RCS - Commercial Real Estate Blog

Joel & Danni Unlock a World of Real Estate Wealth

  

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With interest rates at historic lows, and incredible bargains available in our local market, more and more of my clients are investing their money in real estate. Watch this short video and find out how almost anyone can get started today with very little down!

Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeZJ1e-H4_w

Then contact me at christy.gendalia@randcommercial.com or at (914) 755-8955 for a FREE consultation and to get a list of investment properties currently available in your area.

Marking a 30 year milestone

  

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The Holocaust Museum and Study Center in Spring Valley marked its 30 years of educating the public and commemorating the Holocuast at its annual benefit dinner in November.

The event honored Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, who received the museum’s Leadership Award. Alan Moskin, a World War II veteran and liberator of the Gunskirchen concentration camp, received the Education Award.

Approximately 150 attended the event at the New York County Club in New Hempstead. Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenburg, a former chairman of the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., was the featured speaker.

From left, honoree Christopher St. Lawrence with with Nanci and Mary and Paul Adler

Homeland Security funds off limits to Rockland County Jewish groups

  

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In recent years, Jewish groups around the country have been extremely successfully in procuring funds from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. But Rockland County, with one of the largest Jewish populations in the country, is ineligible for those funds.

And there are plenty around the county who would like to see that changed.

Many Jewish organizations around the country have received funds through the Department of Homeland Security’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program. They qualify as tax-exempt non-profits, and are within 31 locations designated by the Urban Areas Security Initiative as high-risk urban areas. Since the program started in 2005, Homeland Security has granted $118 million to not-for-profits.

In an analysis performed by The Jewish Forward in September, 73.7 percent of that went to Jewish organizations from 2007 to 2010. And when the grants were announced in 2011, 81 percent were designated to Jewish organizations.

Yet Rockland remains out of this lucrative loop, while other areas in New York State benefit. New York City, Westchester and Long Island have all qualified, bolstering security for local institutions with the funds.

“Rockland is not part of the urban area and is ineligible,” said David Pollock, associate director and director of government relations for the Jewish Community Relations Council. “The Jewish Federation is trying to get it so at least non-urban areas will be able to apply for funds. It might be a synagogue with 1,000 members in Rockland is more visible and more at risk than a synagogue with 200 members in Brooklyn.”

Chairwoman of the Rockland County Legislature Harriet Cornell started the Homeland Security Task Force in 2005, her first year as chairwoman of the legislature. The task force has brought together officials from around the county to develop ways to better protect residents and institutions.

“Being a suburban community doesn’t insulate us,” Cornell said of the potential for acts of terror. “We know from past events that even if terrorists are attacking an urban area, they often times start out or end up in a nearby suburb.

“It’s very aggravating that we were left out of federal funding stream that was going to metropolitan areas.”

Cornell added that areas eligible for funding were determined partly by federal lobbying, and that the state legislature has tried unsuccessfully over the years to get funds through various bills. The task force has met plenty, targeting potential weaknesses.

“We were trying to identify the areas of concern, like transportation, and sensitive places in the community, like utility companies,” said Cornell. “We tried to really think in terms of how to really protect the public. Consequently, we really worked with a whole variety of organizations in the county. We got utilities companies to create security plans. The same was true of large malls, religious communities, schools.”

Now, for example, each bus in the county has its number painted on top, so that it could be easily identified from the air. Another initiative passed required businesses to inform local police if parts that could be used in manufacturing a bomb were purchased or stolen in large quantities.

The meetings, according to Cornell, which still take place about two or three times a year, bring in people from various law enforcement agencies with local officials and people in the community.

Nonetheless, without funds, there’s only so much a task force can do. Rockland’s proximity to New York, in itself, should help it qualify for the money, Cornell said.

Rockland’s large Jewish population makes it also a potentially vulnerable target. In 2009, four men were arrested for plotting to blow up two synagogues in Riverdale, within an hour drive of Rockland. At the time, it was reported that the Rockland Jewish Community Campus had been considered a potential target.

“What we heard later was that they couldn’t figure out how to get away quick enough,” said Paul Adler, a former JCC president who was named chairman of the Jewish Federation of Rockland County’s security task force that was formed after the Riverdale incident. “More than 130,000 cars pass by that a day, it’s one of the most visible buildings in the county, and they just couldn’t figure out how to get out quick enough. I never complain now trying to drive out of that parking lot.”

Homeland Security funds have allowed Jewish organizations across the United States, from day schools and synagogues to JCCs and museums to beef up their security. The funds cannot be used for security personnel, but are earmarked for capital improvements such as security cameras, stronger doors and windows and enhancements to the building.

JCC Rockland CEO David Kirschtel was circumspect about campus security and what, if any, additions he’d like to make. But agreed the funds could be of use if Rockland were eligible.

