As more empty parking lots, vacant buildings and unused industrial sites are transformed into mixed-use developments, leaders of Welcome Home Westchester partner organizations the Building & Realty Institute of the Hudson Valley and Westchester County Association discussed this promising trend with 914INC.
The fastest shrinking demographic in Westchester is residents between the ages 30 and 45, “which is a big flashing red light for all of us,” notes Tim Foley, CEO of the Building & Realty Institute (BRI) of the Hudson Valley. “Traditionally, the way people have migrated into Westchester is they get to that point where they’re having a family, and they want to move from the city to the suburbs. But that’s the group that we’re losing pretty quickly right now.”
“If you can’t build out a workable regional talent ecosystem,” says Michael Romita, President and CEO of the Westchester County Association (WCA), the leading independent economic development and business advocacy organization in Westchester, “then the businesses will eventually leave.”
Westchester County Department of Planning Commissioner Blanca Lopez also weighed in:
“A lot of the mixed use that you’re seeing in local communities is revitalizing downtown areas, allowing them to re-energize their local economies that were impacted by the pandemic, the economy, so many different things.”