Addressing a real estate group this morning, a Forest City Ratner Cos. executive named the first of what promise to be several retail tenants for the $800 million Ridge Hill Village mixed-use campus planned for Yonkers.

Lon Rubackin, senior vice president of acquisition and leasing with Forest City Ratner, said the project’s tenant roster will include anchors such as National Amusements Inc., set to open a Cinema de Lux multi-screen movie theater; as well as Whole Foods Market Inc. and a new 170,000-square-foot store for The Home Depot.

While Foods will open a 70,000-square-foot market – almost double the size of the chain’s store within The Source at White Plains, a Fortunoff-anchored retail center.

Home Depot, Rubackin added, pounced on Ridge Hill Village after learning that its arch-rival, Lowe’s Home Improvement, had begun talks with Forest City Ratner.

“Their chairman heard we were negotiating with Lowe’s and said, ‘We can’t let Lowe’s in. Go make a deal with those guys.’ So we’ve signed with Home Depot to go on a pad location,” he said.

Home Depot now occupies a 115,000-square-foot store across Interstate 87 from Ridge Hill Village, at the Austin Avenue campus; it was not immediately known if that store will close.

Catalog retail giant L.L. Bean will open one of its first brick-and-mortar stores in the state at Ridge Hill Village. Other retailers signing leases for space at Ridge Hill Village include apparel chains Banana Republic and New York & Company.

Forest City Ratner is in lease talks, he added, with Abercrombie & Fitch, Sephora and Victoria’s Secret.

“We’re also desperately trying to talk to as many local retailers as possible, especially those in food and entertainment,” Rubackin said.

Rubackin and John Swaggerty, director of development with Forest City Ratner, addressed a meeting of NAIOP’s New York City, Westchester & Fairfield County chapter. The chapter met at 360 Hamilton Ave., the 365,000-square-foot downtown White Plains trophy building owned and managed by the new Reckson division of SL Green Realty Corp.

MORE RIDGE HILL
Construction start “no later than July” for 2009 opening;
4,000 permanent jobs, $62M per year in taxes projected;
‘Not worried’ on federal subpoena of council records
By ALEX PHILIPPIDIS :: March 16, 2007

During his half-hour talk, Rubackin said construction for Ridge Hill Village would start by July and run more than two years. The project is set to be completed in October 2009.

Ridge Hill Village consists of 1.2 million square feet of retail space, a 200-room hotel-conference center, and 160,000 square feet of office space, and 1,000 housing units.

“What we’re doing at Ridge Hill is building not the tri-state area’s first, but certainly its largest and most dominating center,” Rubackin said.

The housing will be split between rental apartments and condominiums, with the condos to be sold off to another developer. The office space is being marketed by CB Richard Ellis for occupancy after BAE Systems vacates at year’s end.

“It’s not inconceivable that if the office market remains quiet, it might be that part of the building will be converted to retail,” Rubackin said.

‘Not worried’ on federal subpoena of council records

The Ridge Hill Village work proceeds as the office of U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia is investigating unspecified actions by the Yonkers City Council. Because the federal probe has subpoenaed council records and recordings of meetings going back to 2004 -- the year the project began detailed reviews – officials have speculated that a focus of the investigation may be the council’s deliberations on Ridge Hill.

A Forest City Ratner spokesman, Ed Tagliaferri, today released the text of a statement by the developer on the federal subpoena:

“We at Forest City Ratner Companies first learned about this when we were called by a reporter.  We have not been contacted by any authorities and have not been asked to supply any information.

“We know that everything we did to advance Ridge Hill Village was done properly and legally and are not worried about what any investigation might turn up.  We are proud of our history with this project and, should we be asked, we will of course work cooperatively with any agency looking into those actions.

 “What we are concerned about is the rampant and uninformed speculation that has been going on in the press.  It is apparent that except for the investigating agency, no one knows the real subject of the investigation, so we advise everyone to proceed carefully and refrain from tarring innocent parties with any broad strokes.

 “After three years of debate and delay, Ridge Hill Village - which will bring over 9,500 jobs and over $60 million annually in tax revenues - is finally moving forward and very close to becoming a reality for Yonkers.  We are currently preparing the site and will begin construction in the spring. We expect Ridge Hill Village to open in 2009.”

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