WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER 3,374,995 VISITS IN ONE YEAR—65,000 VISITS A WEEK BY 985,281 VISITORS

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WPCNR’S CITY CENTER JOHNNY ON TOUR. By John F. Bailey. October 3, 2003: The highlight of the Mayor’s White Plains Performing Arts Center News Conference Thursday was “the tour.”  A group of about 30 persons were given hardhats and proceeded to cross the street from City Hall to the City Center, proceeding into “Conroy Place,” which now has its cobblestone drive mostly in place and gleaming black light posts emulating the new street ambience in White Plains.

 

 

DIGNATARIES from public relations persons to reporters, to councilpersons gawked at the imposing rich emerald green façade of the bridge from the new parking garage, the elegant cobblestones and the black granite fountain. Entering on the first floor street level, they were greeted by a brightly lit Circuit City store, looking ready to open. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

 

ENTERING STREET LEVEL ON CONROY PLACE: We proceeded to climb the escalators in the vaulted two level atrium/lobby,  to the fourth level of the City Center. As we entered from Conroy Place soon to be named City Center Place, we passed the Circuit City looking ready to open, and very inviting. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

PASSING CIRCUIT CITY, the party ascended the escalators which were not in motion to the fourth floor, the theatre level. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

THE THEATRE ENTRANCE: Main entrance, steel scaffolds of seating can be seen. Photo by WPCNR News

 

 

BOX OFFICE AREA IS TO THE RIGHT: We entered the theatre noticing that there is a shell of a theatre and that THE arc of steel seating structures were in the process of being installed. The stage is to our left. The walls of the theatre are sheetrock, awaiting interior decoration. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

 

 

 

PROJECT MANAGER, Steve Feinstein, of HRH Construction (in light blue shirt, slightly to right in photo), explained the next order of business was installing the light banks and control booth at top left of picture.  Photo by WPCNR News

 

 

CREATING THE VARIOUS SEGMENTS of the theatre will proceed on a simultaneous basis. To come: pouring concrete for the stage, and installing the polished wooden stage floor . Feinstein said work was proceeding at a 6-days-a-week-10 hours-a-day pace with a completion date of October 31 for the Performing Arts Center. He noted an elevator would whisk theatre goers directly from street level entry to the White Plains Performing Arts Center floor. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

 

ON THIS VERY STAGE, IN 35 DAYS, the Flying Karamazov Brothers will be doing the juggling. For now the intricate, precision juggling is being handled deftly by the HRH Construction crews who have been performing building miracles for two years, being counted on to finish a theatre in 28 days. Speaking to WPCNR after the tour, Co-Producer Jeffrey Rosenstock told WPCNR that he expected to be “running through” the theater control, lighting and production systems the first week of November. Photo by WPCNR News

 

Calling More Angels. Calling More Angels.

 

The Gala performance on November 9 is being relied on to produce a performance budget. In the meantime, George Gretsas, the Mayor’s Executive Officer, said a single sponsor (in Broadway speak, an “angel”)  has underwritten Bob Newhart’s performance. He would not reveal that sponsor, saying that was up to the Board of Directors of the theatre to announce at their discretion.

 

Asked the source of future operating funds for the theatre and whether any advance contributions had already been made, Gretsas said he did not know and would get that information. Rosenstock and Stimac as operators of the theatre are paid a flat $100,000 for the first year of their contract to operate the theatre, and that is the maximum city contribution to the theatre.

 

Staffing Up

 

Tony Stimac said a third person had been hired for the White Plains Performing Arts Center staff in addition to Kathy Davidson, the Theatre Manager. The new hand on board is Melinda O’Brien, who Mr.Stimac said will be Development & Programming Associate. He said she would responsible for fundraising overtures and program development.

 

Community Groups Invited

 

Mr. Rosenstock, echoing a theme in the news conference said the theatre would be produce 1/3 professional performances, 1/3 community-produced performances and 1/3 new creative works. Mr. Rosenstock said that Ms. Davidson had worked out what he called “a Basic Rental Sheet” and said “we’re working on drawing up a standard contract.”  He said groups desiring to rent the theatre could contact Ms. Davidson now for preliminary discussions on how to do that. She can be reached at 422-1376.

