For the past 10 years, developers have been making payments into New Rochelle’s Community Benefit Fund in exchange for waivers allowing them to build taller buildings than normally allowed under building codes.  The meaning of “community benefits” has been controversial, and the precise benefits that flow from these funds have never been clearly communicated to the public. To shine a light on this,  New RoAR News recently spoke with city officials to find out how much money has been paid into this fund, who controls it, how the money has been spent, and why this information is so difficult to come by.

When the city’s redevelopment plan was being formulated in 2015, New Rochelle Against Racism (New RoAR) and other community and labor groups advocated for a robust, legally-binding Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with Master Developer RDRXR (now RXR), including guarantees of hiring local union labor with apprenticeship opportunities for residents, significant deeply affordable housing, protection for local residents against displacement by new development,  a new community center with youth programming, and adequate green space. 

That was rejected. Instead, the city adopted the developer-driven Recommended Action Plan (RAP) that included a proposal for a job training program but did not require local hire, union careers in construction and building maintenance, more affordable housing at deeper affordability, or other components included in New RoAR’s proposed CBA.  Working with their very limited vision of “community benefits,”  the then City Council established a formula for collecting community benefit funds from the developers. 

In 2017, in response to continued community demands for local hire, union jobs, apprenticeships and opportunities for Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (M/WBEs), the city established an “Economic Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy” setting nonbinding goals for opportunities for local businesses, local hire, and work opportunities for new apprentices.  Eight years later, even these modest goals are far from being met.

So where are the “community benefit funds”?  How much money has been collected from the developers, who controls it, how has it been spent, who has benefited, and how?

The Origins of the Community Benefit Fund

In December 2014, the City of New Rochelle entered into a Master Development Agreement with RDRXR (now RXR) to develop  plans to revitalize downtown New Rochelle. 

New RoAR members and supporters, seeking “to protect the public’s investment in the private development,” urged the City Council to support “a legally binding Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) that includes requirements for family-supporting career jobs, more affordable housing than the City’s now required 10%, educational youth programs, anti-displacement programs, public spaces, and meaningful community participation.” 

As part of its public relations campaign preparing for the reshaping of New Rochelle’s downtown, the city and RDRXR conducted an NR Future Survey  to assess community interest in various possible community benefits. The city’s survey did not include many things the community was calling for, such as local union jobs and apprenticeships for residents. 

But the NR Future Survey did include the ability to vote for New RoAR’s use of Community Benefits Agreement for Equitable Development, and this option received more votes than any other proposal.  The popularity of “equitable development” was reflected in RDRXR’s August 2015 Recommended Action Plan (RAP), which cited significant community interest in “ensuring that as many jobs as possible  generated by the development  go to local residents of New Rochelle, particularly the city’s disadvantaged.” 

To address this concern, the RAP proposed “a new comprehensive job training and placement program in connection with the development” that “would be designed to provide local residents with the skills that they need to secure employment and then would work to place those trained in the program in jobs created throughout the development process, as well as in other employment opportunities found in New Rochelle. Through this program,” the RAP continued, “New Rochelle would not only ensure that its citizens are well-positioned to take advantage of the economic activity to be generated by development, but would also signal to the marketplace a commitment to providing prospective employers with a well-trained workforce — an important attraction tool.”  The RAP proposed that the job training program “could be covered by fees generated by development in the downtown and elsewhere in the City.” (RAP, p.24)

The RAP also included recommendations for incentives for developers to create “arts and cultural space, community facility space, and public open space, as well as to preserve historic structures in the downtown.”

But none of this was binding on the city or the developers.

In November, 2015, the City Council adopted the Community Benefits Bonus Funds Policy that defines the fees to be levied in exchange  for specific waivers.  It further stipulated that “ ….the City will create a process for disbursing amounts in the Fund to specific projects.”  And it mandated that “On the fifth anniversary of the adoption of this Policy, the Commissioner of Development will provide the City Council with a detailed analysis of the utilization to such date of the Community Benefit Bonus.” 

But the only goals actually set for local hire, local business opportunities, and work opportunities for new apprentices were contained in the non-binding  2017 “Economic Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy,” which lacked any enforcement mechanisms.

How has the community benefited?

In a recent conversation with the Commissioner of Development Adam Salgado, New RoAR News learned that most of the Community Benefit Bonus Funds have been provided not in cash but  “in-kind,” meaning developers have paid for specific projects to be completed. 

New Rochelle Development Commissioner Adam Salgado

In its public relations materials, the City touts $36 million in in-kind benefits resulting from the downtown development, and the Commissioner indicated that roughly $5 million in cash has been collected.  An April 2025 presentation lists eight public spaces that have been developed, including Anderson Plaza, a playground on LeCount Place, a dog run on Huguenot St., and a future waterfront park at Echo Bay/Pratt Landing, among others. They also mention the 20 murals decorating the city, 26 spaces for charging electric vehicles, and 50 new businesses that have opened in the past five years. 

According to the Commissioner, there are a number of projects still in the works, including the completion of a “Black Box” theater on Main Street and 9,000 square feet of community space at 11 Garden Street. He shared that both projects were planned based on input from city residents, and both need additional funds to be completed.  He also mentioned additional public parking spaces to be made available to the public in new buildings in the downtown area.  He explained that $2.25 million is being used for retail grants in the “Vanguard District” (around Anderson Plaza) to help businesses improve or expand. To date, of 100 applications received, 10 businesses have received funding.

Over the years, New RoAR News has tracked the city’s implementation of the goals in the Community Benefits Policy and has found that they are far from being achieved.   The proposed apprenticeship programs (which can only be achieved if there is enough union participation in the redevelopment)  were never brought to scale, developers continue to benefit from hiring non-union workers at poverty wages, the City relies on outdated, inadequate data to determine the safety of intersections and the availability of sufficient parking, and many New Rochelle residents have been forced to move because  the so-called affordable housing is based on an area-wide median income of $119,000 when the New Rochelle median income is closer to $50,000. 

And what about the “detailed analysis of the utilization … of the Community Benefit Bonus” that the Commissioner of Development was required to submit to the City Council in 2020, on the fifth anniversary of the Community Benefits Bonus Funds Policy?  New RoAR News attempted to locate this detailed analysis that went into creating the April 2021 presentation to City Council, so far without success. 

While specific information about contributions to the Community Benefit Fund is available in developers’ applications for Industrial Development Agency (IDA) tax abatements, they  are not readily available in any summarized form.  New RoAR News was told that the decisions regarding the use of the funds are proposed by the Department of Development and approved by the City Council. The draft 2026 budget outlines out a number of projects and activities that will presumably be funded through the Community Benefits Fund, including the completion of the Black Box Theater, which has received a New York State grant, the continued operation of the CircuitNR shuttle bus, and the completion of the community space at 11 Garden Street, which will also require additional funding. 

New Rochelle residents are entitled to know more about this ongoing process and the  decisions being made regarding the development of our downtown. Why is it so difficult to  find this information on the City’s website, to identify the use of these funds in the budget, and to learn about future plans? And how does  the city intend to address the as yet unrealized goals of the Economic Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy?