Last year was another dismal year for New Rochelle residents seeking a fair return on their investments in the downtown development when measured by the number of jobs, the quality of those jobs, and local business contracts with developers, according to data provided to the city by developers and the First Source job referral center.

As the City Council works to amend the development blueprint, residents are hoping they will strengthen existing policies and adopt new ones to ensure the tax breaks and the sale of municipal property to developers results in tangible improvements to their lives.

The New Rochelle Industrial Development Agency (IDA) — whose mission is to “provide business support through financial assistance and tax incentives to eligible projects in order to promote economic vitality and prosperity, as well as recreational opportunities for the entire New Rochelle community” — has doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks. Residents are wondering where is the prosperity for the community?

In 2016 the City Council unanimously adopted the Economic Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy (EONDP) to “ensure that city residents and historically underrepresented communities have access to” opportunities “generated by the redevelopment.” It established goals for developers to meet and requires them to report annually on how they are doing in meeting those goals, which include:

• “at least 20% of the work hours” be done by “qualified and/or trained” New Rochelle residents
• having apprentices do 1,000 hours of work for every 20,000 hours worked building a project
• “awarding 20% of the dollar value of subcontracts for construction work” to local businesses by each prime contractor.

If these goals were being met, today there would be hundreds more New Rochelle residents working in the downtown, scores of new union apprentices with lifelong careers in construction, and numerous local businesses with significant contracts for the building and maintenance of the new projects.

Because the policy’s goals are only aspirational, not required, they are, once again, far from being met.

Developers reported that far less than 20% of work hours went to targeted workers, far fewer than 20% of construction contracts were awarded to New Rochelle-based subcontractors, and only a few apprentices had the opportunity to work in 2025, despite hundreds of thousands of construction hours being reported.

Since its adoption, advocates for changing the EONDP policy to make it more effective have encouraged the City to change the policy wording “shall make affirmative efforts” and “shall make good faith efforts” to read “shall be required,” and adding “project labor agreements” as a requirement for developers who seek public investment through the IDA. 

Without making this a requirement, New Rochelle’s  dismal job creation per IDA tax break will not change. As reported by the NYS Comptroller’s office, from 2021-2023, New Rochelle taxpayers paid almost $1.5 million for every job created by the NR IDA. By comparison, the average cost for every job created by the Mid-Hudson Region IDAs was $5,210.

While no developer comes anywhere near meeting the City’s goals to deliver good jobs and contracts for local businesses, standouts in their failures include those that have made the most of the development opportunities provided by the rezoning of the downtown.

Regarding employment for New Rochelle residents, the First Source Referral Center, which provides job placement services for residents, reported placing 434 residents in part-time and full-time jobs in 2025 with an average hourly wage of $21.53/hour.

Of these, 168 were construction-related job placements, an increase from previous years. However, as in previous years, these are poverty wage jobs. For example, the Cappelli Organization and BRP, two major downtown developers, reported paying between $20-$25/hour.

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology living wage calculator, a single adult with no children living in Westchester County needs to earn $35.72/hour to avoid poverty. Two working adults with one child would each need to make $31.49/hour to stay out of poverty.

The widely used living wage calculator determines the minimum employment earnings needed to meet basic needs — such as housing, food, childcare, and healthcare — based on location and family size.

Anchin, a firm hired by the city to see how developers are complying with the goals of the EONDP, is expected to make its report for 2025 to the IDA at its May or June meeting.

Meanwhile, residents are hopeful the City Council will take action as they amend development plans to address the failures of the previous council and administration to equitably deliver tangible benefits of the downtown redevelopment.