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Development Team Plans To Redevelop Two Blue Hill Plaza Into Amenity Rich 341-Unit Luxury Apartment Building
With the office market shrinking and the need for housing on the rise, developers of office complexes, malls, and vacant commercial buildings are looking to convert underutilized commercial buildings to residential units.
In the Town of Orangetown, the owners of the iconic Blue Hill Plaza, one of a few Class A office buildings in the county, is considering a plan to convert one of its two towers to luxury rentals. The proposal calls for changing 2 Blue Hill Plaza offices to 341 luxury units plus lifestyle amenities. The development team includes owner Glorious Sun and the Robert Martin Company, a Westchester-based real estate company specializing in multi-family and commercial projects.
Blue Hill Plaza is a two-building, 1.2 million square-foot office complex, situated on 90 acres along Route 304. It is an iconic part of the viewshed along the thoroughfare. The complex is connected by an underground concourse with 2,900 parking space off Veterans Memorial Drive in Pearl River. The taller 21-story tower at 1 Blue Hill Plaza will remain an office complex. But developers hope to convert 2 Blue Hill Plaza, a 600,000 square foot, eight-story building, into housing pending needed approvals.
Tim Jones, a representative of the Robert Martin Company made a presentation to the Orangetown Town Board in July. To facilitate the project, Orangetown would have to approve a subdivision of the existing property and rezone the back parcel for multi-family residential use.
The proposal does not contain any set aside for affordable units.
The developers, who have floated the idea to the Orangetown Town Board, say the project is an “amenity rich, lifestyle complex” made up of 341 apartment units spread over six floors. Plans call for a mix of 54 studios, 112 one-bedrooms, and 175 two-bedrooms units, with 11 foot ceilings. The project includes a newly painted façade and replacement of existing fixed windows with energy efficient operable windows.
The 63-year old structure, was originally designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the same firm that designed the Sears Tower in Chicago, the John Hancock building in Boston, and One World Trade Center in New York City. Blue Hill Plaza was built in 1972 and its 21-story skyscraper is known for its Brutalist-style architecture.
Both buildings have extensive vacancies, with the three upper floors in 2 Blue Hill Plaza completely empty, according to CBRE, its leasing agent. One Blue Hill Plaza has about 150,000 square feet of vacant office space spread over a number of floors.
The new residential building with have parking for 500 cars, an outdoor swimming pool, cabanas, BBQ pits, and pickleball courts.
The ground floor will include an indoor lap pool, a 23,000 square foot fitness center, an indoor theater, coworking spaces, music and art rooms, a golf simulator, a billiard room, lounges and kitchens, three podcast rooms, an indoor pet area, and storage for tenants. The fitness facility would be accessible to the office tenants at 1 Blue Hill Plaza through an underground concourse.
The Robert Martin Company acquired an interest in Blue Hill Plaza in 1996 with Glorious Sun, but is no longer an equity owner. It is a partner in the new redevelopment project.
The market rate rental project is expected to attract seniors and empty nesters. No rental prices have been revealed.
Blue Hill Plaza is not the first office property to propose rezoning for alternate use. In 2023, the owners of the mostly vacant former Pfizer campus pitched rezoning to allow a hotel to open on the campus. The owners of what is known now as the iCampus sought two text amendments from Orangetown to allow a chain hotel, the Hilton Home2 Suites (an all-suite, extended stay hotel), and a stand-alone fitness center to site projects in existing buildings. In their plea, they told the town that the market for big pharma is saturated in the Hudson Valley, and that competition regionally is making leasing the iCampus all but impossible.
The project never materialized.
In Clarkstown, the purchaser of the Shops At Nanuet is proposing adding apartment units to the complex where the long-vacant Sears Automotive Center sat. To facilitate residential units, the developer would need a zone change from its current Regional Shopping designation to allow housing at the site.
Talks of rezoning part of the Palisades Center in West Nyack to allow for housing have been underway for a number of years, though no specific proposal has been submitted to Clarkstown for approval. The Palisades Center, with multiple vacant anchor buildings, is in foreclosure proceedings and will likely be sold.
Owners of the Paramount Country Club in New City have recently submitted a proposal to the Town of Clarkstown that would change the zoning on a portion of its holdings for construction of 230 housing units of various configurations on part of the 217 acre property.
