Lots in Yonkers

When it’s finished, Monarch at Ridge Hill will include four 12-story buildings and 500 condos. It will have 24-hour doorman service, a two-story fitness center, an outdoor pool, a playroom and bike storage. Pretty run of the mill, as far as new condos go.

But that’s not all.

Monarch also will have a golf simulator, wine cellar, screening room, basketball court, yoga studio, sauna, indoor lap pool and tennis courts. Add to that, it’s within walking distance of a Whole Foods, a movie theater, an Apple store and Lord & Taylor, plus more than a dozen other stores and eateries.

Oh, and it’s in Yonkers.

New urbanism. This is how the team behind Monarch describes the lifestyle provided at its Manhattan-style condo in Westchester, 3 miles from the Bronxville Metro-North train station after a 30-minute train ride from Grand Central.

“For me, it’s easy to sell a project like this,” says David Marom, chairman of the Horizon Group, which is developing Monarch. “I don’t like to get in my car and go anywhere. I was born in a big city, and I live in a city.”

The theory behind building Monarch next to the Ridge Hill shopping center (which contains the restaurants and stores and has been developed by Forest City Ratner) is that everything is walkable. The proximity of Ridge Hill was a huge draw for Lois Cerqueira, who purchased a two-bedroom in Monarch’s first building, which she moved into earlier this summer. Indeed, she walks to Whole Foods and even brings a cart not unlike one a Manhattanite might to her neighborhood grocer.

“Being a single woman now, [with] adult children, what better draw for them to come and visit their mom with the stores and the movies and the restaurants?” says Cerqueira.

Building one’s 162 units, finished in January, are nearly 40 percent sold, says Marom.

“When we reach 65 to 70 percent sold, we’ll feel comfortable to go forward with the next building,” he says.

It’s with this second building that the 25,000-square-foot amenities space will be built. For now, the first building has a temporary space including a fitness center and residents’ lounge with bar.

For all its convenience, however, residents at Monarch don’t have access to some of the services Manhattan dwellers take for granted.

“The retail aspect [at Ridge Hill] is great. They have great restaurants and REI and Lord & Taylor and a movie theater,” says Leah Caro, president of Bronxville-Ley Real Estate. “But they don’t have a dry cleaner or a pizza by the slice.”

The Ridge Hill complex has been constructed on 81 acres between the New York State Thruway and the Sprain Brook Parkway, meaning there isn’t a township within walking distance, nor is there a train station. While Monarch offers residents shuttle service to the Bronxville Metro-North stop, the shuttle only runs during rush hour. To get anywhere else, there’s no getting around the fact that one would need a car. Par for the course for people who are already living in the suburbs.

“We have a good mix of people from The Bronx, a few people from the city,” says Marom of the buyers thus far. “People from Westchester who are downgrading, they want a nice area that they don’t need to maintain.”

One-bedrooms at Monarch range from 670 to more than 800 square feet, from $349,000 to the mid-$400,000s; two-bedrooms are 900 to 1,234 square feet, from $508,000 to the mid-$900,000s.

These are closer to Manhattan prices than the prices in much of Yonkers. Caro recently worked on the sale of a $95,000 studio in a complex with parking, a gate house and views of Sprain Lake. She has a two-bedroom in a garden complex within walking distance to Bronxville Village on the market for $235,000.

Riverview Club Condominiums, a conversion that began in 2008 and is currently 70 percent sold, has studios to two-bedrooms that are priced from the low $200,000s to the high $400,000s. The building is a five-minute walk from the Greystone Metro-North Station and is on the Hudson River; each unit overlooks the water and the Palisades.

Monarch, meanwhile, overlooks the highway on one side and the mall on the other. Still, the finishes and the amenities are incomparable for Yonkers.

“In this area, there isn’t much [for comparison]. You’d have to go to White Plains — Trump or the Ritz-Carlton, where you can walk out and you’re in the middle of a city center,” says Cagney Murray, sales associate for the Horizon Group.

The Ritz-Carlton in White Plains, 25 minutes north of Yonkers, was built with the same premise: amenities galore and everything within walking distance. The building went on the market in 2008. Caught in the economic downturn, it was forced to cut nearly 40 percent off its initial sales prices. But the prices have begun to recover in the past year.

“The last two sales we had were $635 and $655 per square foot,” says Nancy Kennedy, associate broker for Houlihan Lawrence and sales director of the Ritz-Carlton. “They were both from Westchester and were trying to sell their house, both empty-nesters.”

The Ritz, like Monarch, starts at about $500 per square foot. The smallest unit in the Ritz is $760,000 and 1,489 square feet; the top of the range is a 5,400-square-foot, half-floor penthouse listed for $5 million. “Just under” 50 percent of the 175 units have sold, Kennedy says.

One benefit to buying in Yonkers over White Plains: the extremely low taxes. Caro has a 1,000-square-foot condo with taxes at $2,804 a year. But what one saves in taxes one gives up in good schools.

“In Yonkers, taxes are so low. But I don’t have to worry about the school system for kids,” says empty-nester Cerqueira.

She’s ready to enjoy her new everything-included lifestyle.

“Everyone wants to come over and see Ridge Hill,” she says. “And I bring everyone over and I show them the stores.”