“You’d always love to have the additional opportunities to have additional funding,” he said. “We’re close to New York City, and we should get funding.”

Other local Jewish organizations are also grappling with security issues. Jerry Nejman, president of New City Jewish Center, said the center recently installed security cameras on site.

“The question of putting in things to help the security has been there for years,” he said. “Everybody has security on their minds.”

Nejman said that because it’s a difficult time to raise money for a lot of organizations, any additional funding would be helpful, especially funding for security.

“I think the funding should be open to any organization any place,” he said. “It’s not only where you’re located, but it’s if you are a target, and unfortunately, there is a lot of anti-Semitism in the world making synagogues targets.”

He added that any place that can be a target, whether it’s a synagogue or church, should be able to get the funds. He also said it might be beneficial to work with local law enforcement, or any security organization, to train workers in these buildings.

One thing Adler thinks Homeland Security funds could do to benefit Rockland is pay for training on how to handle and react in certain situations.

“We have to remember we live in a time where we have to be alert and on the lookout at all times,” he said.

Recently, Adler attended the Holocaust Museum and Study Center’s annual Kristallnacht remembrance ceremony on the steps of the Rockland County Courthouse. Someone informed him there was an unattended backpack in the bushes, and that nobody had come to check on it for more than 20 minutes. The man didn’t want Adler to get nervous, but just wanted to see if anything should be done.

Adler called the Rockland County Sheriff’s Department to come check it out, and they arrived without any sirens or flashing lights so as to not to panic the crowd. Adler said they carefully inspected the backpack, which it turned out belonged to a kid involved with the program and just didn’t know where else to put it.

“But to see that officer slowly opening the zipper, because who knows if there’s something in there, and if so, what could trigger it, really hit home as to the time we live in,” he said.

Adler said that Rockland County Sheriff-elect Lou Falco told him and the man that first noticed the bag that what they did was absolutely the right way to handle the situation.

Adler thinks that anti-Semitism could be an unexpected side effect from being locked out of funding. People may not want to move or live near Jewish buildings and neighborhoods if they fear they could be targets.

“It might not be people who have a problem with Jewish people, but if they are continually targets of attacks, people who live close by are going to start saying, ‘If Jews weren’t so prominent, we wouldn’t be targets as well,’” Adler said.

He added that while the target of the attack might be a Jewish organization, it will affect non-Jews as well, another reason he thinks Rockland should be eligible for homeland security.

“You have the first responders, and many of them aren’t Jewish. They’re the ones who if something does happen are going to be the first people there and trying to rescue people. And remember, in our area, many of them are volunteers as well,” Adler said. “But not only that, but not everyone that works at a Jewish organization or in a Jewish school is actually Jewish. So those people are in danger too. It’s not only an issue of Jewish safety. We are all one in Rockland.”

January 2012

http://www.jewishrockland.org/page.aspx?id=249531

10 Simple Steps for Making 2012 a Success

  

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http://livemag.rismedia.com

Paul Adler selected as 2011 Outstanding Philanthropist in Rockland County

  

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Paul Adler, vice president of Rand Commercial Services, has been selected as the 2011 Outstanding Philanthropist in Rockland by the Rockland Development Council, an independent organization fostering philanthropy through professional development.

HV Biz - week of December 5, 2011

Marsha Rand and her four sons honored with Rockland EDC's Award of Distinction

  

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Marsha Rand and her four sons – Matt, Greg, Joe and Dan – who established a premiere real estate services company, were top 2011 achievers.

Marsha Rand and her sons were honored with Rockland EDC's Award of Distinction.  The former registered nurse turned to real estate as a way to stay more closely connected to her growing family.  The result?  A family business, now Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty, with 800 sales associates and several complementary service, including commercial, mortgage, title insurance and abstract services.  The small office Marsha Rand started on her own in 1979 has become the top-rated real estate brokerage firm in the Hudson Vally, with 25 offices in Rockland, Westchester, Orange, Putnam and Dutchess.

Fitness Centers Pump up a Weak Market in Commercial Real Estate!

  

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Sports and fitness center projects are reviving vacant buildings and underused properties and adding new muscle to Westchester County’s weak commercial real estate market.

In Ardsley, a family partnership is rebuilding vacant industrial office and warehouse space as a year-round sports facility.

In Harrison, a Minnesota-based company has won key approvals to develop an approximately $45 million fitness center to replace a closing newspaper plant. And owners of a swim-instruction company plan to construct a pool building next year at a nearby Harrison office-park enclave.

Donald Scherer, CEO of Elm Street Sports Group, plans to convert this Ardsley warehouse into a year-round indoor sports center.

