Yonkers is seeing a flurry of residential development

Fancy a home by the Hudson River with beautiful water views? Meet Hudson Piers, a large development by the river, which begins leasing this fall in Yonkers.

Yes, that Yonkers — the Westchester city just north of New York City limits with a reputation as a drive-through kind of town, with a blue-collar past and not much presence. It’s becoming an even more attractive destination for renters on the hunt for a new home, and New York-area developers are responding to the heat with thousands of units now in the pipeline.

Hudson Piers, a development from Extell — who was behind One57 and Central Park Tower on Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row — will eventually number six buildings. The first two to be leased include 369 apartments and roughly 10,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space.

“Yonkers has been up and coming for a while,” Moshe Botnick, senior vice president of development at Extell, told The Post. “It’s now poised to be the next New York borough.”

“There’s been a lot of [development] activity, but ours is the largest undeveloped parcel,” he added of the company’s massive Hudson Piers project, right on Yonkers’ downtown waterfront.

Apartments there range from studios to three-bedrooms. Pricing starts with 528-square-foot studios from $2,500 per month; 662-square-foot one-bedrooms from $2,950; 1,052-square-foot two-beds from $4,000; while 1,285-square-foot three-beds top the lot, starting at $4,950.

One aspect attracting developers these days is the city administration’s eagerness to shape its downtown into a livable modern backdrop for the community, and with riverfront access.

“The city has a great vision for what’s possible here,” Botnick said. “You have all this waterfront living … There will eventually be 1.5 miles of contiguous waterfront promenade running by our buildings that’s open to the public.”

Another developer, AMS Acquisitions, has multiple lots primed for new buildings that are currently in development. Its completed projects include the Trolley Lofts, an adaptive-reuse building at 92 Main St. in Getty Square.

Among those new residential projects is the now-empty site where the historic Teutonia Hall once stood on Buena Vista Street. That was built around 1891 as a social space for German immigrants, but fell into disuse in latter years and was demolished. AMS bought it as a vacant lot, and will build two apartment towers there, adding 906 apartments to Yonkers’ downtown.

AMS’s Chicken Island development at 20 Palisade Ave., another multiple-building development, will bring 2,000 apartments to the market. That’s expected to break ground in 2025.

Meanwhile, renters on the prowl don’t need to wait for that housing to become available. At the Trolley Lofts, there are 40 apartments, most boasting 22-foot ceilings. Studios have around 900 square feet and start at $2,850 per month; one-bedrooms range from 1,250 to 1,500 square feet, and start at $3,150 per month.

Built in 1903 by the Yonkers Railroad Company, the trolley barn, as it was known, served as a storage and maintenance facility, as well as the company’s office. It’s is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the only surviving trolley barn in Westchester County.

The location puts residents steps from the handsome Beaux-Arts Yonkers Station, designed by Grand Central Terminal architects Warren and Wetmore in 1911, which was renovated in 2021. Now part of Metro-North, trains whiz passengers into Manhattan in about 30 minutes, which is a big driver for bringing in new residents who also want access to big-city life — or who commute to work in Manhattan. Or both.

“You have water views that are amazing and a train station right there,” Michael Mitnick, principal at AMS Acquisitions, told The Post. “The landscape leaves room for development and there are the beautiful parks, and a development-friendly administration.”

Mitnick said the uncovering of the formerly concrete flume-covered Saw Mill River, a tributary of the Hudson River, has brought an elemental liveliness to the cityscape, too.

“It’s adding to the beauty of the area, it’s very scenic,” he added.

AMS also built the co-work Hudson Hub space downtown.

“All of this adds a lot of vibrancy to the downtown,” said Mitnick. “It enables more business and more shoppers. Yonkers’ main street was doing okay, but now it will have really vibrant retail.”

What’s more, there are new art galleries, downtown arts programming and a weekly farmers’ market on the grounds of 1600s-built Philipse Manor Hall on Warburton Avenue.

“What’s going to attract renters is the idea of an attractive lifestyle, downtown and at home,” said Botnick. “We’re going to be offering the most extensive amenity package — something along the lines of luxury New York City apartment buildings.”

Indoor amenities at the two completed Hudson Piers buildings coming to market this fall include 24-hour main desk concierges, fitness centers with yoga and spin studios, private screening rooms, waterfront lounges, business centers with conference rooms, indoor playrooms, game rooms, plus indoor parking and bicycle storage.

Outdoor perks include landscaped terraces with fire pits, a saltwater swimming pool accompanied by cabanas and grilling stations, a bocce court, a putting green and a dog park. Future phases of the project will add an indoor swimming pool and indoor basketball court.

“What we’re seeing in Yonkers is we’re attracting the renter who wants the waterfront location, extensive amenities and a high level of finish,” Botnick said. “It really is that combination.”

Views from Hudson Piers will be peerless he said. “You can see past the George Washington Bridge and to the Mario Cuomo Bridge to the north.”

Still, it’s the spectacular New Jersey Palisades across the Hudson that take top place.

“Those high cliffs, covered in greenery in the spring and summer,” Botnick said. “Now as fall comes in, the leaves are turning. It’s just beautiful.”