Stark Business Solutions, which offers office space in White Plains and Mount Kisco to small businesses, plans to open a site in Harrison. Stark, which already has 17,000 square feet at 445 Hamilton Ave. in White Plains and 15,000 square feet at 100 S. Bedford Road in Mount Kisco, said the SBS Suites of Harrison will occupy 11,575 square feet at 500 Mamaroneck Ave. The space will be ready for tenants by September, the company said. The building is owned W&M Properties and was named office building of the year by the Building Owners and Managers Association.

An office building to house health-care practices is being constructed at 115 Main St. in downtown Tuckahoe. The three-level, 36,000-square-foot facility with 120 parking spaces is expected to be completed in December, according to the developer, RLMW LLC of Tuckahoe. RLMW is currently in negotiations with several potential tenants, a company representative said. (The computer-generated renderings at right are courtesy of RLMW LLC.) This project is being built on a lot that has been vacant for several years. It’s being financed with a $7.4 million loan from Sterling National Bank, based in New York. For more information, visit the project’s Web site: www.115mainstreet.com.

The Westchester County Industrial Development Agency has tentatively approved $43,000 in sales tax exemptions for Time Link International Corp. of Larchmont, a work force management business. Time Link wants to open a new office in Harrison and expand its staff by 14, to a total of 40. The tax breaks would reduce the cost of equipment for 8,000 square feet of office space.

Good weather has given the new owners of Westchester County’s Platinum Mile a jump on $18 million to $20 million in renovations to the group of 14 office buildings along the Interstate 287 corridor.

Joseph Caruso, senior vice president of leasing for RexCorp Realty, said the project is about half completed and will continue into 2008.

Reckson Associates Realty Corp. had bought the properties in 2005 and announced the renovations several months later. The buildings changed hands once more when Reckson was acquired by SL Green Realty Corp. of Manhattan in a $6 billion deal that closed in January.

As part of the deal, a management group led by then-Reckson Chief Executive Officer Scott Rechler bought the Platinum Mile properties, in White Plains, Harrison and Purchase, from SL Green for about $2 billion, and formed RexCorp.

The office buildings date back to the 1970s and were due for rehab. RexCorp is upgrading the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, sprinklers and other building code-related items, and refurbishing the lobbies and elevators.

A new conference center at 707 Westchester Ave. can accommodate 35 people. The cafeteria was overhauled. Among other improvements: wireless Internet access.

In January, warm weather allowed the construction of canopies and light poles throughout the White Plains Corporate Park of five buildings that include 707 Westchester Ave. Some preliminary landscaping work also was done that will resume when warmer weather returns.

About 68 percent at the space in the office buildings was leased at the time of the acquisition, a figure that now has risen to 73-74 percent, Caruso said.

RexCorp plans presentations in the weeks to come to area brokerages as it aims to attract more tenants in the market. Caruso said the company isn’t interested in a quick facelift before trying to sell the buildings.
“We’re here for the long haul. We want to make the renovations not just pretty but substantial,� he said. “We’re holders of real estate.�

Henry Schein Inc., the Long Island-based distributor of health care products and services, will move its regional sales office from Pelham Manor to larger quarters at 2500 Westchester Ave. in Purchase by early March, its new landlord announced. Schein will lease 20,000 square feet, an increase of about 25-30 percent, said Rexcorp Senior Vice President of Leasing Joseph Caruso. The asking rent was $28.50 per square foot, Caruso said. With the Schein deal, the building is about 65 percent leased, he said.

The law firm of Cuddy & Feder LLP has moved into larger headquarters at 445 Hamilton Ave. in White Plains. The firm now occupies the entire 14th floor of the 15-story building for a total of 26,000 square feet. It previously had about 16,000 square feet at 90 Maple Ave. With additional offices in Manhattan and Fishkill, N.Y. and Norwalk, Conn., Cuddy & Feder has 29 attorneys, 17 partners, eight associates and four special counsels.

YNR Management of Bayside, Queens, has bought the leasehold interest in the Yonkers Shopping Center on Central Park Avenue for $11.8 million, the brokerage CB Richard Ellis said. The deal involves the retail property on the 6-acre site, but not the land itself. The lease lasts until 2047. Built in 1972 and renovated in 1999, the Yonkers Shopping Center is 92 percent leased. Key tenants include Staples, Lucille Roberts, and Outback Steakhouse. CB Richard Ellis Vice Chairman Jeffrey Dunne and Senior Associate Ryan Bassett handled the deal. Bassett said it was YNR’s first deal in Westchester.

The Richmond Group, a non-profit organization that provides programs and services to people with developmental disabilities and complex health issues, has leased 31,000 square feet of office space at 272 N. Bedford Road in Mount Kisco, it was announced today.

The space was formerly leased by the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts, according to NAI Friedland Realty Inc., the Yonkers-based company that owns and leases the building.
The nonprofit center, which offered courses in pottery, dance and music, closed in October 2005 due to financial problems.

With the addition of Richmond Group, the building is now fully leased, NAI Freidland said in a written statement.

Richmond Group expects to move in by spring and employ about 25 workers at the site.

The formal emergence this week of a major player in the commercial real estate market in the Lower Hudson Valley changes everything and nothing, several brokers said.

SL Green Realty Corp. of Manhattan closed Thursday on its $6 billion purchase of Reckson Associates Realty Corp. of Uniondale. Among other things, the deal gave Green 3.6 million square feet of premium office space in Westchester and Connecticut.

As part of the deal, Green sold off part of Reckson’s portfolio to a Reckson management group led by Chief Executive Officer Scott Rechler and backed by private investors. The property Rechler bought includes 19 buildings in Westchester, including the “Platinum Mile� of offices along the Interstate 287 corridor in White Plains and Harrison.

Rechler’s group paid about $2 billion for their properties. His new group, called RexCorp Realty, will be based in Uniondale and have offices in Westchester.

Some familiar faces will remain in place. John J. Barnes, a senior vice president and director with Reckson, will stay in Westchester and work for Green. The dust is still settling on certain issues with his new employer, such as new job titles.

“We’re still working through some of that right now,� Barnes said yesterday.

Rick Rich, an executive vice president who worked more than 10 years for Reckson, has joined RexCorp as a manager of the Westchester properties.

Brokers said the big deals haven’t altered the landscape.

“Really nothing has changed,� said Glenn P. Walsh, a senior director for Cushman & Wakefield. “It’s basically Reckson under two entities.�

William V. Cuddy, a senior vice president for CB Richard Ellis, said that in the past the market has had three or four players controlling a significant amount of the inventory. The new names will feed the selling pressure for Class A office properties, he said.

For the record, here’s what Green owns in Westchester: 360 Hamilton Ave. and 140 Grand St. in White Plains; 100, 200, and 500 Summit Lake Drive in Valhalla; 115 and 117 Stephens Ave. in Valhalla; 1100 King St. in Rye Brook, the Reckson Executive Park; 120 White Plains Road and 520 White Plains Road in Greenburgh.

Green also recently bought 399 Knollwood Road in Greenburgh from RPW Group.

RexCorp owns 505, 555, 560, 580, and 660 White Plains Road in Greenburgh; 701, 707, 709, 711, 777, 925, 1025, 2500 and 2700 Westchester Ave. in White Plains; and 103, 105, 106, 108, and 110 Corporate Park Drive in Harrison.

A festive atmosphere prevailed yesterday among business parties usually cast as rivals.

The developers of three major projects on the drawing boards in Yonkers and New Rochelle said they have a deal that would provide a leg up for a prominent labor union to organize employees after the projects are built.

The announcement was made at the Yonkers Public Library by officials of Struever Fidelco Cappelli LLC, who plan to develop Palisades Point and River Center Park in the city; Cappelli Enterprises, the developer of the Le Count Square project in New Rochelle; and Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union.

About two dozen union members wearing their signature purple coats and shirts also were on hand, as well as officials from Yonkers and New Rochelle government.

The projects combine commercial and residential development. Hundreds of new building service jobs — superintendents, janitors, doormen, and others — are expected to be created once the projects are completed. The projects are under review by government officials in both cities, and developers are hopeful for approval this year.

Yesterday’s deal was not a union contract, given that there are no new employees to represent. The deal recognizes Local 32BJ as the exclusive bargaining agent for new workers if a majority of them choose to join it through a card check process.

Local 32BJ now has about 4,500 members in Westchester, and 85,000 in total. Developers said they welcomed the arrangement as part of a growing relationship with labor.

“This is a good thing for all parties,� said Joseph V. Apicella, executive vice president for a division of Cappelli Enterprises.

“We were paying prevailing wages anyway, so it was really a no-brainer … We’re going to continue to have organized labor as a partner.â€?

Yonkers City Councilman Dennis M. Robertson and New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson both received standing ovations from local members. Government officials said their communities benefit when residents can obtain jobs that provide good wages and benefits.

Overall average asking rents for commercial real estate in Westchester County climbed slightly in 2006 despite a slight increase in availability, CB Richard Ellis reported.

The overall average of $27.20 per square foot was up $1.12 from a year earlier. The eastern part of the county saw the highest average asking rents, at $28.83 a square foot, while the southern part of the county saw the lowest average, $24.15.

A number of high-profile tenants returned office space to the market last year, the brokerage reported:

• Ameriquest Capital Corp.’s 532,000 square feet at 333 Westchester Ave. and 44 S. Broadway in White Plains;

• BAE System’s 245,000 square feet at 1 Ridge Hill Road in Yonkers;

• SBC Communications’ 81,000 square feet at 1565 Front St. in Yorktown;

• Lillian Vernon’s 53,000 square feet at 445 Hamilton Ave. in White Plains;

• Taro Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.’s 93,000 square feet at 3 and 5 Skyline Drive in Hawthorne.