 

 

WPCNR SIDEWALK INSIDER CHAT with Jeffrey Rosenstock, Co-Producer. Mayor Delfino chats with Tony Stimac at left. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

Rosentock was bubbling with enthusiasm for the theatre during our sidewalk chat in front of City Hall.  He said he presents 425 performances a year at his Queens Theatre in the Park.  He said the synergy generated by persons coming to his Queens facility has brought many community groups throughout Queens to his theatre. “People come to the theatre, see groups performing there and inquire about how they can use the theatre,” he explained, saying he has attracted rentals from many groups in Queens this way. He says the enthusiasm is contagious, and that he and Mr.Stimac have had the experience of growing theatres and looked forward to watching it happen here.

 

Financing to Come.

 

Asked about what financial contributions had already been received by the White Plains Performing Arts Center, George Gretsas, the Mayor’s Executive Officer, said a sponsor, whom he could not reveal,  had underwritten the Bob Newhart Gala performance. He said he would get the information as to whether any other donations had been received.

 

Early Thursday evening, Gretsas said that of the $100,000 the city is paying the non-profit organization of Stimac and Rosenstock to run the theatre, about $50,000 has been spent, and he said they would continue “to draw down” on it. He said that he could not tell what financing had possibly been already contributed to the Center’s “endowment” because the White Plains Performing Arts Center was a private nonprofit organization and only their Board of Directors could supply that information. He said Mr. Stimac was the person we should ask for that information.

 

 

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-JOURNAL. From Frank Cantatore. October 2, 2003: Businessman, community leader and candidate for the County Board of Legislator’s Fifth district, Frank Cantatore Thursday called for the immediate suspension of the inmate work program at the County’s golf course Hudson Hills. On Wednesday, an inmate who was working there escaped and was later captured. The program places inmates from the County jail at the golf course to do various work functions.

 

 

 “It’s time to put a stop to a program that should have never been instituted in the first place. All this program is and was is a way to cover costs overruns for an exclusive golf club that should have never been built by the County in the first place. But what’s more egregious is that Bill Ryan, Chairman of the Public Safety committee allowed it to happen. We’re fortunate that the criminal who escaped was a “low level” risk, maybe next time we won’t be so lucky,” I am calling on the County to put a stop to this inmate program immediately,” said Cantatore.

 

“We were lucky that no one was injured by this incident. The golf course should have professionals working on them, not dangerous criminals, said Cantatore.

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WPCNR THE MAIN STREET LINE. By John F. Bailey. October 2, 2003: The Antonio Meucci Lodge, organizers and producers of the annual White Plains Columbus Day Parade have made the decision to cancel the parade previously scheduled in the city for October 18.

 

Serena Russell, a member of the Lodge Parade Committee told WPCNR Wednesday evening  that as the date approached it became clear the Lodge was not going to find enough community businesses and individuals to contribute enough money to fund the production. The committee held a vote and the consensus was to cancell the parade. Russell said the parade costs the lodge $30,000 and only about $15,000 had been pledged as of last week. She said the committee reluctantly decided to not have a parade this year.

 

She said the city provides services to stage the parade, and the city was quite willing to provide traffic control and in-kind services as they do every year for this year’s parade. Russell said the committee would begin fund-raising efforts earlier in the year in 2004.

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WPCNR THE MAIN STREET LINE By John F. Bailey. September 29, 2003, UPDATED WITH PICTURES & INFO 2 P.M. E.D.T. UPDATED October 1, 2003, 12:30 P.M. E.D.T.: The White Plains City Center is coming together with different enterprises firming up opening dates. The Target Store on the ground floor below street level, and Circuit City, located on the first floor, open on October 12, according to a City Center spokesman.  An official announcement detailing the Opening performance and Gala for the White Plains Performing Arts Center is expected at the end of this week, the Theatre Manager said today.

