By Carol P. Bartold

Sep. 14, 2016:  The path to final approval for Pondfield Court LLC's plans to develop the former Manhattan Storage Building at 100 Pondfield Road into eleven residential condominium units with fourteen ground-floor parking spaces has not quite reached its end. Although the Bronxville Planning Board approved the developer’s site plan at its April 13, 2016, meeting, the village building department must still approve construction drawings for each of the eleven units in the plan.

Sid Blauner, Pondfield Court LLC representative, anticipates an eighteen-month process, at this point, to complete the development project and to secure a certificate of occupancy.

Blauner stated that the developer is completing the construction drawings that are necessary for final approval. He added that the job cannot be put out for general contractor bids until the drawings receive approval. "We expect to get that in about four months," Blauner said. "We'll need about thirty days to come up with costing of the job, and then we'll select a contractor." 

Blauner further stated that because Pondfield Court LLC has incorporated the village building department’s requests, including individual unit size and finishes to be installed within the units in the construction drawings, the developer expects to receive the approvals needed to begin actual work inside the building.

"We have to carefully stage this project since it's in the middle of town," Blauner said. "But nobody will see anything happening with our building because we don't have to build." He noted that virtually all construction, save for exterior brick work, will take place inside the building and not be visible. "You can't see the building from the street anyway," he added.

The developer plans to begin its marketing campaign for the building mid-2017.

Pondfield Court LLC purchased the building in December of 2010. It had been part of the estate of Steen Green, MD, who planned to refurbish the building into a six-story private residence and office with a rooftop swimming pool.

The developer submitted approximately eight versions of its site plan to the Bronxville Planning Board over a four-year period before gaining the board’s approval.

"You need a lot of patience in this business," Blauner said. "That’s why they say it's a virtue."

Pictured here:  100 Pondfield Road (building rising behind the stores).

Photo by N. Bower