NYC businessman buys growing swath of downtown Yonkers

Tania Savayan The Journal News

Nick Sprayregen stands in front of his property on Main Street between Warburton Avenue and Larkin Plaza in Yonkers. Sprayregen has bought about 20 downtown properties, making him a major figure in the redevelopment of Yonkers.

By Len Maniace <mailto:lmaniace@lohud.com> The Journal News * April 6, 2008

YONKERS -After waiting 35 years for a downtown revival touted by city officials, David Sarran says business at Rivertown Liquors is finally taking off.

In the old days, Sarran's best customers were prostitutes - the only people whose business thrived on lower Main Street - and their customers. With the opening in recent years of a few upscale housing developments, notably the renovated Trolley Barn and Collins Enterprises' River Park, Sarran's business has taken a turn for the better. His customer count is down by two-thirds, but he counts quality over quantity.

"Instead of relying on $2 customers, now we have $40 customers," said Sarran, a 62-year-old Trinidad native who came to the city from the Bronx and now lives in Sleepy Hollow.

Still, Sarran doesn't know how long he'll keep his store open. A New York City businessman, Nick Sprayregen, has quietly been buying up property on the block and has made an offer on the liquor store building at 47 Main St. So far, Saran has said no, but he is one of the few.

Over the past 22 months Sprayregen, who heads a family-owned self-storage business based in West Harlem, has been investing in downtown Yonkers; he now controls nearly two dozen properties.

In a city where officials often spend years courting developers before any sign of progress, the speed of Sprayregen's entrance into Yonkers real estate has been breathtaking.

His company, Rising Development, is now one of downtown's biggest property owners. Most of his properties are on the same block as Rivertown Liquors - from Main Street to Larkin Plaza, between Warburton Avenue and the Yonkers post office - an area that serves as one of the best-preserved glimpses of what the city looked like in the late 19th century.

Among Sprayregen's investments: the old Sears building; the historic Gazette Building, which houses the upscale restaurant Zuppa; Rubin Bros. Paint & Wallpaper, which opened in 1933; and the offices of the old Martinelli Publications, the chain of weekly newspapers Sprayregen bought and rechristened Rising Publications in June.

"Until recently most of what I had heard about Yonkers was negative," said Sprayregen, a 44-year-old New Rochelle native, who lives with his wife and four children on Manhattan's east side. "Exactly two years ago, I took a ride up there and loved what I was seeing - a refurbished train station, the new public library."

Sprayregen's land deals have created a buzz among Sarran and other downtown merchants.

"A lot of people are curious about what he has planned," said Steve Sansone, executive director of the Downtown Waterfront Business Improvement District. Sprayregen joined the group's board of directors in March.

At the top of Sprayregen's list is an office tower for a financial services company, perhaps even a headquarters. The building would occupy much, but not all, of the block he has targeted. Sprayregen said he would preserve several historic buildings, such as the Gazette Building. Elsewhere Sprayregen envisions apartment buildings with views of the Palisades on two empty lots east of Warburton Avenue that he recently bought from the city.

While he has big plans for development in Yonkers, Sprayregen has been fighting a proposal by Columbia University to create a new high-rise campus on 17 largely industrial acres northwest of its Morningside Heights campus in Manhattan. That area is the birthplace of Sprayregen's business operations, Tuck-It-Away Self-Storage, and home to five of the company's 14 storage centers, which total about 1 million square feet.

Sprayregen says he is not opposed to Columbia's expansion and he is willing to sell or swap land with the university. It's the private university's threat to use eminent domain - the power of the state to acquire private property - that he opposes.

Started by his father in 1980, Tuck-It-Away Self-Storage has expanded to centers in upper Manhattan, the Bronx and, most recently, Newark, N.J., and Brooklyn. That business provided the money for his Yonkers venture: He says he has spent $30 million in cash on the Yonkers properties, free from the burden of mortgage payments that crush many developers' dreams.

Because of that, "We can afford to be as patient as possible and not rush in and do things that may be a mistake," Sprayregen said.

Though Sprayregen has discussed his vision with city officials, he's hasn't filed for any permits or submitted any plans. Still, Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone said the idea fits with his overall concept for a revitalized downtown.

"For the downtown to be successful it has to have a daytime population, which is typically office workers, retail workers. And it has to have a nighttime population, which is the residents who live there," Amicone said. "When you've got a good mix of both, you have enough people to make it a very active and lively downtown."

A veteran of 20 marathons - 16 in New York City and four in Boston - Sprayregen is just as methodical in his approach to new development as he is with land acquisition and running.

Sprayregen said he is waiting for Yonkers to make good on plans to uncover the Saw Mill River, which runs beneath the Larkin Plaza parking lot, before he moves ahead with a proposal for a financial services tower, which he says could also include a hotel and conference center.

That single step would turn what has long been Main Street's back alley into a real estate gem, Sprayregen said.

The city has been setting the stage for development at Larkin Plaza, which is bordered by the renovated main train station, which doubles as stops for Metro-North Railroad and Amtrak; a water taxi stop; the city's new Riverfront Library; and Philipse Manor Hall, which dates to the late 17th century and is now a state historic site."This is a one-of-a-kind location in Yonkers," Sprayregen said. "There is no other site, in my opinion, that commands as much presence, power and prestige as this square block."

Sprayregen wants the uncovering of the Saw Mill River at Larkin Plaza to get priority over the massive River Park Center planned by Struever Fidelco Cappelli, which has occupied City Hall's attention for several years. The declining economy, Sprayregen says, threatens to delay that development, which is actually two projects in one: a shopping and garage complex in an 11-level base, topped by two 50-story residential towers and a minor league baseball stadium that would be built next to City Hall, and two 25-story apartment towers on the Hudson.

Right now, however, City Hall is focused on SFC. The city seems inclined to use $24 million pledged by then-Gov. George Pataki for uncovering the Saw Mill to buy land at the massive SFC site, where uncovering the river is also planned.

The mayor said he has seen no evidence that SFC will have trouble obtaining financing for its $1.6 billion plans. And before the river could be uncovered at Larkin Plaza, he said, the city has to find a way to replace the roughly 145 parking spaces now at that site.

Amicone did say the city intends to begin planning the Larkin Plaza improvements and funding for that work could become available as development of the SFC project proceeds.

Sprayregen says he can wait. Some of his agreements will delay his actual land purchases for a year or so, allowing businesses such as Rubin Bros. Paint to continue operating. He wants to buy more property as well, moving east on Main Street, where he already owns several properties.

"Our idea is to start filling in the blanks as opportunity comes along, because we believe that also would be a site for us to build some significant structures," Sprayregen said.

All of this fascinates Sarran, who is already watching the completion of construction on 66 Main St., a luxury condominium project across the street, and the second phase of Collins Enterprises' Hudson Park.

"I will stay here as long as I can," said Sarran, who says he, too, has patience. "If the developer wants it that bad and is willing to give me what I need, I'm willing to go and invest in another place. But for retirement, I'm not ready yet."

Reach Len Maniace at lmaniace@lohud.com or 914-694-5163.