 

RESTAURANT ROW: Restaurants will open in successive waves forming a “restaurant row” on Mamaroneck Avenue, beginning with Applebee’s opening before Thanksgiving, followed by Zanaro’s  in time for Christmas.  Geoffrey Thompson, spokesman for Cappelli Enterprises reports Zanaro’s will locate in the Greenpoint Bank Building after Greenpoint vacates the Greek revival style building effective October 15, and relocates in the City Center on the Mamaroneck Avenue side approximately the same date. Photo by WPCNR News

 

Thompson said The National Amusements Theatres are scheduled to open in November along with the fledgling White Plains Performing Arts Center on Saturday, November 8. 

 

 

Kathy Davidson, Theatre Manager for the WPPAC told WPCNR today that a news release detailing the WPPAC opening plans and gala, and how theatre goers can purchase tickets, as well as, possible future attractions, was expected by the end of the week. She said the Center was waiting for signed contracts from the artists, but had not received them to her knowledge as of Tuesday morning, and that was why the details of the opening had not been announced.

Hot Peppers and Java

Next, Thompson said, AppleMetro Applebee’s will be the first City Center eatery to open, followed in succession by Zanaro’s, which will occupy the former Greenpoint Bank building on the corner of Main and Mamaroneck, and is tentatively scheduled to open before Christmas, approximately December 15.. Legal Seafood will be next in line to locate on Mamaroneck Avenue, after the first of year, no date given.

 

Thompson said Zanaro’s will be “a spectacular new prototype for future Zanaro’s” that Apple Metro hopes to use to showcase this “super Zanaro’s” to other markets across the country.

 

STARBUCK’S HUTCH GOES UP: Starbuck’s the nation’s cup of coffee, will be opening approximately December 15, according to the Mayor’s Executive Officer, George Gretsas when interviewed last Wednesday. He said the Starbuck’s kiosk was scheduled to be completed and turned over to Starbuck’s November 1, with Starbucks expected to take six weeks to prepare the operation for business. The Renaissance Plaza Fountain, Gretsas said was scheduled for completion October 28. The site of fountain and Starbuck’s kiosk is shown as it

appeared last week. Photo by WPCNR News

 

SOUTH AMERICAN GRANITE beginning to be installed at Renaissance Plaza last week. The Starbuck’s Hutch is in perspective in the Southwest corner of the plaza in front of Macy’s. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

Roll ’em and Cue ’em.

 

Next in succession will be the opening of the 15 National Amusements theatres. The movies are scheduled to open for the weekend of November 8.

 

NATIONAL AMUSEMENTS CINEMA FLOOR  as it appeared September 9. Currently refreshment kiosks are being installed. Opening is November 8. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

November 9, the very next day will be the date of the first White Plains Performing Arts Center Opening Gala performance, Last week, Gretsas told WPCNR that Kathy Davidson, the theatre’s newly appointed Theatre Manager, is in the process of printing brochures and invitations, and had said the Gala would be the weekend of the 8, 9, 10, saying it would be the Saturday of that weekend, and that is where the confusion came in yesterday.

 

Asked who the opening night gala performers would be last Wednesday, Gretsas said they were in the process of being confirmed and said they would be announced when firmly committed.

 

“That Girl’s” Pal to headline.

 

Asked last week, if a show starring the former television sitcom performer and sidekick to Mary Tyler Moore on the sitcom of the past, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Valerie Harper, was the first featured attraction as reported by an executive of the Helen Hayes Theatre last week, Gretsas said it was too early to announce it formally last week.

 

Tony Stimac, now wearing two hats, running the White Plains theatre and recently reappointed Executive Director of the Helen Hayes theatre in Nyack, where he had been reassigned as Artistic Director, stated to the Rockland County press last week that Ms. Harper will perform in the White Plains Performing Arts Center, and the Helen Hayes and the Queens Theatre in the Park in a three week run in November, one week in each venue.

THE WHITE PLAINS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER shown when seen three weeks ago. As of  the end of last week, it is reported to have any seats installed yet and no interior decorating on the sides of the theatre walls. Photo by WPCNR News

 

 

Mr. Thompson said he was expecting that there would be an informal mini-gala tour of the new Performing Arts Center possibly as early as October 8.

 

Mr. Gretsas said last Wedneday, there was a possibility of such a pre-opening of the Performing Arts Center, but it was not definite at this time. (As of Wednesday no seats had been installed in the City Center White Plains Performing Arts Center.) Thompson said the seating would be stadium seating similar to the seating in the 15 National Amusements movie venues.

