Iona Students Deliver Recommendations for Port Chester Waterfront Activation

Iona University students recently delivered recommendations for the activation of Port Chester’s waterfront after a six-week study organized by the Westchester Innovation Network’s City Labs initiative.

Students from Iona’s Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation recommended public space enhancements; commercial and recreational features; interactive technology; new lighting; greenery; and cultural features like public art or a small stage. Port Chester is targeting about 1,600 feet of waterfront along the Byram River in its downtown stretching from the Bar Taco restaurant to the Costco Wholesale store.

“Our idea for the Port Chester waterfront is to have people visit, but to also stay around and want to keep coming back,” said student Sarina Vietri, who proposed electrified kiosks that would serve as charging stations and wi-fi transmitters. “People can connect to the wi-fi, they can do schoolwork, they can do meetings. They’ll be able to hang out, enjoy the space and put it to good use.”

The students reached their conclusions after interviewing or surveying more than 30 residents, business owners and stakeholders in Port Chester and studying successful waterfront redevelopment projects nationwide. Students combined their research results with online artificial intelligence tools to create artist renderings of public amenities that Port Chester should consider placing along its waterfront.

Port Chester Village Manager Stuart Rabin praised the students’ research.

 “We don’t have a consensus about what’s going down there, which is why this exercise is so valuable to us, to understand your perspective,” said Rabin. “The designs that you have provided, the ideas, I think they are a phenomenal head start.”

The students also recommended a greater communications effort about the waterfront redevelopment by village authorities.

The Iona-Port Chester City Labs collaboration is part of the Business Council of Westchester’s WIN-related efforts to propel innovation as the underpinning for the future economic growth of Westchester. The BCW WIN’s City Labs spotlights a host community and teams that municipality with individuals focused on identifying projects to assist in delivering immediate economic benefit to that community and its residents through innovation.

“You have done an incredible, deep study,” BCW CEO Marsha Gordon told the students after their presentation. “I see presentations that are done by professionals who are charging multi-thousands of dollars and I’ve never seen one as comprehensive as this. Congratulations.”

The Port Chester collaboration was the sixth City Labs project. Previous iterations were in Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Peekskill, White Plains and Yonkers.