PLANNERS OK 256-UNITCOMPLEX FOR REDEVELOPMENTAREA

BY MICHAEL OLOHAN OF PASCACK PRESS

Hillsdale

A unanimous Planning Board voted May 23 to approve an application submitted by Patt erson Street Urban Renewal, LLC, to build a 256-unit, fourstory multifamily housing complex on a 5.2-acre site of the Waste Management facilities at Patterson Street and Brookside Place.

The application was submitted as part of a downtown Redevelopment Plan that highlights properties in the Patterson Street area that are eligible for redevelopment.

As part of the redevelopment, the redeveloper, Patterson Street Urban Renewal, will build a free 5,000-square-foot community center as part of the complex.

The site will also contain 20 affordable housing units.

A public notice summarized the Planning Boardʼs 8-0 approval of the application.

T he applicant proposes to raze the existing Waste Management facilities and develop a new 256-unit, four-story multi-family housing, inclusive of 20 affordable housing units, recreation center, swimming pool, parking garage, open interior courtyard with dining, and site improvements, states the notice published on May 30.

Last summer, financial advisers hired by the council estimated that the PILOT agreement signed with the redeveloper could pay the borough up to $40 mil- lion in revenue over a 30-year period.

Last August, Acacia Financial Group managing partner Jennifer Edwards told the council that the 30-year financial agreement being proposed would provide estimated annual revenues of $735,000, which adds up to nearly $40 million in revenue over the agreement.

Edwards, a financial consultant, had worked with the borough negotiating committee, and redevelopment counsel Joseph Baumann, in negotiating financial terms on the redevelopment.

The Planning Board review was based on guidelines and zoning in the Hillsdale-Patterson Street Redevelopment Plan, which supersedes local zoning.

The project provides 20 affordable housing units onsite, along with “community benefits” such as a public park on the corner of Patterson Street and Piermont Avenue and a community center at the complexʼs northeast corner, fronting Patterson Street and Knickerbocker Avenue. Officials previously said the redevelopment agreement prov ides for three payments of $250,000 each — for a total of $750,000 — to the borough based on project milestones.