WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL-CHRONICLE EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. June 4, 2007: Paul Wood, City Executive Officer, confirmed to WPCNR early this afternoon that representatives of Reckson/SL Green met with him Thursday afternoon to notify Mayor Delfino of their interest in being counted in as interested in developing the White Plains Train Station area. Wood told WPCNR that the city has no intention of issuing Request for Proposals because it would cost the city a million dollars to do the studies of the area which Louis Cappelli would have executed as part of his proposal at no cost to the city.

“We were blindsided by the Reckson proposal saying if you’re soliciting proposals they want to be involved and we shouldn’t preclude them by giving them(Cappelli Enterprises) an Exclusivity Agreement, but now I’ve got interest from about six different developers,” Wood told WPCNR this afternoon.

“This situation is A, if the city is going to develop an RFQ, it’s going to cost at least a million dollars to do the studies first and then come up with a qualified developer, because we don’t know what the capacity is at the train station. We don’t have those issues Cappelli was willing to do that stuff on his own, but he wanted the Exclusivity Agreement in return for that (the environmental studies, etc.).  Now, if the Council is going to turn around and say we want competing proposals, then obviously what we need to do is study the area which will cost about a million dollars and develop an RFQ for the area at city expense.”

WPCNR asked if Reckson had explained why they had not come forward expressing their interest after May 10? Or May 24 when the Council was considering voting on the Exclusivity Agreement?

Wood, said “No. But, we figured this was going to happen which was one of the reasons why he wanted the Exclusivity Agreement. (WPCNR note: Mr. Cappelli explained this to the Council May 10 when he presented to them, and it was made clear with earlier secret meetings with the Common Council member.) If this was driven by the city, I could understand other developers all wanting to get involved. This  (Station Square project) has nothing to do with the city. We never asked Louis to do this. He presented the city with an idea. And it wasn’t something that the city designed or chose to even look at (before he presented it).I don’t know where it goes now  I really don’t Now there’s probably six or seven people involved in an idea that doesn’t even exist other than in the mind of Louis Cappelli. So how do we go forward from there?

WPCNR: Is there a move to table the Exclusivity Agreement?

Wood: I hope they don’t table it just for the sake of discussion purposes and information purposes. I hope they allow the presentation to proceed tonight and at least allow him to get the facts out as to what it is he is looking for. Hopefully they (the council) will allow that to happen. (WCPNR note: the council did not at the May 24 meeting when Mr. Cappelli requested to do so.) If they decide they don’t want it, maybe New Rochelle will capitalize on the office market.”

WPCNR: Have any other companies approached you since May 10?

Wood: We have had several: M Squared Development, TDC International, a company from New Jersey. We are getting competing proposals on an idea that is his, not the city’s. I’m not prepared to respond to these people (developers) because I don’t knowwhat their capacity is down there. We haven’t done the studies.  Louis was going to do that as part of this Exclusivity Agreement. He was going to pay for the studies and city staff time involved. How do you decide who’s best to do the studies. The city has to do it, it’s a million dollars. We don’t have the budget for it and we don’t have the time for it.

WPCNR: Any possibility the Exclusivity Agreement would have some of the more favorable endorsement pre-approval  language taken out?

Wood:  Whatever they want to do with it is fine with me. It’s not an administration-crafted document. It’s his document. Whatever they decide to do they decide to do. If they (the council) decide to turn it down and open up the process it’s going to cost a fortune to do that. It’s not like the city put these parcels together and decided to market them.

WPCNR: Did Reckson tell you how long they’d been considering this?

Wood: Since Louis came out with it.

WPCNR: Why didn’t Reckson let you know before the  day the council was first scheduled to vote on the Exclusivity Agreement, May 24^th   ?

Wood: I don’t know. It’s moot at this point. Their letter means absolutely nothing to me, because it is not the city’s proposal. I don’t know how to respond to them, other than if you want to go out and spend millions of dollars on studies and come back with a plan that perhaps will or will not be accepted by the council they’re welcome to do that.

WPCNR: If the Council turns down the Exclusivity Agreement it’s in their ball park?

Wood: Whose ballpark?

WPCNR: The Council’s.

Wood: Not really, no. They’re not administrators. They’re policy-makers.

WPCNR: So the city has no plans to issue any RFP?