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WHAT ONE DEVELOPER DID TO WIN OVER A TOWN

By Donna Mitchell

In addition to shops, the project includes a hiking trail, park benches and a small police station.

Greenfield development brings developers into conflict with environmentalists, while projects on brownfields present their own obstacles; Newman Development Group had to contend with both sets of challenges when it embarked on its Shoppes at Vestal project in upstate New York.

The Vestal, N.Y.-based developer’s mission was to convert an old meatball factory site, part of which consisted of wetland, into an open-air regional shopping center in this town of 27,000, about 70 miles south of Syracuse. Newman Development bought the 13.5-acre site in June 1999 for $1.6 million, by which time it had sat vacant for several years. Success would require solving a variety of environmental and storm water runoff problems, as well as a good deal of diplomacy to placate a development-weary town board.

To begin with, the developer had to avoid damaging the wetland; it had to build most of the Shoppes at Vestal on the eastern two-thirds of the site. But even this required relocating a small creek running through the center of the site, or building around it. Because the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opposed moving the creek, Newman Development buried it in a culvert and put a parking lot over the top.

Next, Newman Development had to figure out a way to reduce existing flooding at nearby businesses, plus any additional overflows that might be triggered by its project. Instead of building a water-retention basin on the site, the company decided to collect and pump the water to an existing basin serving the Town Square Mall, an adjacent shopping center that it had developed previously.

Tackling these problems with gusto was one thing, but Newman Development’s every move was being scrutinized by the town board. To make matters worse, shortly after the company signed the contract to buy the property and was ready to proceed with development, the town elected a new board and supervisor. The supervisor, Andrea Starzak — who is essentially a mayor — has a history of opposing development projects, recalled Kenneth S. Kamlet, the company’s director of legal affairs. The company had clashed with her before; in the late 1980s, when it was developing Town Square Mall, a 625,000-square-foot regional center, she had actively worked against the project, joining with other citizens in a lawsuit.

But Newman Development was not about to be deterred.

“We’d rather tackle the issue up front — we’re definitely hands-on,” said Marc Newman, a partner at the company. Anyway, he had gained valuable experience from previous retail projects the company had developed in Vestal. “Practically every site that we’ve built on in Vestal was a brownfield,” he said. Town Square Mall, anchored by Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and a Barnes & Noble superstore, used to be an asphalt plant; the nearby Parkway Plaza, a 332,000-square-foot power center anchored by Target and Kohl’s, stands on a site once occupied by a huge photo processing facility.

In return for permission to build the Shoppes at Vestal, Newman Development agreed to contribute to the development of the Rail-Trail, a 2.1-mile hiking route along a former rail track that runs through the center, even providing parking, a gazebo, bicycle racks, park benches and a satellite station for the Vestal police.

The Shoppes at Vestal opened in October, anchored by HomeGoods, Michaels and Old Navy; other retailers include Dress Barn and Bath & Body Works.

Undeniably, Vestal needs Newman Development’s properties; not only do they provide a place for people to shop, but their combined property taxes help the town generate as much as one-third of its income, Kamlet said. Like many communities in America’s Northeast and Midwest, Vestal has been abandoned by its once thriving production industries. While some of the old factories were replaced by car dealerships and other businesses, others remained vacant.

“We contribute, through our projects, a very large portion of tax to the town,” Kamlet said. Besides Parkway Plaza, The Shoppes at Vestal and Town Square Mall, Newman Development owns two community centers — Pier 1 Plaza, which includes a Starbucks and Montana Hills Bakery, and the 150,000-square-foot Campus Plaza — and a 300,000-square-foot mixed-use center called Vestal Park.

Even Starzak warmed up to the project, telling SCT that it blends in well with the residential character of the area and preserves open space — something she and other development watchers insist on. And, to boot, the Rail-Trail is a big hit with the town, she said.

“It has certainly increased the quality of life in Vestal tremendously. The residents craved it,” she added.

All the projects are located along a four-mile strip on the Vestal Parkway. The centers and their tenant mixes have been designed to complement each other, Newman Development officials said.

“There really isn’t anything similar in terms of design or types of tenants [within the centers],” said Newman.

To make the Shoppes at Vestal blend even more with its surroundings, Newman Development gave it a design that made reference to the Adirondack Mountain lodge, with gable roofs and extensive landscaping. Ultimately, the project was a hit with residents — even the antidevelopment ones, Newman said. “There was no organized group against the project.”

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