Remaking the Platinum Mile as a bedroom community: What's available for rent there?

Andrew Weisz has watched the Platinum Mile evolve in recent years, and he likes what he’s seeing.

The young president of the powerful RPW Group founded by his father, Robert, Weisz oversees a portfolio of Westchester addresses that were once the corporate domain of Fortune 500 firms. RPW Group’s headquarters is at 800 Westchester Ave., built by tobacco giant Philip Morris and nicknamed "The Taj Majal" for its scale and the fact that it has a pond out front.

RPW also owns 1133 Westchester Ave., once the realm of IBM.

But the days of the old-school corporate park are over, Weisz said. It's time to diversify the offerings.

"The 9 to 5 office park no longer works. People are looking for 24/7 communities," he said. "They need that mix of office, residential and entertainment."

'Walk to work': Landlord Robert Weisz wants millennials to feel at home on the Platinum Mile

When the Mile was Platinum

In the ‘70s and ‘80s, Westchester’s Platinum Mile took shape on both sides of Interstate 287 in White Plains and Harrison. The county wanted their business and CEO’s wanted monolithic headquarters closer to their homes in Westchester and Connecticut, without having to commute into Manhattan. IBM was here, Philip Morris, Texaco and Starwood Hotels (now owned by Marriott), Kraft and Pepsico.

When they left the Mile, Robert Weisz made a name for himself (and RPW Group) by carving up those single-occupant addresses into grand locations for smaller companies, those needing less than 10,000 square feet. Now, RPW is renting spaces measuring less than 1,000 square feet — as apartments.

The Platinum Mile is now the home address for hundreds of renters who have turned office parks into bedroom communities.

These massive places with hundreds of units — Carraway by the Toll Brothers, RPW's The Halden, and Trammell Crow's The Alexan Harrison — have websites that coo about luxury and sophistication and all-important amenities: pools, fitness centers and clubhouses, walking trails and fire pits, and shuttle service to Metro-North.

They also mention two neighbors that seem to have a magnetic pull: Wegmans and Life Time Fitness.

"What is happening here on the Platinum Mile, with some of the better office staying for the long haul, the introduction of brand-new modern apartments and the Wegmans and the Life Time Fitnesses of the world — coupled with best-in-class medical — you can cater to all age and demographics and it becomes very appealing," Weisz said in a recent interview.

The for-rent signs were ushered in by a 2016 zoning change in Harrison permitting residences where corporations alone once held court.

Who's here now, who's coming?

The amenity-filled addresses include:

The Halden at 1133 Westchester Ave,: 303 apartments from RPW Group and NRP Group, across the parking lot from IBM’s former headquarters. Amenities include: a clubroom with space for dining, conference room, children’s playroom, bike storage room, café and lounge, fitness center with cardio, package concierge, pool, courtyard with grilling stations, outdoor lounge seating with firepit, walking trails. One-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from $2,500 to $6,000 and up. www.thehalden.com

The Alexan Harrison at 3 Westchester Park Drive: 450 luxury apartments with open floor plans and granite countertops in kitchens and baths. Amenities include: two pools, two clubhouses, wellness center, game room, outdoor pizza ovens. Monthly rents range: from $2,527 for a studio, from $2,928 for a one-bedroom, from $3,655 for a two-bedroom, from $7,357 for a three-bedroom. And up. https://www.equityapartments.com/

Carraway at 103 Corporate Park Drive: 421 apartment units from the Toll Brothers. Amenities include: clubroom with fireplace, chef’s display kitchen and bar, private dining room with resident wine storage available, pool deck with cabanas, fitness center, sports simulator, pet spa, children’s playroom, coworking spaces. Available studios, range from $2,488; available one-bedrooms from $2,825; available two-bedrooms from $4,186. And up. https://www.livecarraway.com/

The Carraway’s next-door neighbor, at 101 Corporate Park Drive, is the 187-room Hyatt House hotel. They sit on land that once held multi-story commercial buildings, and represent what Andrew Weisz sees as a win-win for Westchester’s commercial real-estate market: Creating housing while lowering the commercial stock, which will lead to higher rents for office space.

And there’s more to come.

GreenBarn Investment Group plans to raze 2700 Westchester Ave. , and build 71 townhouses in Harrison. The address has been underperforming as office space and is tucked far enough away from the busy 287 corridor to make a neighborhood of townhouses appealing, the developer told town officials in making its pitch. The office building will fall in early 2025 and plans call for tenants to move in before 2026 arrives.

RPW is once again partnering with residential manager NRP Group (as it did on The Halden) to build 200 units at 1 Webb Ave. , in Harrison. Half of the 10-acre site will restore wetlands and include trails and a community garden while the other five acres will have structures with covered parking and solar panels. Weisz said plans call for a summer 2026 opening.

Breaking ground: Harrison apartments near the 'Taj Mahal' will have shuttle to Metro-North, plenty of amenities

'Affordability is relative'

While some will look at those prices — $7,300 for a three-bedroom apartment — and gasp, Weisz said others will see a bargain.

"A three-bedroom in Manhattan goes for $15 to $20 (thousand per month). Affordability is all relative," he said. "If I've been paying 17 in Manhattan and I can be in White Plains for eight in a brand-new building with amenities, all of a sudden that becomes affordable to me."

Original plan: Platinum Mile landlord wants to add 300 apartments at former IBM site

Weisz said the corporate park addresses give renters options, adding: "Not everyone wants to be in downtown White Plains."

"The market for renters in Westchester is robust," Weisz added, noting that the 303-unit Halden is, for all intents and purposes, 100% leased.

Who are our new neighbors?

Who is signing those leases at The Halden?

"The divorced community is a significant pool of the renters," Weisz said. "They want to stay in the communities where their children go to school. So that is a component. We see a lot of former New York residents, grandparents who raised their families here, moved to Florida as their main residence. Their kids and their grandkids live in Westchester, so this is sort of a pied a terre , if you will."

"Young couples moving out of the city, from Manhattan, primarily, Brooklyn, Queens," Weisz added. "Generally one partner works in the city, another one works here. Or they both work in the city and commute. Some now also work from home. So it really ranges.

"And you have a population of folks that have downsized or they've benefited from values of single-family homes in Westchester being really at all-time highs.

"It's a five- to seven-minute drive to the Rye Ridge shopping center, 10 minutes to Rye, 10 minutes to White Plains. A lot of folks go to Port Chester, Greenwich, Mamaroneck. It's a 10-minute shuttle ride to the train to Manhattan."

Diversifying the stock shortens the supply

Weisz said the county's commercial-space stock has shrunk to 28 million square feet from 34 million square feet 15 years ago.

But a few massive spaces account for nearly 6 million square feet that is unrented, or under-rented: two IBM campuses in Armonk, 701-777 Westchester Ave., and another site in Valhalla with a million square feet.

"That's 20% of the market," he said. "Because people see that vacancy rate, the rents haven't increased in 50 years. The rents in suburban Westchester are between $26 and $35 (a square foot). In downtown White Plains, you might break 40 bucks. That's been the same way for 50 years. With that sort of premise, no new construction can be built."

Space to let: Westchester's corporate office buildings face a crisis, while medical real estate grows

Some are seeing the value inherent in the Mile. New York-Presbyterian Hospital bought adjoining buildings at 1111 and 1129 Westchester Ave., once occupied by Pepsico, and plans to open an ambulatory-care facility. The buildings were purchased in 2022 . A hospital spokesman on Monday had no date for the opening.

The new care facility will be just down the hill from 1133 Westchester, a corporate address that now has The Halden occupying part of its parking lot. Weisz said the two form a symbiotic relationship.

"(The Halden) is an amenity for 1133, and 1133 is an amenity for (The Halden)," he said.

"Because not only does this provide a place for people to live, but it brings action. It brings activity to the site that didn't exist before. People walk the site, they walk their dogs. We share a shuttle between the two buildings. The building has a fitness center, a daycare center, a cafeteria, a sundry shop. Many of the the residents here use that. It brings life to a site that, before 9 a.m. and after 5, was pretty much non-existent."

Weisz likes what he sees, and is eager for more.

"We're bullish on Westchester," he said. "The introduction of so much medical, residential and retail/entertainment is the way of the future. And so I think we are headed in the right direction. We want to see more of all of it. I think that will continue to assist the remaining office buildings."

Reach Peter D. Kramer at pkramer@gannett.com. A 36-year staffer, he writes long-form narratives on a variety of topics, and has written recently about an Orange County cold-case murder, about affordability and development, and breaking news.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Remaking the Platinum Mile as a bedroom community: What's available for rent there?