New York, Westchester & Boston NYW&B Heathcote Station

The former Heathcote Station of the New York, Westchester and Boston Railroad at 300 Heathcote Road in Scarsdale is back up for sale following unsuccessful negotiations between the Village of Scarsdale and Frederick S. Fish #32 / S. Oder, T.I.C., the highest responder to last Spring's Request For Proposals for the sale and restoration of the property.

In a November 9, 2007 letter to Village Manager Al Gatta, Frederick Fish formally withdrew his group's bid on the property, citing their "particular concern over the Village desire for us not to inspect the Heathcoat (sic) Ambulance building."

At the November 27, 2007 Village Board meeting, the trustees unanimously passed a resolution "to commence a new RFP process." The resolution requests the Village Manager to "advertise de novo the sale and preservation of the 300 Heathcote Road building." While there was no discussion among the trustees prior to the vote, Mayor Noreen Fisher commented at the meeting that the Village had "received some indications of interest in this property that we were not aware of before."

The Village re-issued the RFP on December 14, 2007 and posted it in its entirety on the Village website at the following link:

http://www.scarsdale.com/LinkClick.aspx ... 36&mid=549

The RFP mentions two important dates worthy of note:

Pre-Submission Conference
Thursday, January 24, 2008, 3 p.m.
3rd Floor Meeting Room, Scarsdale Village Hall, 1001 Post Road

Bid Submission Deadline: Friday, February 29, 2008

The Heathcote Station was determined to be individually eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places by the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) in the early 1980s and was listed on the Westchester County Inventory of Historic Places in 1988.

The Heathcote Station's condition may be slowly deteriorating, but this past Friday it became increasingly clear that its popularity is spiking.

Whereas only two bid proposals were received last April in response to the first RFP for the sale and restoration of the building at 300 Heathcote Road, by last Friday's noon deadline, the Village of Scarsdale's Treasurer's Office had received seven bid proposals in response to the re-issued RFP. With Mayor Noreen Fisher and Trustee Dan Hochvert among those looking on, the bid submissions were opened publicly in the Trustee's room at Scarsdale Village Hall.

Rabin Alexander, LLC, a White Plains-based multi-million dollar real estate company, submitted the highest bid at $355,500. Two LP Corporation, headed by Scarsdale resident and real estate agent Jonathan Lerner, submitted the second highest bid at $335,000. Dr. Carol E. Tetenbaum, a Scarsdale resident and Hartsdale-based internist had the third highest bid at $275,000.

Perhaps most striking is that Rabin Alexander's bid is more than $100,000 higher than the highest bid received last April in response to the first 300 Heathcote Road RFP. F.S. Fish had the highest bid at $250,000 last spring but withdrew his bid in November. The Village Board chose to re-issue the RFP instead of awarding the sale of the building to the only other bidder, the partnership of Doug Brout and Brad Perkins. The wisdom of the Board's decision was validated yesterday as four of the seven bids received in response to the re-issued RFP exceeded Fish's bid amount from last spring. Brout bid again under a newly created corporation, Heathcote Corners LLC. But despite his new bid being $20,000 higher than Fish's from last spring, it was only good for fourth highest this time around.

The remaining bids came from Scarsdale residents Keith Schutzman, a Yonkers-based real estate attorney ($228,000); Varun Gosain, a Manhattan-based hedge fund manager ($161,000); and Jordan Rosner, a volunteer EMT with the Scarsdale Volunteer Ambulance Corps ($25,000).

Rabin Alexander's bid was somewhat unexpected as the firm did not have any representatives in attendance at the January 24 Pre-Bid Submission Conference and had not publicly expressed any interest in the property before submitting its bid proposal. According to its official website, the company "is principally engaged in the acquisition, development, ownership and management of premier commercial and residential real estate throughout the country," and "controls and manages a portfolio of retail centers, apartment communities and office buildings including more than 2,700 residential units and over 300,000 square feet of office space.” The website does not mention any experience or expertise in the restoration of historic buildings.

The bid from Two LP Corporation was expected as its founder, Jonathan Lerner, had attended the Pre-Bid Submission Conference and had posted messages on the Heathcote Station Forum on the Railroad.net web site in January in which he stated his intention to bid on the property. In his post on January 15, Lerner stated that his plan is to “create and office / museum geared to local history.” Lerner added that one of his goals is “to return the building back in time to how it appeared b4 the SVAC modified it.” In a January 28 post, Lerner added that “it really would be grand to restore not only the outside as the village requests, but to restore the inside back to its original greatness.”

Lerner is a real estate agent with Houlihan Lawrence and a coin dealer who founded Scarsdale Coin.

While the bid amounts are certain to be a major factor in the Village Board’s determination of which bidder to award the sale to, it is my hope that the Board will put the greatest emphasis on the quality of each bidder’s plan for the preservation and restoration of the building. The RFP clearly states that the Village Board has that discretion:

"The Village of Scarsdale reserves the right to accept or reject any and all proposals for any reason and reserves the right to waive any minor variations in bid submissions and to select the proposal which, in the opinion of the Village board of trustees, is in the best interest of the Village."

In the near future, I hope to obtain copies of the bid proposals submitted. When I do I will share them with you.

--Andy Bass

The new owner of the Heathcote Station, Heathcote Station Corp., headed by Jon Lerner of Scarsdale, has an application before the Scarsdale Planning Board this evening seeking site plan approval for the restoration and reuse of the landmark 1912 building at 300 Heathcote Road. The meeting will take place tonight, Wednesday, September 24, 2008, at 8 p.m. in Scarsdale Village Hall, located at 1001 Post Road.

The new owner proposes to restore the building to its original appearance and use it as a real estate office. Among the areas that the Planning Board will likely focus on at tonight's meeting are parking and the flow of both traffic and pedestrians around the site. Public comments are welcome at tonight's meeting.