In Ardsley, Elm Street Sports Group L.L.C. has begun demolition work for its House of Sports, an 85,000-square-foot sports and recreational facility at 1 Elm St. The owners expect construction on the project, estimated at $12 million to $14 million, to be completed next summer in time for a September 2012 grand opening.

It is the first sports venture for partners in the company headed by CEO Donald Scherer. Principals include Scherer’s mother, Joan Scherer, and the CEO’s sister and brother-in-law, Stephanie and Ira Israel. The Scherers sold their former business, CrossBorder Solutions, an international tax software company, to the Thompson Reuters Corp. in 2007. Their House of Sports business operates from the Ardsley office of the family’s former startup enterprise, Ballyhoo Software.

An architect’s rendering of House of Sports at 1 Elm St., Ardsley

Elm Street Sports group this fall paid $3.9 million to acquire the office and warehouse building at 1 Elm St. in a deal brokered by Paul Adler and Ann K. Silver at Rand Commercial Services. Located between the Saw Mill River Parkway and I-87, the two-story building was vacated a few years ago by Selecto Products Inc., a non-foods general merchandiser for supermarkets, Adler said.

Donald Scherer said the new owners will add a third story to the building and use the first floor for parking space. The second level will hold 30,000 square feet of playing courts with a café and party rooms occupying the former industrial tenant’s office and showroom space.

The building’s mezzanine will be rebuilt as an 11,000-square-foot performance training center that will include a sprint track. The third floor will hold a 265-foot-by-120-foot turf field.

Scherer said the facility will focus on training-academy programs in basketball, soccer, lacrosse and baseball for children from ages 2 through 18. “Our sweet spot is probably the elementary and junior high” students not yet involved in high school sports, he said. Adult sports leagues and programs will operate during hours when the center is not used by children.

The House of Sports is expected to create 13 full-time jobs, 16 part-time jobs and 25 seasonal part-time jobs.

Unlike domed athletic facilities in the area, “We’re building a traditional steel building. This will be the first fully functional indoor sports center in Westchester,” Scherer said.

“We’re giving kids a place to play,” he said. “There’s a shortage of indoor recreational space” in Westchester.

Another aspiring new player in the Westchester market could pose potential competition for the House of Sports in the town of Greenburgh. Tarrytown-based Game On 365 L.L.C. has proposed to build the Westchester Field House, a 94,000-square-foot air dome, as part of a year-round recreational complex at a former nursery at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road.

Scherer, though, said he does not expect that project to pass an environmental review because of 345-kilovolt power lines that cross the property, which he said could pose a health risk to children from electromagnetic exposure. Ground contamination from the former nursery operation also could require a costly clean-up by the developer, he said.

Robert F. Gould, CEO of Game On 365, said the power lines on his company’s proposed development were not considered a health hazard. “In our investigation we did not consider it to be an obstacle, nor have we been told by any town or public official that it is.”

“If the power lines pose a problem, the private golf course across the street would need to close too…It goes across everybody’s properties,” he said.
Gould said his company in its proposal to the town recommended a public-private partnership for any environmental clean-up. He said the developer is prepared to do any required remediation for an oil spill that has been reported on the site.

The Greenburgh town board is expected to act on three developers’ proposals for the nursery property by Dec. 6 and close on a development agreement by Dec. 30.

The Westchester County Industrial Development Agency has tentatively approved financial assistance for the Ardsley project and for a 209,000-square-foot fitness center to be built at 1 Gannett Drive in Harrison.

In Harrison, Life Time Fitness Inc. expects to close on its purchase of a 22.4-acre site from Gannett Satellite Information Network Inc., after the Harrison Town Board recently approved a special use permit for the project. Based in Chanhassen, Minn., Life Time, a publicly traded company that operates 90 health and fitness centers in 20 states, plans to build a two-story health spa, fitness and tennis center at the Gannett Office Park site.

Demolition of the 232,000-square-foot office and warehouse complex occupied by The Journal News, Gannett’s daily regional newspaper, could begin mid-2012, followed by the start of construction in early 2013, a Life Time representative recently told county IDA officials. The center could open in 2014.

Gannett last year relocated its printing operations and 166 jobs to New Jersey amid a series of downsizings across the company’s chain of newspapers. Its remaining Journal News staff is expected to relocate in Harrison in 2012.

Harrison town officials also have approved a zoning change to allow owners of Aqua Tots Westchester to build a 6,000-sqaure-foot, one-story building at 45 W. Red Oak Lane. Owners and sisters Aileen Crampton Bucciero and Fiona Crampton Kearney are awaiting approval from county health officials of their plans for a four-lane, 60-foot pool on the property, where a small residence will be demolished.

Aqua Tots Westchester currently rents the Manhattanville College pool for its instructional programs for children. Bucciero said they hope to open their own facility by January 2013.