New Rochelle issued its call this afternoon for developers to propose “creative” uses for the former naval Armory on Echo Bay this afternoon.
The city wants a developer to reinvent the East Main Street building, with its vaulted ceiling, perhaps as a performing arts center, restaurant and banquet hall, festival market or a combination of such uses, on the 2.9-acre site next to the public works yard.
The city “welcomes creative proposals, providing that they are practical and financially viable,” reads a document issued yesterday called a “request for proposals.”
Proposals for the 1931 brick building should fit with the larger development of homes, stores and park space planned on the 10.4-acre public works site when city operations are moved from that site to an inland location.
The plans also must preserve space along the waterfront for a “continuous, publicly-accessible shoreline promenade along the length of Echo Bay’s northern shore.”
Finalists will be chosen by an evaluation committee. The developers who made those proposals will meet with the committee and City Council, the document says.
The building includes a 11,200 square-foot main space with a small mezzanine level, and a basement of 11,000 square feet.
An attached annex is a two-story building with more than 14,000 square feet.
Proposals can include plans to demolish the annex, as well as plans to preserve and adapt it.
