BCW’s Smart Development Coalition Hosts a Very Productive Roundtable with State Lawmakers

As Westchester’s leading advocate for business and economic development, The Business Council of Westchester and its Coalition for Smart Development, which consists of 17 of the leading real estate developers in the region, hosted an unprecedented roundtable yesterday with Westchester County’s state lawmakers for a very productive discussion of issues impacting real estate development and the county’s economy.

Among the topics discussed were Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed Housing Compact plan; proposed legislation that would reduce the powers of Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) which provide critically important financial incentives for development; and the Good Cause Eviction bill that would make it illegal for landlords to evict tenants unless they violated the lease agreement and places limits on how much a landlord can raise rents each year. The Coalition offered to give recommendations that the Legislature can consider during the course of the next few weeks as they’re negotiating the state’s budget.

Attending from the state were Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Senator Peter Harckham, Senator Shelley Mayor, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, Assemblyman Steve Otis, Assemblyman Chris Burdick, Assemblywoman Mary Jane Shimsky, Assemblyman Matt Slater and Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg.

Members of the BCW’s Coalition for Smart Development who participated in the rounded table included Joseph Apicella of MacQuestin Development; Martin Berger of Saber Fund; Moshe Botnick of Extell Corp; Peter Chavkin of Biddle Real Estate Ventures; Kenneth Finger of Finger and Finger; Tim Foley of Builders Institute; David Garten of RXR Realty; Larry Gottlieb of Robert Martin Company; Kevin J. Plunkett of Simone Development Companies; Alexander Shapanka of RXR Realty; JD Summa of Kings Capital Construction; Jim Surdoval of Ginsburg Development Companies, and Mark Weingarten of DelBello Donnellan Weingarten  Wise & Wiederkehr

“The Business Council of Westchester is very fortunate to have such excellent access to our members of the state delegation. We want to continue to be a resource for them as they tackle some of these really important issues over the next few months,” said BCW Executive Vice President and COO John Ravitz.

Ravitz said the next action item that comes out of the meeting will be to provide a list of recommendations from the coalition members. “These are the leaders who have invested and made a major commitment to Westchester County by creating thousands of new housing units and as well as bringing in new tax revenue and creating construction jobs for our county’s economy,” he said.