenges and opportunities such as green development, blighted properties, transit oriented development, and motivating the marketplace.