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= Chappaqua Crossing =

History
Chappaqua Crossing is on the site of the former Reader's Digest headquarters. The magazine, founded in 1920 by DeWitt and Lila Bell Wallace became the best selling consumer magazine in the United States for years. The 700,000-square-foot brick office building was put up by the Wallaces in 1939. T It has become a landmark and can be seen from the nearby Saw Mill Parkway and MetroNorth's Harlem Line. The Wallace's wanted the Digest to become intertwined with the Chappaqua community and often held local events on site. Reader's Digest sold the property after the Wallaces passed away.

The owner of the 116-acre property, SG Chappaqua — a partnership of two Connecticut companies, Summit Development and Greenfield Partners — bought the site for $59 million in 2004 from Reader’s Digest. Reader's Digest had 15 years left on its lease but was able to break free under an agreement as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2009. The building was renamed Chappaqua Crossing by its new owners, who rented 300,000 square feet in the building back to the publisher and 90,000 square feet to three other tenants, including a media company and two medical-oriented companies. The publisher stayed in the building until the summer of 2010 and then relocated and downsized to Midtown Manhattan.

Controversy
Chappaqua Crossing became the longest and most controversial application in Chappaqua's history. After 11 years of review, Chappaqua Crossing broke ground in March 2016.

For the second half of the 2000s and into 2011, Summit/Greenfield proposed building a sizable amount of condos and townhouses. The first iteration had 346 units, which the town board rebuffed in 2006, the second was introduced in 2007 and called for 278, while the third was announced in 2010 and had 199. The housing garnered opposition from neighbors worried about traffic and from residents who were concerned that the condos would lead to an influx of new school children whose educations would not be adequately paid for due to the lower per-unit tax revenues that condos generate compared to single-family homes. In 2011, the town board, led by then-Supervisor Barbara Gerrard, unilaterally approved rezoning for just 111 units, while Summit/Greenfield filed lawsuits against the town over how the review process was handled.

In 2012, under then-Supervisor Susan Carpenter, the town and Summit/Greenfield settled the suits, with the condition that the town board and planning board would review a retail proposal. If the boards issued denials pertaining to the project, then Summit/Greenfield had the right to reactive the lawsuits. The retail project was also controversial, as neighbors again worried about traffic, while others argued that retail competition would negatively affect existing merchants. Rob Greenstein, who criticized the earlier project versions, was elected in 2013 on a slate that promised to stop what was then an auto-centric proposal. Greenstein would later work with Charney to reshape the plan so that it was more like a pedestrian-friendly town center. In doing so, he encountered frustration from some local opponents. However, he told Daily Voice that approving a revised plan would be beneficial in order to broaden the town's commercial tax base, while approving the earlier version or returning to court were not desirable.

The town board voted in late 2014 to rezone the property for retail, while the planning board granted the project's site plan in December 2015.

Tenants
While much of the space is still vacant, Chappaqua Crossing tenants currently include the following. http://chappaquacrossing.com/news/
 * More than 500,000 square feet of rental office space with high-end amenities including a full cafeteria, conference center and 24-hour security. Current tenants include Northern Westchester Hospital and Mount Kisco Medical Group.
 * More than 120,000 square feet of retail space featuring a Whole Foods Market (40,000 square feet), Life Time fitness center, shops and restaurants.
 * The North Village with 91 luxury townhomes in a beautiful hilltop setting with landscaped terraces, gardens and walking trails.
 * Fifty acres of permanent open space surrounding the entire site.
 * 28 units of affordable housing located in the property’s signature cupola building.
 * A shuttle connecting to Chappaqua’s Metro-North station.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/business/media/23digest.html

http://chappaquacrossing.com/history/

http://chappaqua.dailyvoice.com/news/chappaqua-crossing-saga-nears-a-close-with-groundbreaking/641059/

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/new-castle/2017/11/01/whats-up-with-chappaqua-crossing-new-castle/817755001/