WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNALS
AUGUST 29, 2016 | VOL. 52, No. 35
3 | BARGE BATTLE YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS
18 | TOURISM SPROUTS westfaironline.com
New life for a historic White Plains campus BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH rdeffenbaugh@westfairinc.com
A
Manhattan commercial real estate company and owner of Westchester office buildings plans a development that would bring apartment dwellers, resident law school students and seniors in assisted living to the former Good Counsel campus on North Broadway in White Plains. The 16-acre property adjoining the Pace University law school was purchased by an entity of George Comfort & Sons Inc. in late November for $16.3 million. For 125 years, the campus was used by a teaching order of Roman Catholic nuns,
An architect's rendering of the redeveloped Good Counsel campus viewed from North Broadway.
Sisters of the Divine Compassion, whose announced plans in 2014 to market the North Broadway property and close two parochial schools on the historic site met with protest from parents and alumni. After efforts to find another location for the school failed, the all-girls Academy of Our Lady of Good Counsel High School closed in June 2015. Good Counsel Academy Elementary relocated a year ago from the North Broadway campus to a former Roman Catholic school building in Valhalla. Now WP Development NB, LLC — a group of investors led by Manhattan-based George Comfort & Sons — has proposed » NORTH BROADWAY, page 8
Bruce Museum expansion would more than double visitor space BY ALEESIA FORNI aforni@westfairinc.com
THE BRUCE MUSEUM HAS FILED plans with the town of Greenwich for a 39,593-square-foot building expansion in what would be the 104-year-old institution’s first renovations in more than two
decades. The proposed development would more than double the museum’s existing 29,639-squarefoot space on its roughly 6-acre lot at 1 Museum Drive. Museum officials said the project is needed to accommodate the growing demand on the
museum and strengthen its position as a cultural destination. Formerly owned by textile merchant Robert Moffat Bruce, the house and land were deeded to the town in 1908 with a stipulation from Bruce that it be used as “a natural history, historical and art museum for the benefit of the public.” Managed by nonprofit organization Bruce Museum Inc., the museum mounts 12 to 14 shows and presents 1,200 educational programs to about 100,000 visitors annually. “It certainly attracts people to Greenwich,” Greenwich First Selectman Peter J. Tesei said, add-
A rendering of the lobby in the Bruce Museum’s proposed expansion. Courtesy of Eskew+Dumex+Ripple.
ing that the museum is “a real gem for the town.” Museum officials this summer told town selectmen the Bruce has seen a 20 percent increase in visitors in the past year. The museum is exceeding capacity for its programming and does not have enough space to display its permanent collection
of nearly 16,500 objects, they said. Last renovated in 1992, the museum’s physical constraints limit the services it can provide, Bruce Museum Executive Director Peter C. Sutton told the Greenwich Board of Selectmen in July. » BRUCE MUSEUM, page 8