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thedrifter
11-19-07, 08:06 AM
The Marines are landing in White Plains sizzling real estate market
By KEITH EDDINGS
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: November 19, 2007)

WHITE PLAINS - The U.S. Marines are taking their search for the few and the proud to some of region's prime real estate, a 5,100-square-foot Mamaroneck Avenue storefront across the street from the Ritz-Carlton with an annual rent topping $300,000.


The lease doesn't include parking, meaning the three Marine recruiters moving from the storefront they now occupy on East Post Road still will be staring down the barrels of local meter maids, who have slapped $90,000 worth of tickets on the windshields of their government vehicles since 2001, making them the city's biggest scofflaws.


"I got the rent I wanted," said Bob Ellis, a landlord and broker in the city for 53 years, who owns the one-story building at 20 Mamaroneck Ave. that the Marines will share with recruiters from the Army, National Guard and Air Force. "I had other offers - ridiculous offers, $38 a (square) foot or so. I've been in the business a couple of weeks now. I know the projections."


The $60-a-square foot annual rent for the recruitment center that the Marines, Army, Air Force and Guard will split is twice what rents around the Mamaroneck Avenue-Main Street intersection were just three years ago. That was before Louis Cappelli built City Center and the Ritz and turned the downtown crossroads into a "green zone" for gentrification.


Next door to the Marines' new home, a People's Bank branch is paying $76 a square foot for a storefront that fetched less than a third of that before a Payless ShoeSource outlet gave it up and made way for the bank.


Sue Hopkins, a spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers, which negotiates real estate deals for the armed forces, said the $300,000-a-year cost of the Mamaroneck Avenue recruitment center is a bargain considering the Marines are sharing it with three other service branches.


"The client has been trying to move from the present location for some time," Hopkins said, referring to the storefront at 150 E. Post Road that the Marines have occupied for more than 20 years. "Because the market is so hot in White Plains, we had difficulty finding a property. There are others in the area that are going for a lot more - $80 a square foot on the same block."


Watchdogs of government spending are not impressed.


"The bottom line is that there's very little comparison shopping that happens when taxpayer money is used, whether it's recruitment space or buying cell phones," said David Williams, vice president for policy for Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington, D.C., group. "You look not only at the cost, but are you really going to have successful recruiting in a, quote, high-end neighborhood? I don't think down the block from a Ritz-Carlton is a prime area for recruits."


At their current Main Street home, the Marines enlisted 40 soldiers in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, said Cpl. Catherine Folan, a spokesman for the Marines. All but five made it to boot camp.


Paul Wood, top aide to Mayor Joseph Delfino, said other businesses in the new neighborhood make it a good fit for military recruiters.


"You have a large, diverse population that passes through that area, so it won't only be the Ritz," Wood said. "The fountain is next door. The movie theater is across the street. Probably one of the reasons they considered that location is there's a heavy population of younger residents."


Wood added that moving so many branches of the armed forces into the new address - a neighborhood where available on-street parking is as rare as a smile on an honor guard - will be good for City Hall as well.


"We look forward to having them," he said. "We'll be increasing our parking fine revenue by three branches."

Reach Keith Eddings at keddings@lohud.com or 914-694-5060.

Ellie