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Landowner Eric Bergstall and New Jersey developer Efrem Gersberg propose 450,000-square-foot distribution center off Beach Road
Tina Truster
Landowners and developers are awaiting direction from New York State to conduct an environmental cleanup of a former construction landfill before filing an application with the Village of West Haverstraw Planning and Zoning Commission to build a distribution center. can proceed.
Applicant’s local landowner Eric Bergstall and New Jersey developer Efrem Gersberg are working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) to develop a 34-acre plant on the corner of Railroad Street. Determining the extent of cleaning and restoration required for overgrown areas. and beach road. Owned by North Rockland Associates since 1969, the site was an active construction landfill until the mid-1990s, according to Bergstol. Before that, it was a clay pit used when Haverstrow was a center for brick manufacturing. In 2019, the North Rockland Associates site was transferred to a new entity, Grassy Point Bend LLC, owned by Bergstol.
The North Rockland Associates site, as it was known, is on the NYSDEC’s Solid Waste Site Mitigation and Remediation Priority List. The applicant is awaiting remedial recommendations from NYSDEC.
“We have submitted all our tests and finalized our closure plan with DEC,” said Bergstol.
Applicant is proposing a 450,000 square foot, 76 bay warehouse distribution center that operates 24/7. Bergstol said the warehouse footprint will likely take up about 30% of the site, with parking lots and vegetation making up the rest. He said DEC is looking for solutions to such capped landfills.
“It was a C&D landfill,” said Bergstol, using the acronym for construction and demolition rubble. “Closed 30 years ago.
In the early 2000s, the town of Haverstraw considered acquiring and restoring the land for use as a sports stadium, but was unable to secure the grants it sought to offset the cost of the restoration. . According to DEC, the site took in construction and demolition debris from 1962 to 1986, at which point it was closed.
C&D landfills typically receive road construction materials, excavation materials, demolition waste, and other waste from construction projects.
Village officials have expressed a number of concerns, including truck and tractor-trailer traffic, noise and impacts on the narrow ecological road that demarcates the northern border. One village official said such a warehouse “belongs to I-287 or the national highway and he in a small village is not on the back corner of a one-lane road.” Among the concerns are frequent floods along Beach Road.
The warehouses are located in a planned light industrial area on the edge of the village and include Haverstraw Town, including the Common Regional Sewerage Authority, the former Haverstraw Town Landfill, and a newly constructed warehouse targeted by Haverstraw Town Supervisor Howard Phillips. adjacent to the site of Purchased under the auspices of Rockland Green to create an animal shelter.
Warehouse proposals do not require usage variances, but are subject to review by the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and a detailed environmental impact assessment if the Planning Commission gives the application a “positive declaration.” may be subject to an EIS. According to officials, the Grassy Point Bend project is in front of the village planning commission and has been disputed by the village zoning appeals commissioner for several discrepancies, including approval of his 42-foot height in a zone that allows 35 feet. I have to go before the meeting. The code requires 908 parking spaces in a 450,000 square foot warehouse. The applicant requested a difference of only 342 spaces.
The site is close to Minisongo Creek, which flows into Cedar Brook Pond to the east and the Hudson River to the south. The general neighborhood has a mix of industrial uses, including the Rockland Green Transfer Station and other industrial warehouses on Beach Road. But it is also adjacent to Peck’s Pond Park.
environmental concerns
According to the latest update of the NYSDEC Inactive Landfill Initiative (ILI) dated July 2022, the Grassy Point site is awaiting groundwater testing by NYSDEC. Under the ILI program, NYSDEC develops an inventory and evaluates inactive landfill sites within New York State to assess their potential impact on drinking water and/or groundwater.
The ILI program is designed to identify, mitigate, and remediate solid waste sites with potential public health impacts, and to establish comprehensive plans for mitigation and remediation of impacted sites. increase. This priority list represents solid waste sites and inactive landfills that have been shown to impact drinking water sources.
Landowner Bergstol is better known in the golf world than it is in warehouse developments. He is the founder and visionary of Empire Golf Management, which sold the estate that became Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley in Dutchess County to Donald Trump. Bergstol also developed a number of clubs in New Jersey, as well as Cortland’s Hollow He Brook He Golf Club.
In 1989, he purchased a property to develop the Minisceongo Golf Club. Bergstol sold the golf course two years before him to his Mount Ivy LLC in Monsey, who purchased a majority stake in his 60-acre course for $32 million. Asset records show that the limited liability company owns 78% of his shares, and the Lindirim Pomona Limited Partnership owns 21% of his shares.
Bergstol hopes to obtain the necessary development approvals for the warehouse development before selling it to Gerszberg, president of 2020 Acquisitions, a real estate development and holding company in Edison, New Jersey.
Gerszberg and Bergstol share a passion for golf.
Gerszberg owns Titan Golf, a joint venture between Robert Weiss, president of Weiss Properties, and his company, 2020 Acquisitions. Titan Golf works with financially struggling private golf clubs to extend the life of their golf clubs. For over 15 years Gerszberg has been developing residential and commercial projects. The 2020 acquisition is underway with over 7 million square feet of warehouse space in New Jersey.
