westfaironline.com January 2, 2023 BY PETER KATZ
N T A L P MEN S E S I P V O E L E R V G E R WD U B S O N L I D G U L R FO
A rendering of the two towers originally contemplated for 105 Downing St. in Yonkers.
jmcgown@westfairinc.com
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outh Norwalk was recently the focus of the robotic world when the Norwalk Havoc Robot League (NHRL) hosted its championships in the three-, 12- and 30-pound weight classes at the Norwalk Havoc Robot League (NHRL). Hundreds of people attended the competitions in person and thousands more around the world tuned into the livestreams.
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insburg Development Companies (GDC) has submitted to Yonkers a revised plan that would allow it to move forward with a residential development that has been in the works for approximately six years. The site covers about 2.26-acres with an address of 150 Downing St. Instead of building two towers as previously proposed, GDC is proposing to put up one in the first phase of the project. The newly proposed building has been named Bridgewater North Apartments. The original concept for the development called for two 11-story towers with a total of 520 apartments. The proposal now before the city for review, which Ginsburg hopes to soon begin constructing as the first phase of the development, would be a seven-story building over two levels of parking. It would have 131 one-bedroom units and 77 two-bedroom units for a total of 208 apartments. There would be 229 parking spaces provided. The cost of the building is estimated at $65 million. GDC estimates that the project will result in 625 construction jobs. When completed, there would be five full-time employees and four part-time employees at the property. The roots of the project extend from 2016 when Yonkers issued a Request for Proposals to sell the property at 150 Downing Street in the Ludlow section of the city. GDC was the successful respondent and in 2017 the city approved selling the site that formerly had been used by the Department of Public Works to GDC for approximately $3 million. GDC agreed it would make improvements to Anthony
GINSBURG
Norwalk Havoc Robot League finds global audience BY JUSTIN MCGOWN
Pkatz@westfairinc.com
At the end of the all-day competition, the teams behind 30-pound wedge and vertical spinner equipped Emulsifier, UGEE the big wheeled 12-pound batterer and three-pound titanium-cleated Lynx each took home a “Golden Dumpster,” a brass plated miniature version of the NHRL’s boxy robotic referee “Brett.” Each winning team was also able to direct $250,000 to a charity of their choosing. Those competitors who did not make it through the double elimination bracket
were also able to send up to $5,000 to their chosen charity, totaling over $1 million in donations to STEM charities ranging from efforts to protect frogs to improving STEM education. An additional $75,000 in cash prizes were awarded to competitors, as well as trophies honoring particularly impressive fights and records throughout the 2022 season. Founder Austin McChord launched the NHRL in late 2018 while he was winding down his time as CEO of Datto, the cybersecurity and managed services company he founded. The inspiration for this pursuit was inspired by shows like “BattleBots.”
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“I had attended a few other competitions and seen how they were run,” McChord explained, “and they were really at the hobbyist level. I thought that I could elevate that.” The first NHRL event had only a single “cage” (a reinforced arena with double walled, inch thick plexiglass and a negative pressure fire suppression system) set up in a building sometimes described as McChord’s “secret lair.” Towards the end of 2019, he was looking to expand the NHRL even further when the pandemic hit. He said he was able to take advantage of the brief period where real estate values fell and purchased the
NORWALK
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