 

Valerie Harper’s One Woman Show Is Coming to Town November 18 to 23. Will Tell All Thursday.

 

Tuesday WPCNR spoke with Kathy Davidson, the Theater Manager and she said a news release would be circulated “by the end of the week” detailing the plans for the gala, opening weekend and ticket purchase procedures. She did not deny that Valerie Harper would peform in the Gala when we asked her about it. When asked which show Harper would be doing, she did not dissuade WPCNR from our impression that Valerie Harper’s touring show, The Allergist’s Wife would be the opening weekend attraction on November 8, nor did she correct our understanding that the Gala was taking place on Saturday evening, the 8th.

 

 All Under Heaven, Ms. Harper’s one-woman show in which she plays Pearl Buck will play later in the month at the WPPAC. WPCNR learned from Ms. Davidson Wednesday morning that Ms. Harper’s show, All Under Heaven, will play White Plains Performing Arts Center on November 18 to 23.

 

To read more about All Under Heaven, WPCNR refers readers to Ms. Harper’s website, www.valerieharper.com.

 

Barnes & Noble Coming March ‘04

 

The first major tenant beyond Circuit City and Target will be Barnes & Noble expected to open in March on the Main Street Side.

 

North Tower to  Open for Occupancy April 1.

The City Center North Column as it Appeared Thursday, September 25. Photo by WPCNR News

 

Turning to discussion of the City Center residences, the North Column, the loft building on Martine Avenue, and the South Column  which has begun to rise out of the ground, Thompson announced that Cappelli Enterprises would have the North Tower ready to receive residents by April 1, 2004.

VIEW DOWN MAIN STREET WITH TERRACE AT THE 7TH FLOOR. You are standing in the entertaining area, outdoor terrace parepet is through the sliding glass doors. Photo by WPCNR News

 

Mr. Thompson discussed the floor plans  in the North Column. The third through the 29^th floors would provide 1 bedroom and 2-bedroom apartments. The 3^rd floor, backing up on the west side to the City Center building would house 7 apartments, including some studios and 1 and 2-bedroom units.  The 4^th floor has 6 apartments. The apartments per floor, expand commensurately as the column climbs to the sky. The 5^th floor offers 10 units’ the 6^th through the 21^st floors present 12 apartments consisting of 1 and 2-bedroom apartments exclusively.

 

 As the Cappelli Column steps back at the 22^nd floor with its North side terraces, there are 9 1-and-2 bedroom apartments on each floor up through the 28^th Floor.  At the 29^th and 30^th floor, there are 6 1-and-2 bedroom apartments

North Side Terraces looking to the Tappan Zee Bridge West are an amenity of the 22nd Floor.

Photo by WPCNR News

 

THE CAPELLI PERCH: Deluxe Apartments in the Sky Include Duplexes. This is the view from the floor-to-ceiling windows on the 35th floor. Photo by WPCNR News

 

 The 31^st through the 35^th floors, the envisioned pinnacle of White Plains, there are four 3-bedroom apartments on each floor, for a total of 20 “premium perches,” with floor-to-ceiling windows that slide left to right to open to the air.

 

 

Meanwhile Back at Street Level

 

The Loft Building adjacent to the City Center on Martine Avenue has been built up to the fourth floor level, and Thompson reports that there will be 29 total condominium units in this offering. The building consists of 9 floors with 3 apartments on each floor, including two townhouse offerings consisting of two floors. Each townhouse will be located on each end of the loft structure.

ATTENTION CREATIVE TYPES WITH CASH:  The Condominium loft building on Martine Avenue as it appeared September 25. It has 6 more stories to rise. Photo by WPCNR News.

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WPCNR The White Plains Street. By John F. Bailey. September 28, 2003: A sports complex, children’s museum and street level retail development “sneak-previewed” to the Common Council Thursday evening  flabbergasted the merchants presently doing brisk business out of their Martine Avenue and Mamaroneck Avenue locations.

