On its western flank the City of Peekskill’s downtown area had seen more active days. In earlier times the downtown area connected to the northern waterfront area, Fort Hill and industrial businesses along Central Avenue and Water Street via Main Street. In the 20th Century NYS Route 9 was upgraded to a limited access highway forming a barrier, activities on Fort Hill diminished, higher end single-family homes overlooking the Hudson River Valley fell out of fashion, and industrial activities all but disappeared. A number of road connections were closed making western Main Street little more than a conduit ferrying vehicles to and from the NYS Route 9 interchange.

In the early 2000s the last of the structures on this property were acquired and demolished by the City. It was envisioned that a residential project – that would become the western gateway to the City’s downtown area – would occupy the site.

Mr. Lynch first advocated for the return of residential development as an “as-of-right” use group allowed in the downtown Peekskill area, and this property represented the first opportunity to allow residential use on a property in the downtown area. He crafted residential townhome zoning text, and worked closely with Westchester County who had a role in acquiring and remediating the property in preparation for construction. He worked with two Developers between 2006 and 2018 to bring the project to fruition. The project was developed in concert with a larger redevelopment of Fort Hill which necessitated making a previously one-way City roadway two-way and removing on-street parking. Mr. Lynch was instrumental in developing a plan to address neighborhood parking through the provision of a new municipally-operated parking lot on property adjacent to the site, acquired and built by the Developer of the Gateway project.