United Hospital, which opened in 1914, served and treated countless local families before ceasing operations on the last day of 2004. Two years later, Starwood Capital Management bought the Port Chester property, which borders Rye. Plans for redevelopment of the site were announced in 2010, but Starwood and the Village of Port Chester were unable to agree on zoning, traffic, taxes, and other issues until 2017. Then, 15 months later, Starwood sold the property to two real estate investment firms, represented by Rose Associates. This past August, the crumbling buildings were leveled.
Their proposed project calls for mixed-use development that includes 775 multi-family housing units, 200 age-restricted units, a 120-room hotel, and some 18,000 square feet of retail and restaurants. Of the 200 age-restricted homes, 90 will be independent living and 110 assisted living. There will be parking for 1,020 vehicles. Projects like this usually require a lot of concrete or asphalt materials so local suppliers will also benefit.
Importantly, the project proposes a number of critical changes to address potential traffic issues along Boston Post Road, High Street, and the I-287 exit ramp to Boston Post Road. Yet, it is going to bring a lot of traffic to the Post Road. Tom Kissner, a Port Chester civic leader and president of the board of directors of the Sustainable Port Chester Alliance, said the construction work would be monitored.
This is just one of numerous building and renovation projects underway in Port Chester that are transforming the village center. A new six-story structure, called Tarry Lighthouse, is rising on North Main Street in space previously occupied by Tarry Lodge and other businesses. It will have 209 rental units, plus commercial space. This kind of construction project may also require a temporary scaffolding stair systems and a number of heavy equipment. A commercial building contractor can also help get these projects completed on time.
Two projects are in various stages of completion at the intersection of Westchester Avenue with South Main Street and North Main Street. At 1 North Main Street, a mixed-use building, Port & Main, will offer retail space on the ground floor with 79 rental apartments above in a mix of studio to two-bedroom units. Parking for residents is across the street in designated spots at the Waterfront at Port Center shopping and entertainment complex.
Diagonally across from 1 N. Main, is a project, Mutual Trust Lofts, that joins a new five-story building at 18 N. Main with the historic Old Mutual Trust Building at 16 N. Main. The developer is converting the former bank building into a restaurant space with ground-floor and mezzanine-level seating.
According to a 2023 New York Times article, the village has granted conditional site plan approval to projects with a total of more than 2,800 units over the past three years. It also quoted John Allen, a member of Port Chester’s board of trustees, who said, “There is a growing sense that the board allowed for ‘these extraordinary increases for density and asked for very little in return from developers,’ including having to meet more of the community’s affordable housing needs.
Another trustee, Joan Grangenois-Thomas, told the Business Journal that “Port Chester is not White Plains, it is not New Rochelle, it is not Yonkers…We don’t want to see those caverns that tall buildings create…There is absolutely a danger of gentrification and pricing people out.”
This is especially true for its non-White residents, who in the 2020 census data for Port Chester totaled nearly 70 percent.
It is too early to tell how the growth in residential units will impact the schools and other municipal services in the village.
