Will Jeffersonistas buy your home?

Here is what JPI is saying about buying vs. renting at its newest development in Farmingdale on Long Island across from the Farmingdale LIRR station.

While we have heard some local residents posit that Jeffersonistas will buy their home, given the  pitch in the link below, it seems this might be magical thinking. While there are always trade offs in buying or renting, do you know anyone who is truly prosperous as a renter?  Notably, the rents in Jefferson Station in Farmingdale are quite high so the chance to save for a downpayment are attenuated.


True long term wealth has always been property based. Last we checked,  land is a finite resource.

"Here are our reasons to rent vs buy....

https://www.farmingdaleplaza.com/reasons-to-rent-vs-buy/

School Math

 According JPI's website, the  cost of educating an Ardsley School District  student is $24,545.00.

However, four years ago in connection  with its comments regarding the draft environment statement filed by the developer in connection with the Rivertowns Square project, the Ardsley School Board stated the actual amount spent per pupil for the 2010–2011 school year was $27,691 based on a total general fund expenditure of $56,656,761 for 2046 students.

This amount did not include the cost of additional bus service to transport students to the Ardsley schools and the decrease in both out of district tuition, state aid and interest.

As anyone who has a student in the school district knows, class sizes are now in excess of  Board of Education guidelines and school enrollment has bumped up considerably. Yet taxes cannot be easily raised because of the tax cap.

 Obviously, in 2015-2016 the cost of educating a student in the District has increased and will continue to increase.

 Even if only 32 students live at The Jefferson (as JPI contends), this translates into an immediate $100,000 tax loss to the District  less any minor amounts of sales tax increases it may receive from the 'live work play" Jeffersonistas who JPI says will be living in its development. However, the sales tax revenue will most likely be offset by the increased costs of busing and adding additional teachers. And if more students live in The Jefferson the loss will be even greater.

It remains to be demonstrated how this project is good for the school district, the Village of Ardsley, the Rivertowns or even necessary for either the Town of Greenburgh or the entire region in light of the 202 rental units at Rivertowns Square and the 66 rental units at The Lofts.

Of course its good for one entity- JPI.

The Jefferson - Growth but not Very Smart

Here are the first two sentences from a form letter JPI is asking supporters of The Jefferson at Saw Mill to send to the Greenburgh Town Board:

Dear Greenburgh Town Board,

As a supporter of smart growth development, I respectfully urge your support for the Jefferson at Saw Mill River proposal. This development will help to add variety to Greenburgh’s limited housing stock, among the proposal’s other merits, to promote continued growth into the next decade for the Town and County.

It is now recognized that "Smart Growth" development is an effective strategy to improve a community's quality of life.

What Is Smart Growth?

Here is the definition from Smart Growth America:

Smart Growth is sensible, planned efficient growth that integrates economic development and job creation with community quality of life by preserving and enhancing the built and natural environment. Smart Growth encourages growth in developed areas with existing infrastructure to sustain it, particularly municipal centers, downtowns (“Main Streets”), urban cores, historic districts and older first-tier suburbs. Smart Growth means growing in a way that enhances our communities and our daily lives, now and in the future. This is growth that doesn’t magnify our traffic problems, that doesn’t result in higher municipal costs and that doesn’t needlessly pollute or consume open space. This is growth that enhances all the places where we spend time.

Let's repeat that: Smart Growth is

 - growth in developed areas with existing infrastructure to sustain it

 - growth that enhances all the places we spend time

- growth that doesn’t magnify our traffic problems, that doesn’t result in higher municipal costs

So, is The Jefferson an example of Smart Growth? Well, they are planning on cleaning up a brownfield (with tax credits paid by NYS taxpayers) and they are preserving half the site as open space (but they are exceeding the existing heights for buildings which they need a variance for).

Does Greenburgh really have limited housing stock in the area?  Not really, as we have Rivertowns Square (202 units) and The Lofts (66 units) right near by the Lawrence Street site.

Ok, lets just call it not very smart growth.

Doesn't Greenburgh deserve better than mediocre?

The Jefferson = Green Sprawl

Here is what JPI says on its "The Jefferson at Saw Mill" website:

"JPI is committed to the stewardship of our environment and will use sustainable building practices and materials to the maximum extent possible in the design and construction of the property." 

Notice there is no mention of using true sustainable sources of energy like solar power.