IBM Corp. sold 1133 Westchester Ave. in White Plains to RPW Group of Rye Brook, returning to the market 471,000 square feet the company had once used there.

Manhattan-based companies that are looking for office space in Westchester are thinking more in terms of back-office operations as opposed to abandoning the city, several panelists said during yesterday’s annual meeting of the Business Owners and Managers Association at the Crowne Plaza in White Plains.

Robert P. Weisz of RPW Group said that most companies in New York City want to be there, given that it’s the financial capital of the world. Goldman Sachs, he said, is looking for more space in the Westchester and Fairfield County, Conn., region. James Fagan, senior managing director at Cushman & Wakefield, said law firms set themselves up in Manhattan because that’s where their clients are.

Demand for Westchester office space will remain strong, the panelists agreed. Patrick Colwell of Cushman & Wakefield said rents in business districts near train stations should climb by 10 percent annually over the next three years. Robert Caruso, senior managing director of CB Richard Ellis, said he expects rents in central business districts to increase at a greater rate than elsewhere in the county.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced yesterday that it signed a 15-year lease, with options for three five-year extensions, for a new corporate headquarters and research center to be built next to its current offices in the Landmark at Eastview, which straddles Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant.

The news follows an announcement in October by state economic-development officials who disclosed plans for Regeneron to receive $10 million in state and local aid to stay at the site, including $1.5 million in sales-tax abatements from the county’s Industrial Development Agency.

The possibility that Regeneron might leave the Lower Hudson Valley concerned state and local officials.

Yesterday’s lease-signing assures the biopharmaceutical company will be sticking around.

“The generous incentives we have received from New York state, the town of Greenburgh, and the Westchester County IDA allow us to remain in our current location in Westchester County,� Regeneron President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer said in a statement.

The 194,000-square-foot complex will allow Regeneron to consolidate its 440 Westchester employees into three interconnected buildings. The workers currently occupy six buildings, Regeneron said.

BioMed Realty Trust Inc., a San Diego-based real-estate investment trust that also has offices at Landmark, will build the complex in Greenburgh during the next two years.

Regeneron will retain its 27,000 square-foot specialized research facility in an existing building at the complex, it said.

The company set up shop at the Landmark with four employees in 1989, a year after its founding. Among other things, Regeneron is researching the role of genes in human physiology

Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut has agreed to lease 29,500 square feet at 900 King St. in Rye Brook for administrative offices.

Christopher O’Callaghan, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield, said the building is within three miles of the hospital but the rent is less than what the hospital could find in Greenwich. Greenwich Hospital will pay $25 a square foot, versus the $45 average in its own neighborhood, he said.

The building is owned by Wafra, a Kuwaiti investment group that bought it in 2001. Gre900 King St. has 201,000 square feet, and the 10-year hospital lease brings it to full occupancy, he said.

Wafra offered a discount on the lease in order to fill the building, O’Callaghan said. Cushman & Wakefield represented both the hospital and the landlord in the deal.

Torah Educational Software Inc., a distributor of Jewish software, will be operating out of new, larger offices in Spook Rock Industrial Park in Ramapo starting Jan. 1. The 6,600-square-foot building includes 1,600 square feet of offices with the remainder for use as warehouse space. TES also distributes its products to the U.S., Australia, England, France, Israel and South Africa. TES employs 12 workers. Teger Commercial LLC in West Haverstraw handled the transaction.

Westchester County office developer Robert P. Weisz expects to start $20 million in renovations next month on 1133 Westchester Ave. on the Harrison-White Plains border, including a spacious lobby that will be three stories high.

Weisz completed the purchase of the 620,000-square-foot office building from IBM Corp. last week. He said he paid $76 million for the property, estimating it at about $120 per square foot.

The price includes 74 acres of property that can accommodate nearly 400,000 additional square feet of construction, he said. Weisz said he is negotiating to build a hotel on the site.

But first he plans to rehabilitate the existing building. About 80 percent of it is vacant, with IBM and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. leasing the rest of the space.

Weisz has plans before White Plains planning officials for a new exterior and lobby. He also plans to add a cafeteria, coffee shop, dry cleaners, beauty parlor, conference center, and other amenities to the building.
Work on the lobby and other common areas is expected to be done by this summer, he said.

Haverstraw resident Lynn Teger is moving her new commercial real estate business out of her home and into a 1,000-square-foot office on Route 9W in West Haverstraw.

A longtime real estate agent who worked for Rockland Realty for 12 years before she founded Teger Commercial LLC, Teger said she has been busy since starting the new company in March. The biggest transaction so far for Tegar and her employee, agent Erik Melanson, was the $8.25 million sale of the Patriot Square Shopping Center located in Stony Point in September. The company has also leased more than 20,000 square feet of warehouse space.

Teger Commercial will hold an open house on Dec. 14.