Former Glenwood Power Plant
Project Name: “The Plant” Redevelopment at the Former Glenwood Power Plant
Project Location: Yonkers, New York (Westchester County)
Project Description: The Glenwood Power Plant is approximately 4.7 acres of the 150 Acre Brownfield Opportunity Area along the Yonkers waterfront in an Environmental Zone running along the shoreline of the Hudson River. The Plant Site, which has been unused for almost 50 years, is a 100 year old historic power plant with magnificent views of the River and the Palisades to the west, the Tappan Zee Bridge to the north and the Yonkers waterfront to the south, with the George Washington Bridge and New York City skyline beyond. The volunteer plans to transform the three Plant buildings into an art and entertainment-focused event complex with eventual plans for restaurants, a hotel and a marina. This unique new destination facility will be approximately 265,000 square feet, and will update active and passive recreational facilities in parts of the adjacent JFK Park and Marina and Trevor Park. This redevelopment project is part of the plan to realize the potential of a long-dormant and undervalued property in an extraordinary physical setting close to the vibrant economy of the New York metropolitan area. The volunteer entered the Brownfield Cleanup Program in 2012 to remediate the primary contaminants left by former plant operations of Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds (SVOCs), metals such as lead, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxin.
Site History: The Plant was built and designed in conjunction with the redesign of Grand Central Terminal to enable the first electrification of the New York Central Railroad, therefore, it is quite historic. The Plant served the railroad for thirty years, but it soon became more cost-effective for the company to purchase its electricity rather than generate its own. Con Edison took over the Plant in 1936, using the station’s titanic generating capacity to power the surrounding county. By 1968, new technologies had replaced Glenwood’s outdated turbines, and the station was abandoned. In 1978, the site was sold to a single individual attempted to sell the property numerous times but the fear of environmental conditions terminated most transactions. One former buyer did apply for the BCP, performed some environmental work, and then withdrew from the program after reviewing sampling results.
Current Stage of the Process: The volunteer was forced to spend significant initial resources on securing the property from vagrants and performing above ground cleanup work associated with the removal of dioxin dust left on surfaces from the old furnaces well as other physical cleanup work and repairs, including the roof, from years of neglect. A Remedial Investigation Work Plan has been approved but not yet implemented.
Approximate date of completion: Since the investigation work is not yet complete, it is hard to predict if Site remediation can be complete by the sunset of the tax credits. The tax credits are an essential component of the funding sources needed for the development of the project. Private funding through lenders for an adaptive-reuse project of this scale, complexity, and risk is difficult. Therefore, it may take some time for the current owner volunteer to develop the first $70 million first phase of the project, and then the second $80 million phase of the project, which includes a 90-room hotel and 22-slip marina.
Current number of employees on location: The site is vacant and has been for almost 50 years.
Approximate cost of construction: Depending on the market and demand, $150 million or higher.