What good is being "green"  or "smart" if you are in the wrong location?

What we have with The Jefferson is a "high density island" cut off from any real neighborhood.

You cannot walk to a bank, a library or safely to a grocery store. No public infrastructure

improvements are planned to make it a true bicycle oriented development. Oh, it has 438 parking

spaces.

So lets just call it "Green Sprawl at Saw Mill."

Location Location Location

 

According to JPI, The Jefferson will be filled with Millennials - who make up the "Live Work Play" Lifestyle Generation. Does this lifestyle really exist or is it more a marketing ploy? Here is what a JPI professional says about this "coveted demographic." 

Brad Taylor, Managing Regional Partner at JPI, TDI Companies, highlights some general Millennial  lifestyle trends that are changing the way properties are being developed and marketed.

Millennial Lifestyle + Rental Trends

• Renting longer. Renting by choice. Millennials are renting longer than generations before them, and oftentimes by choice. On the whole, Millennials are waiting longer to get married and start a family, which is generally extending their rental lifetime well into their professional years.

• Location, location, location. Location is consistently among the top criteria for Millennial renters. With the tendency toward a more urban lifestyle, Millennials are increasingly giving up their cars for public transportation and walkable neighborhoods.

So our soon to be Jeffersonistas like walkable neighborhoods. By their own concession,  JPI  acknowledges The Jefferson at Saw Mill is an isolated location.  In fact, it is nearly an island as its forked on both sides by the Saw Mill River. Will Jeffersonistas enjoy walking around the above ground parking garage in the center of this solely residential development?  That's the neighborhood. Or will they prefer risking their lives crossing over the Saw Mill River Parkway to get to Rivertowns Square?

Location Location Location  - yes, The Jefferson, being nowhere near easy access to mass transit such as a train station, is as the Beatles sang in the One After 909 - in the wrong location. And who told the singer of the song he was in the wrong location? The railman.

In our next few posts we will explore whether The Jefferson,is as the developer contends on its website, an example of smart growth.

Brain Drain (at JPI)

When The Jefferson project was first proposed by  mega luxury rental developer JPI earlier in 2015, the following appeared in The Examiner News, an online and print newspaper (often found near the entrance of forlorn coffee shops) concerning The Jefferson:

Potential Greenburgh Developer Gets Proactive in Defense of Housing Project

New York State and especially Westchester County have been identified nationally as an attractive location for technology companies looking to relocate or even develop from the bottom up. With NYS tax incentives for tech companies very attractive, a big step in corporate relocation is the ability to house its employees – and that seems to be a market opportunity for developers in the lower Hudson Valley where urban sprawl has identified a lifestyle that might be on the wane, and a new generation of tech savvy employees called the Millennials (someone reaching adulthood around the year 2000) has gained everyone’s attention.

For the partners at JPI, developers of the proposed 272-unit high quality development project Jefferson at Saw Mill River, luxury rental apartments in studio, one and two bedroom configurations, with amenities on site and close by, including walking and 

biking trails, are the answer to the “suburban brain drain” – the mass exodus of desirable employees out of the lower Hudson Valley. 

The proposed development has been considered bike oriented because of its proximity to the South County Trailway.

Meeting opposition from residents of the Town of Greenburgh to the development at the long-dormant and contaminated site of the former Akzo Nobel chemical plant, at One Lawrence Street, Greg Belew, JPI Managing Regional partner and Stephen Hutto, VP of Development have decided to reach out aggressively and explain why their particular proposal is good for Westchester and Greenburgh.

“We have not had any formal meetings yet,” Hutto explained, “but we have had push back from Greenburgh and Ardsley, mostly with regard to traffic concerns. It’s a knee jerk reaction without any real basis.”

So our traffic concerns are a knee jerk reaction without any real basis.

Ok, what about that bike oriented development?  Apparently no one told Mr. Hutto that the South County Trail ends in Elmsford and outside of one restaurant in Yonkers, there are no other amenities on the SCT let alone knowledge industry sector employers. So none of those millennial tech savvy Jeffersonistas will be biking to work or shopping along the SCT (which of course is seasonal). Oh and there is only one trail. Well developers are known to engage in  some puffery.

But do not except to see Mr. Hutto at the upcoming January 13, 2016 scoping session before the Greenburgh Town Board because he has moved on to work at Gemdale, a large Chinese real estate developer. So does this constitute a brain drain at JPI?