Dreams of attracting high-rise apartment building development to the blighted Hudson River waterfront here have run aground, hitting investors big and small.
A group of real-estate developers said last week that they were shelving plans for two 25-story towers on the Yonkers waterfront. The developers continue to look for retail tenants for a residential-and-retail district—complete with a minor-league baseball park—that is planned for nearby where the towers were to be built.
Even more distressing for the city have been the problems at Point Street Landing, a separate $900 million, mixed-use project planned for another Yonkers site once used as a movie stage.
After a series of setbacks and delays, Satellite Asset Management, a hedge-fund firm founded by former lieutenants of financier George Soros, has put the site up for sale for a fraction of what their fund loaned to the project's now-defunct developer.
"It was an important part of our puzzle," Yonkers Mayor Philip Amicone says of Point Street Landing. "It's a shame they just weren't able to hang on long enough for that to come true."
Yonkers is New York state's fourth-largest city with a population of 200,000. Located in Westchester County about a half-hour train ride from Grand Central Terminal, it fell on hard times starting after World War II when many of its industrial jobs were lost.
But in the past decade city and business leaders pushed to transform the old industrial landscape of the Hudson waterfront. In 2003 and 2008, Connecticut developer Collins Enterprises LLC completed two phases of a 560-unit residential complex called Hudson Park. Nearby, restaurateur Peter X. Kelly, who has appeared on the Food Network's "Iron Chef," opened a restaurant on a Hudson River pier.
Meanwhile, development group Struever Fidelco Cappelli LLC said last week that it's "aggressively moving forward" with a plan to build a minor-league ballpark and 600,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space. The group is hoping to sign up tenants at a shopping-center conference in Las Vegas later this month.
But the group's plan to build two 25-story residential towers on the Hudson waterfront has been shelved because of market conditions, a spokesman says. And Collins Enterprises is still seeking financing for another waterfront development in Yonkers that would have 198 units, company president Arthur Collins says.
The difficulties in revitalizing Yonkers' scenic but rundown waterfront are most evident at still another project—the polluted 15-acre Point Street Landing site just north of the downtown train station.
Yonkers developer Homes for America Holdings Inc. acquired the waterfront site in 2005 for $22 million and later borrowed about $100 million from Satellite Asset Management to prepare for a project that would include four high-rise apartment buildings.
Five years later, the environmental cleanup is still going on and Homes for America has ceased operations. Manhattan-based Satellite Asset Management has taken over the site and is now trying to sell it for $20 million—less than the price Homes for America paid.
The $900 million Point Street Landing was going to include 1,124 housing units and nearly 100,000 square feet of office and retail space, to be built on land contaminated from decades of use as a cable factory. More recently, the site was occupied by a movie stage where films such as 2001's "Zoolander" were shot.
Homes for America got its cash from a sundry slate of investors and plowed it into a handful of development projects around the country. Chuck Colby, a Palo Alto, Calif., engineer, invested $40,000 in the privately held company in 1996. He says he has largely lost hope of getting that money back.
Homes for America, also received loans from Satellite Asset Management that with interest and penalties grew to $123 million, according to Dan Hayes, a Homes for America director. Satellite took over the Yonkers property from Homes for America in December 2008, Mr. Hayes said.
Satellite's investors include pension funds such as New Jersey's plan for public employees. In January 2009, New Jersey State Investment Council Director William Clark informed the council that Satellite Fund II LP, which made the loan to Homes for America, was being liquidated and that the state's proceeds would be less than its original $100 million investment.
A spokesman for the investment council said that the state had received $61.2 million of its original investment and could get another $8.9 million more.
A Satellite spokesman declined to comment.
The site's cleanup will be complete later this year, says Paul Adler, whose company, Blackacre Partners OPS LLC, is running the operation.
Mr. Amicone, the Yonkers mayor, says he hopes a buyer comes forward to build the waterfront project as envisioned by Homes for America. "The development potential is tremendous," he said.
