Whole Foods Proposed for Chappaqua Crossing; New Layout Submitted

(This story was originally published on Nov. 15, 2013)

Whole Foods is the grocery store that is proposed for Chappaqua Crossing and would take up 40,000 square feet of space, according to a letter written to the New Castle Town Board by John Marwell, who is developer Summit/Greenfield's land-use attorney.

Marwell's Nov. 12 letter is part of the town board's packet material for its work session this coming Tuesday, along with a revised layout map, which is officially called a preliminary development concept plan (PDCP) for the site. The PDCP includes the grocery space and 80,000 square feet of ancillary retail. The Whole Foods building would be freestanding and not be inside of the historic cupola structure of the former Reader's Digest campus; the building was considered in an earlier iteration. The building would be located on the southern end of the property, near Roaring Brook Road and across the street from Horace Greeley High School

Marwell also gives a timeline for what Whole Foods wants and gives a sense of urgency for Summit/Greenfield. He writes the following: "Whole Foods is requiring that the store be approved, constructed and available for occupancy by the end the second quarter of 2015. Construction of the building and site infrastructure improvements will take at least a full year to complete. Thus, time is of the essence for SG to meet its prospective lease obligations."

Marwell then requests that the public hearing for the PDCP, which is still open, be held again on Nov. 26, and for the town board to subsequently approve it as well as the rezoning legislation for the site. The rezoning involves creating a retail overlay zone on the southern part of the campus, which would be about 21.5 acres, down from 23.9 in an earlier PDCP submitted to the town in October 2012. The old PDCP was given along with the initial application for the proposal.

The new PDCP has several freestanding retail spaces, which are shifted further south and closer to the street and the Greeley campus. Freestanding structures in the first PDCP were also in the southern area.

A parking lot would be situated in front of a major access road for the site, which starts at Route 117. Previously, the retail space was next to the roadway while the parking was on the far-southern part of the site.

The proposal includes the 40,000-square-foot grocery space along with 16,500 square feet of adjacent retail space; a 25,000-square-foot retail building on the southeastern part of the site; a 5,500-square-foot structure marked for bank usage; 33,000 square feet of retail space in part of the cupola building and where the adjacent Building 100 is now situated. It also include a space called a "Market Square," which is just to the east of the cupola building and where the major roadway terminates, along with a community garden along the roadway from the eastern entrance.

The new PDCP reduces the amount of the cupola building that would be included in the retail proposal. The total amount of proposed retail space remains at 120,000 square feet, according to Andrew Tung, an engineer for the proposal, who described the updates in a Nov. 12 letter also included in the packet. He noted that the distance between the freestanding retail buildings and the closest residential building would stay the same.

The cupola building would be renovated while Building 100 would be reconstructed, according to Tung. He also writes, referencing the changes, said that "no additional or changed significant adverse impacts are anticipated."

Holding town board votes on whether to approve the PDCP, rezoning and changing the town development plan are the next major steps in the process. The most recent update came late last month, when the town board voted in favor of the project's findings statement, which is the last major environmental review document. While the retail proposal originally called for a grocery store of 36,000 to 66,000 square feet, the findings statement supported narrowing the range so that the maximum was 50,000.

The prospect of shifting the grocery store from the cupola building to a freestanding structure on the southern part of the site was first publicly raised last month by Councilman Robin Stout at a town board meeting. 

The letters from Marwell and Tung came about a week after the town board election. According to the unofficial election results, the new town board will be comprised of a majority who have been opposed to the retail plan: incoming Supervisor Rob Greenstein, along with incoming council members Adam Brodsky and Lisa Katz. They ran as a ticket called Team New Castle, with concern about the project being a major aspect of the campaign. It is unknown whether or not the current town board can or will approve the various items needed for the project before the new board members take over on Jan. 1.

The proposal has been controversial among residents who are worried about traffic impact and whether the amount of retail proposed would constitute a new business district in town.

Reacting to the news, Greenstein was not surprised. He said that he expected Whole Foods to be the grocer and believes that there is attempt to recreate Kings Crossing, a Fairfield, CT shopping center that includes Whole Foods, at Chappaqua Crossing. Tenants at Kings Crossing also include a Chipotle, Five Guys and Petco, which Greenstein's ticket has noted.

Kings Crossing was previously owned by Summit Development and Greenfield Partners, according to the Fairfield Citizen, which are the two companies that make up the Summit/Greenfield joint venture. In January 2012, Fairfield Citizen reported that Kings Crossing was sold by Summit and Greenfield for almost $60 million and that the site had previously been purchased in 2003 for $8 million.

Greenstein, according to a video of Tuesday's town board meeting, spoke on behalf of his fellow incoming board members and called for greater involvement for the New Castle Planning Board in the process, along with asking the town planner about adding Chappaqua Crossing to the process for updating the town's master plan. On Friday he reiterated the request to change course in the proposal's review process. 

The new submission is included in the work session packet, which is available at this link and starts on the third page.

This story has been updated with additional details since initial publication, along with correction of Tung's quote regarding impact of the project due to misplacement of the word "that" in the quote, when it was not meant to be.