WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL-CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. June 6, 2007: David Maloney, press spokesperson for the Mayor's Office confirmed today exclusively to WPCNR that the opening of the Ritz-Carlton hotel scheduled for next fall is no longer tied to completed construction of the 24 affordable housing obligations attached to the previous city approval of the Ritz project.

Paul Wood, City Executive Officer,  Explains. In a statement, Paul Wood explained the approved delay in building and opening the affordable housing units until after the Ritz opened.

Maloney confirmed to WPCNR with the single word, "Yes" that  passage of Resolution Item 119 effectively paved the way for the Ritz to open without the affordable housing units being built that are required by that project. A resolution passed late Monday evening granted a one year extension of a site plan for  Cappelli Enterprises subsidiaries to build an 8-story, 42 unit "affordable housing" apartments at 240 Main Street which would satisfy Cappelli responsibility to build 24 units of affordable housing "in connection with the 221 Main (Ritz-Carlton project), and the 17 units Cappelli Enterprises still owes on the City Center project.

Paul Wood, City Executive Officer, explains the sequence of events in this manner: "The 240 Main Street extension request granted this week was necessitated by the Council support of the Pinnacle project.  In effect, the Council agreed to a tolling period in fairness to Cappelli of 9 months while he was forced to stand by while the Pinnacle project continued to try to put their project together.  Competition was not so good in this case because the Pinnacle failed to materialize and the eight story building proposed by Cappelli would have been built and occupied by now had he not been forced to wait."

Asked why Cappelli Enterprises had not been asked for a bond in the amount of the estimate cost of constructing the entire building, (far more than $1.2 Million), Wood said that was all The Pinnacle had been asked for. However, WPCNR does not recall the amount of the bond The Pinnacle was asked for ever being made public.

A $1.2Million Guarantee

The resolution recognizes that Cappelli Enterprises has posted a $1.2 Million bond the city can "draw on...if LC White Plains LLC does not complete the Affordable Housing Requirement and obtain temporary or permanent certificates of occupancy for such 17 affordable units by August 31, 2008..."

Previously, members of the Common Council had stipulated as a condition of opening that the Ritz-Carlton could not receive Certificates of Occupancy until the affordables owed for that project were opened. This connection with affordable housing was, in effect, muddied when the Common Council was persuaded to allow Cappelli Enterprises to strike a deal with Ginsburg Development Corporation to build the affordable housing units for Cappelli Enterprises on the Ginsburg Pinnacle site on 240 Main Street. Ginsburg, previously expected to build the Pinnacle development, now described  in the resolution passed as having "not fulfilled its obligations and the responsibility reverts back to LC Main, LLC and LC White Plains, LLC" (Cappelli Enterprise operations). 

The resolution quietly passed Monday evening clears the way for a glitch-free opening of the Ritz-plex this fall without any affordable housing units opened.