 

WPCNR has learned Minskoff-Grant Realty & Management Corporation, landlord of roughly half the satellite outlets fronting on Martine Avenue and Court Street is offering 10-year leases on their Court Street frontage to their present tenants fronting on Martine Avenue. This makes it unclear whether the Silverman  project will actually replace the entire city block with a one-piece seamless building on the Court, Martine and Mamaroneck Avenue as reported.

FIRST TIME WE KNEW: Irene Seitz, left and Bishop Purvis of the northeast comic collector’s headquarters, M & I Comic Book Heaven, hold up the news story that ruined their day Friday. Ms. Seitz has not had the opportunity to talk with her landlord yet, Minskoff Grant Realty & Management Corporation of Manhattan, about her lease at 25 Court Street, but understands from fellow owners that Minskoff-Grant is offering 10 year leases on locations in their portion of the Court Street side. Purvis said Sunday they are taking a wait and see stance. Photo by WPCNR News.

SON OF CITY CENTER, “Downtown Crossing” is a 4-story sports complex, a twin in design look to the City Center across the street. It would include an indoor sports facility on the top two floors, a  children’s museum and upscale retail on the street level. It was pitched as a family oriented attraction by Silverman Realty Group which owns the locations on the Mamaroneck side of the block (shown here). Leon Silverman presented designs to the Common Council Thursday evening.

Photo by WPCNR NEWS

 

Owners of The Bagel Emporium, Jenkris  Hardware (formerly Graessle Hardware), OK Jewelry, White Plains Leather, M and I Comic Heaven also told the CitizeNetReporter the Journal News article was the first time they had heard of Mr. Silverman’s plan.

 

 

The article contained a photograph of Mayor Joseph Delfino viewing plans of the project with its architect in front of the Mamaroneck Avenue location in a photo inexplicably taken in broad daylight by a Journal News photographer, (a “photo op” on the street to which WPCNR was not made aware of). The photo appeared to have been staged before the Common Council viewed the project Thursday evening in a 6 PM work session. The Work Session was first publicized at 10:45 A.M. Thursday morning by a city hall e-mail.

 

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BLOCK: Brooklyn’s Famous Sub Shop is being created at the former “CD Warehouse location. The new tenant, Dan Weisse said he was told by Minskoff-Grant, they would not be part of the new Downtown Crossing.

Photo by WPCNR News

 

New Tenant signed on at Court Street Unaware of “Downtown Crossing”  

 

Dan Weisse, owner of the Brooklyn’s Famous Sub Shop which hopes to locate two doors down from the Bagel Emporium, told WPCNR Saturday he had heard rumors of a project, but had signed a 10-year lease with Minskoff-Grant Realty  & Management Corporation anyway, one store away from The Bagel Emporium (formerly that art deco mini-palace, The White House).  

 

Weisse who runs the original Brooklyn’s Famous Sub Shop (in Brooklyn, USA), said it is his understanding from Minskoff-Grant  that the firm would continue to operate their  properties on Court Street and did not plan to sell them. The establishments now on Court Street include M & I Comic Book Heaven, Chillemi Shoe Repair plus two other vacant sites, (plus the former Woolworth’s space which Silverman Realty Group owns).

1950S Malt Shop Revival, Now being renovated on Court Street

Photo by WPCNR News

 

Weisse said he had been told that the former Woolworth’s entrance opening on Court, midway on the Court Street. would be where parking entry would be for the Silverman project. He expressed puzzlement that major construction would be taking place, in between at least 3  operating establishments, his, the comic book store, and Chillemi Shoe Repair and two other store fronts he thought were being shopped by Minskoff-Grant.

 

Secret Identity

 

Irene Seitz, owner of M & I Comic Book Heaven said, in her conversations with other owners since the “sneak preview” was presented Friday, she understood that Minskoff-Grant was signing Jenkris Hardware and a beauty store to 10 year leases on the Court Street side, and was planning to continue to operate the Court Street block..

 

It could not be determined by WPCNR if the Bagel Emporium was going to remain and how far the Silverman project façade was going to extend along Martine Avenue. Initial presentation of the project as reported in the Journal News, implied the project would take the entire square block except for the Hudson Valley Bank and  Payless Shoe Store.

