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DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. With the recent announcement of a lease with Sundance Cinemas, the Rivertowns Square project has taken on a slightly different appearance.
This is a much different direction than the project originally had, said Dobbs Ferry Mayor Hartley Connett.
The addition of the theater complex allows Rivertowns Square to alter some of its previous plans, including the downsizing of a massive supermarket.
What the theater allowed us to do is to attract a 20,000 square foot smaller gourmet supermarket or market, which is a significantly smaller market than the 55,000 or the 35,000 square foot one from previous plans, said Martin Berger, principal of Saber Real Estate Advisors, the developer of the project.
Berger compared the new grocery store to the size of DeCiccos in Ardsley. The theater will replace the former supermarket location on Livingstone Avenue and there will also be 15,000 square feet of restaurants, 35,000-40,000 square feet of retail shopping space, a 120 room branded hotel and a multistory residential building with 226 units and a parking garage. Developers did say they were discussing the potential of dropping the residential building down to 202 units, which would reduce it from four stories to three.
The board of trustees is awaiting a Final Environmental Impact Statement from the developers before the project can be subject to public hearings and potentially approved or altered. The project would still need approval from various other boards in the village, but the board of trustees is acting as the lead agency for the process.
The Final Environmental Impact Statement for the development will be finished in about 35 to 40 days, according to Berger, as they are continuing traffic studies along with hoping to announce the supermarket tenant soon.
I believe that the consultants are absolutely sure that theres a significant reduction in traffic as well as the traffic coming from local streets and theyll prove that out, Berger said. The traffic that the cinema has is off-peak from the peak traffic of businesses and that really solves a significant problem.
The changes to the plan has been met with mixed reviews, but local business owner Linzi Jean Fastiggi, who owns Spice Revolution, said its just what the village needs.
It will bring many people and help the economy of the whole town, which will in turn lower taxes, she said. I was so excited I spoke to every customer that came into my store about it. Everyone responded positively. Many people liked the cultural significance of the theater being here.
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