WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE. By John F. Bailey. October 8, 2003: The public hearing on the 221 Main Street Cappelli-Bland Hotel & Office project continued Tuesday evening, initial enthusiasm for the project visibly waning as Common Council members Benjamin Boykin (up for election), Robert Greer (also up for election), Rita Malmud, Tom Roach, and William King (with 84 days to go as a Councilperson), all vowed Louis Cappelli’s second major White Plains project was “not a done deal,” and said there were a lot of questions that had to be answered, among them traffic, density, building height, Bar Building fate, and sewage contributions of the project.
During the hearing, a series of supporters of retaining the Bar Building as part of the project, aired their views. Carl Finger the attorney for the owners of the Bar Building, went on record saying “The building is not for sale.” Finger said the Longhitanos have their own proposal for upgrading the Bar Building, telling WPCNR in the rotunda after the meeting that the makeover had been submitted to the city, but had not been presented to the Common Council yet.
In addition, in his public remarks, Finger said the owners of the Bar Building would develop Mr. Cappelli’s 221 Main property differently more in keeping with open space desires, lower density, and use that the city appears to desire. Asked if the Longhitanos (Frank and Tony, owners) were negotiating to buy the 221 Main property from Mr. Cappelli, Finger said no. Asked if they would in the future, he said he would have to ask. He said no negotiations of any kind on the Bar Building had taken place with Mr. Cappelli.
Louis Cappelli, the 16th speaker of 20 to address the city fathers and mother, had heard enough from a majority of speakers, hearing from “The Bar-ists” about the 1,000 tenants of the Bar Building being displaced and losing their jobs. Cappelli, with great gravity, obviously weary from the City Center construction marathon just completed that very evening, said, for the last 18 months he had been working to build the City Center and make it a showplace the city could be proud. He said, “The Bar Building certainly can be saved, but I won’t. For the last 18 months I have been in business building City Center. I don’t intend to build something (at 221 Main) second rate.”
Cappelli slowly pointed out that those jobs won’t be lost, saying “There is tons of office space in White Plains…they’re (jobs) are not lost. They relocate toother places in White Plains. My project will bring 4.3 Million in sales taxes a year and 2,000 new jobs, and the Bar Building, $130,000. I don’t see how anybody can ignore that.”