 

 

MEANWHILE ON THE MARTINE AVENUE SIDE: The owner of Jenkris Hardware (green sign) confirmed they were negotiating a new longterm lease with Minskoff-Grant to move to a Court Street side location. City Center can be seen looming in the background.

Photo by WPCNR News

 

 

Jenkris Hardware (located on Martine Avenue) is one of those Martine Avenue properties Minskoff-Grant is offering long term leases. The owner manning the counter Saturday confirmed to me that the article on the project was the first they had learned about the Silverman Realty project. He said that he was negotiating with Minskoff-Grant on a new lease on the Court Street side.

 

Minskoff-Grant’s rental agent represented to M & I  Comic Book Heaven that nothing was going to change with their Court Street location weeks before this when she had asked about it. Ms. Seitz felt better Saturday afternoon that M & I Comic Book Heaven was not going to have to move, when she heard about the lease negotiations from other owners.

DRAWING COLLECTORS FROM ALL OVER THE NORTHEAST:  M & I Comic Book Heaven, next to Chillemi Shoe Repair on Court and Hudson Valley Bank at extreme left. The location draws collectors from up and down the eastern seaboard for its extensive collections of memorabilia, comics, and fantasy products. It has been a tenant at the location for eight years.

Photo by WPCNR News

 

 This was a far cry from Ms. Seitz concern on Friday afternoon, when she and Bishop Purvis  were pouring over their current lease. They were worrying that an eminent domain clause in their current lease would be the legal device that would give Minskoff-Grant the ability to turn them out at will, which would be legal if  the city of White Plains took the premises through eminent domain for a project.

 

16 Operating Businesses on the Block Affected. Two More Unaffected.

 

By WPCNR observation, there are 16 operating businesses fronting on the Mamaroneck Avenue, Martine Avenue and Court Street block, and 4 untenanted storefronts (one of those was recently leased from Minskoff-Grant by Mr. Weisse the Broolyn’s Famous Sub Shop proprietor). When WPCNR did a spot check of the businesses most were doing good business at mid-Friday afternoon. Many have been there a long period of time.

 

The businesses on Mamaroneck Avenue affected are: Fleetwood Bank, Foot Locker, White Plains Leather, Sneaker Outlet, Gatsby’s (the last independent men’s haberdashery in the city at its Mamaroneck and Martine location for approximately a dozen years and also operates out of The Galleria). The Woolworth space and a former diner space are vacant.

 

 The establishments on Martine are O.K. Jewelry,  Coney Island (diner), A Nails Salon, Anthony’s Convenience Store,  Fashion Town (a clothier) Jenknis Hardware, Crown Beauty Supply, Freshies, and the Bagel Emporium. There is one vacant storefront on the Martine side.

 

Five Business Owners Say It’s News to Them.

 

WPCNR interviewed five business owners who said the project announcement took them by surprise. Irene Seitz and Bishop Purvis (of White Plains) of M & I Comic Book Heaven said so. A Bagel Emporium manager said their owner told her he was unaware of the Silverman Realty Group plans until the news story appeared. So did the owner of  Jenknis hardware store, the owner of OK Jewelry (a Silverman tenant), and the owner of White Plains Leather (a Silverman tenant) on the Mamaroneck Avenue side.

 

Minskoff-Grant Realty & Management Corporation and Silverman Realty Group could not be contacted over the weekend to clarify the extent of the project and how the new lessors on Court Street being offered the multi-year leases would be integrated into the Silverman 4-story edifice, or whether the façade of the project would proceed from corner to corner from the corner of  Court and Martine to Mamaroneck and down past Fleetbank.

 

BID to help?

 

WPCNR has a query into the Downtown Business Improvement District (the BID) as to whether the BID will consider organizing an effort  to facilitate relocation of the dozen or  possible businesses that will need new homes in town, should the project be eventually approved by the Common Council.

 

Based on previous Common Council approval speeds, the project could be approved within 7 to 8 months, and constructed within two years, opening in 2006, though a detailed application has not been submitted.

WHERE’S A SUPERHERO WHEN YOU NEED ONE? M & I Comic Book Heaven and the rest of the 16 businesses on the Court-Martine-Mamaroneck Block do not know where they stand in the Downtown Crossing plans.

Photo by WPCNR News