A group of real-estate developers said last week that they were shelving plans for two 25-story towers on the Yonkers waterfront. The developers continue to look for retail tenants for a residential-and-retail district—complete with a minor-league baseball park—that is planned for nearby where the towers were to be built.
Even more distressing for the city have been the problems at Point Street Landing, a separate $900 million, mixed-use project planned for another Yonkers site once used as a movie stage.
After a series of setbacks and delays, Satellite Asset Management, a hedge-fund firm founded by former lieutenants of financier George Soros, has put the site up for sale for a fraction of what their fund loaned to the project's now-defunct developer.
"It was an important part of our puzzle," Yonkers Mayor Philip Amicone says of Point Street Landing. "It's a shame they just weren't able to hang on long enough for that to come true."
Yonkers is New York state's fourth-largest city with a population of 200,000. Located in Westchester County about a half-hour train ride from Grand Central Terminal, it fell on hard times starting after World War II when many of its industrial jobs were lost.
But in the past decade city and business leaders pushed to transform the old industrial landscape of the Hudson waterfront. In 2003 and 2008, Connecticut developer Collins Enterprises LLC completed two phases of a 560-unit residential complex called Hudson Park. Nearby, restaurateur Peter X. Kelly, who has appeared on the Food Network's "Iron Chef," opened a restaurant on a Hudson River pier.
Meanwhile, development group Struever Fidelco Cappelli LLC said last week that it's "aggressively moving forward" with a plan to build a minor-league ballpark and 600,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space. The group is hoping to sign up tenants at a shopping-center conference in Las Vegas later this month.
But the group's plan to build two 25-story residential towers on the Hudson waterfront has been shelved because of market conditions, a spokesman says. And Collins Enterprises is still seeking financing for another waterfront development in Yonkers that would have 198 units, company president Arthur Collins says.
The difficulties in revitalizing Yonkers' scenic but rundown waterfront are most evident at still another project—the polluted 15-acre Point Street Landing site just north of the downtown train station.
Yonkers developer Homes for America Holdings Inc. acquired the waterfront site in 2005 for $22 million and later borrowed about $100 million from Satellite Asset Management to prepare for a project that would include four high-rise apartment buildings.
Five years later, the environmental cleanup is still going on and Homes for America has ceased operations. Manhattan-based Satellite Asset Management has taken over the site and is now trying to sell it for $20 million—less than the price Homes for America paid.
The $900 million Point Street Landing was going to include 1,124 housing units and nearly 100,000 square feet of office and retail space, to be built on land contaminated from decades of use as a cable factory. More recently, the site was occupied by a movie stage where films such as 2001's "Zoolander" were shot.
Homes for America got its cash from a sundry slate of investors and plowed it into a handful of development projects around the country. Chuck Colby, a Palo Alto, Calif., engineer, invested $40,000 in the privately held company in 1996. He says he has largely lost hope of getting that money back.
Homes for America, also received loans from Satellite Asset Management that with interest and penalties grew to $123 million, according to Dan Hayes, a Homes for America director. Satellite took over the Yonkers property from Homes for America in December 2008, Mr. Hayes said.
Satellite's investors include pension funds such as New Jersey's plan for public employees. In January 2009, New Jersey State Investment Council Director William Clark informed the council that Satellite Fund II LP, which made the loan to Homes for America, was being liquidated and that the state's proceeds would be less than its original $100 million investment.
A spokesman for the investment council said that the state had received $61.2 million of its original investment and could get another $8.9 million more.
A Satellite spokesman declined to comment.
The site's cleanup will be complete later this year, says Paul Adler, whose company, Blackacre Partners OPS LLC, is running the operation.
Mr. Amicone, the Yonkers mayor, says he hopes a buyer comes forward to build the waterfront project as envisioned by Homes for America. "The development potential is tremendous," he said.