Developer presents revised plan for 1 Water Street: lower tower, 380 apartments, more retail and public space

Developers and their design team presented a revised plan for 1 Water Street to the White Plains Common Council on May 27, proposing an 18-story, mixed-use residential building with expanded retail and new public open space.

Neil Alexander, partner at the law firm Cuddy & Feder and counsel for the applicant, told the council the site at the intersection of Water Street and Ferris Avenue is a 1.24-acre parcel the applicant acquired in April and that the new design reduces the previously approved height while increasing open space. "Whereas that project had been 22 stories ... we've actually ... brought the building height down while creating more open space," Alexander said.

Chris Boone of Lessard Design described the proposal as an 18-story, U-shaped building with a two-story storefront and an elevated podium plaza facing Water Street. Boone said the revised project would include about 380 residential units, approximately 4,000 square feet of retail along Water Street, and roughly 394 parking spaces in an internal garage with 14 spaces dedicated to retail. The design team said the garage footprint was lowered in the site grading so the overall building massing is reduced.

On affordable housing compliance, Alexander and the design team said the proposal would include six on-site affordable units to meet local requirements, including a studio, four one-bedroom units and one two-bedroom unit at the lower 50/60% AMI targeting methodology. The team said other affordability obligations would be met via a buyout mechanism for units not provided on-site.

Boone described sustainability measures the team intends to use, saying the building will have "high efficiency mechanical systems," continuous exterior insulation to reduce thermal bridging, tight unitized window-wall systems for improved thermal performance, and "local and regional materials" to reduce embodied carbon. He said the primary energy source would be electric and that the developer is "exploring geothermal as a potential."

Councilmembers asked about the shift toward rental housing rather than condominiums; the design team attributed that to market and financing realities and pointed to other, smaller condominium projects in the city as context. Council members also asked about ground-floor activation, sustainability standards and parking configuration; the developer said retail faces Water Street and that the podium and elevated plaza would provide publicly accessible green space with seating and play areas, and a rooftop pool and amenities for residents.

No formal zoning or affirmative council action on the 1 Water Street plan was recorded at the meeting; the presentation was informational and the applicant said they would return with additional materials as the design advances.