What's Starwood really selling Port Chester?

Starwood Capital recently placed ads and sent out postcards to Port Chester residents regarding the proposed development at the former United Hospital site. The multi-colored ads highlight the many potential benefits that the project will bring to Port Chester. However, I find several inconsistencies with the assertions:

• Starwood claims that 70 percent of Port Chester residents support the plan to redevelop the United Hospital site. However, Starwood does not make clear whether residents polled indicated their support for the specifics of Starwood’s proposal or merely expressed favor for the general idea of redeveloping the site.  
• Starwood states that the project would provide $2 million to schools annually: Under Starwood’s proposal, the project would actually provide $1.785 million to schools annually, which is only about half of what it would provide to schools if Starwood paid its fair share of property taxes. Starwood’s own estimates, its proposed Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, would cause the schools to lose out on $34 million in revenue over 20 years. Interestingly, the Port Chester Board of Education says that even this figure is too low; the board claims that Starwood’s proposal would shortchange the public schools by more than $80 million over this 20-year period.

• The project would provide $60 million in revenue for Port Chester. It is not clear where this figure comes from. Under the company’s proposed PILOT, Port Chester would receive $1.19 million from Starwood annually instead of its share of regular property taxes. 
• More than 1,800 construction and nearly 1,000 permanent jobs. To date, Starwood Capital has made no commitment to create good, safe jobs by paying family-sustaining wages and benefits at the project.  Without such guarantee, we have no way of knowing that the jobs created to build and run this project won’t pay poverty wages and lack any meaningful benefits. There is also no guarantee that a significant number of these jobs would be committed to local laborers.

For decades, big developers like Starwood Capital have come to towns and villages like ours asking for zoning changes and tax incentives, claiming huge economic boosts in return. Unfortunately, many of these claims never become a reality and our communities are left with high property taxes, disinvestment in our downtown areas and larger concentrations of poverty.

If Starwood seeks substantial public investment in this project by asking for a rezoning and a PILOT, Starwood should be offering more community benefits in return. Starwood Capital has to listen to what the community needs: adequate funding for our schools, workforce housing and safe jobs with livable wages.

Port Chester deserves better.

The writer, a Port Chester resident, is a member of Sustainable Port Chester Alliance, portchesteralliance.org.