Westchester County is seeking nominations through March 15 for a new award intended to honor Stanley Schear, the pastry shop operator-turned advocate for affordable housing and other causes.

Nominees “must have exhibited vision and action that has produced a measurable outcome in one of more of six areas: Advocacy for people in need, skill building to assist in greater independence, service coordination in linking people to community resources, respectful and compassionate quality of service delivery, philanthropic achievement and coalition building,” according to the county’s announcement of the award.

The new award will be presented at the first annual Stanley Schear Legislative Breakfast on April 20 at The Woodlands at Ardsley by the Senior Housing and Services Coalition of the county Department of Senior Programs and Services.

Schear led the coalition as part of his activism, which was years ahead of his time in bringing attention to Westchester’s problems of scant affordable housing and homelessness -- more than a decade before a consensus of business and government leaders was forced to agree. He died April 8, 2006, at age 77, of esophageal cancer.

Also at the breakfast, the coalition will announce legislation regarding affordable housing and senior housing services. Co-sponsoring the event was the Westchester Non-Profit Housing Coalition, Family Services of Westchester and Woodlands Senior Housing.

Martin Ginsburg told the Business Journal he’s still planning to develop his $200 million Pinnacle condo-retail tower approved for downtown White Plains, including its 52-unit affordable-housing component. But Louis R. Cappelli doesn’t appear to be convinced.
“We’re still plugging ahead. We have some issues that we still have to straighten out, but we’re working on it,” Ginsburg said during a wide ranging interview on a host of development topics. Keep checking Deals & Deeds for additional Ginsburg updates.

Despite winning approvals twice – the second time for revised plans last year – Ginsburg has yet to break ground on Pinnacle. One key holdup is his need to secure financing from a host of public sources for the project’s affordable portion, projected last fall to cost $17 million. Another potential roadblock came last fall when the dry-cleaning solvent perchlorethylene (perc) was discovered under the Main Street site, as reported exclusively in the Business Journal at the time. “We think we can handle it,” Ginsburg said Pinnacle would consist of a Michael Graves-designed 28-story building with 171 luxury condominium apartments, plus 66,034 square feet of retail and restaurant space, on Main Street adjacent to Cappelli’s City Center at White Plains complex. Units at Pinnacle would sell from the $500,000 range to $3 million for the two largest penthouses.

Last fall the city’s Common Council extended its approval of Pinnacle to April, to allow Ginsburg time to secure financing for the affordable apartments.

The affordable component houses units that are owed to the city by Ginsburg and Cappelli in return for municipal approvals on four luxury apartment projects – the 171 high-end condos Ginsburg would build at Pinnacle, plus the Cappelli-built One City Place (owned by JP Morgan Asset Management), Trump Tower and Renaissance Square.

Cappelli is asking White Plains officials for approvals to convert 16,000 square feet of unleased commercial space on the roof level of the City Center garage into 22 apartments. The request was officially sent to department heads for review this morning at a special meeting of the city’s Common Council.

The apartments would be market-rate rentals should Ginsburg build Pinnacle as planned. But if Pinnacle plans fall through, Cappelli would lease the units at below-market rents.

“What if Martin doesn’t do it? We like to have contingencies. We want to back ourselves up,” said Bruce Berg, executive vice president with Cappelli Enterprises Inc., in an interview. “Worse comes to worse, he doesn’t get it done, and we have a place we can then convert to affordable. If he does get it done, then we just make them market-rate housing and we continue on our merry way.”

Berg said the space was previously envisioned to house the Fountain Spa, but a lease deal fell through. The spa – originally slated to open in 2005 -- was supposed to have 14 treatment rooms, whirlpools, hair and nail salons, and a rooftop atrium.

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