Rebirth underway in New Rochelle.

With $500 million in new projects rising or on drawing boards, downtown New Rochelle's diet of fumes may be over. By August 1st, the ribbon will be cut on New Roc City's 1.2 million square-foot multi-use complex, and the first of a projected 5.5 million IMAX and movie-goers, ice skaters, diners and Space Shot riders will be taking their places in line.

They will be joined by Super Stop and Shoppers, Marriott Residence Inn visitors, and office tenants in the multi-block $190 million joint venture which has risen on the site of the former somnolent New Rochelle Mall.

The urban entertainment retail complex is being developed by New Roc Associates, a partnership of Louis Cappelli, Robert M. Greene, president of Center Services, and architect Kenneth Narva, president of PEG/Park Architects.

This jewel in New Rochelle's center took several years to purchase, plan and redevelop, but its concrete shell is nearly complete and the Huguenot Tower, a 235-foot rooftop attraction, is already a landmark for Long Island Sound boaters.

Modeled after the Eiffel Tower-as it recalls the city's French heritage-the top of the 40-second thrill ride will be illuminated by lighting designer Joe Kaplan. Cappelli said the colors can be changed "instantly" to warn of impending storms or celebrate upcoming holidays.

"It's an icon," he added, and as the first of its kind on the East Coast, will act as a welcoming beacon for travelers from all over the world. The more than $1 million tower was a hard sell at first for New Rochelle officials, but they have warmed up to the cold steel, as it draws attention to the development.

"They don't give anything away, but they listen, and we are appreciative of their feedback," said Cappelli of the officials, who he said listened to many of his "corny" ideas.

The dozen dangling riders, scrapped to the outside of the tinker toy-like tower for each 4G experience, will be loaded from inside the four-story complex by Sports Plus, which will also operate 150,000 square feet of motion simulator rides, virtual reality games, amusement and video games, batting cages and a climbing wall.

Owned by Family Golf Centers, which recently won the right to develop driving ranges on one of the New York City Port Authority Bus Terminal roofs, its subsidiary is creating an NHL-sized ice rink with 600 to 1,000 seats for fans, and an adjacent skating "lake" for families that will re-create the experience of skating on a frozen pond. They will also provide "great rentals," sports shops and fast food areas. A sports bar will also overlook the main rink.

Nearby, Regal Cinemas will operate a 19-screen 130,000 square-foot megaplex that will include the first IMAX Theater in Westchester County. All the theaters will have extra-padded stadium seats with cupholders and three kinds of digital sound capabilities.

A Bally Total Fitness Club will occupy two levels and take up 25,000 square feet.

There won't be a "food court" in New Roc City, but there will be plenty to eat. Apple Metro, a Harrison, NY-based franchise holder, is opening a 300-seat Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar, and a 350-seat Rio Bravo Cantino. The firm is also bringing in the southern seafood restaurateur, Ray's On the River.

With its own entrance and free parking, the Massachusetts-based Stop and Shop will have a 70,000 square-foot niche at the mall, and by its size, is dubbed a Super Stop & Shop. It will have a deli, bakery, card shop and other specialty items. Grocery shoppers will be able to drop their kids at the amusement center, but there won't be an indoor walkway between them.

Meanwhile, the city of New Rochelle has spent $25 million developing the parking garage and sold Cappelli air rights on which he will now be developing an approximately 100,000 square-foot office building, with rents expected to be in the mid-$20's.

Jeffrey J. Castaldo, the executive director of real estate for Cappelli Enterprises, is marketing that building, as well as 85,000 square feet of retail still available in the entertainment portion.

Next door to the office tower, the team is developing a 120-room Marriott Residence Inn, which as an extended stay property, something Mayor Timothy Idoni says that area companies have requested.

Architect and partner Narva, who helped prompt the Ladies Miles resurgence as a partner on the original Bed Bath & Beyond and Filene's Basement retail and office redevelopment at 620 Sixth Avenue - the former Siegel Cooper Dept. Store in New York City - is designing a facade for New Roc City that will echo a small-town streetscape and break up the blocks-long expanse, particularly along Main Street.

The opening of New Roc City is expected to propel the further rebirth of the once proud Queen City.

Left with a tax base of $1 stores, vegetable stands and a frighteningly empty Main Street as four movie theaters, Arnold Constable, Bloomingdales, Macy's, Lillian Vernon, Woolworths and Citibank moved out one by one, city officials spent more than two decades swinging through planning dances with Xanadu, Donald J. Trump and UNICEF, among others.

But as Mayor Idoni now says, those multi-year experiences gave them "a chance to get their act together" for the moment the next round of suitors came along.

When, in the mid-1990's, Big Box became the Big Deal, New Rochelle's inventory of vacant industrial buildings and urban renewal land choices adjacent to two 1-95 exits made it an obvious target. And while that chain hasn't yet arrived, others of the genre have or are trying.

Costco's first store did so well that the warehouse price club relocated to larger quarters next to a new - and the county's first - Home Depot, and is now marketing its original site. The success of those two retailers, located just off Exit 15 on what is also known as the New England Thruway, gave more than hope to the city - it brought in huge sales tax dollars and interest from more developers and stand-alone retailers like Ikea, which city officials say would like to make a deal.

Today, Rite Aid is poised to build one of its own attractive stand-alone stores on the currently dilapidated Defender Industries site.

Local 32E of the Service Employees International, which represents building workers in The Bronx and Westchester, has bought an office building on Huguenot Street and will move up from The Bronx.

The nationwide housing builder Avalon Bay Communities is completing design planning for a three-phase luxury rental apartment, parking and street retail complex on the southwest oriented Huguenot Street, next to the Metro North and Amtrack station. The first building, at 24 stories, will become the tallest building in the City of New Rochelle and will overtake the "K" building as a new landmark.

"It's a real, neat design," said Idoni, microphone in hand, as he provided a progress report and reminded reporters, brokers and development officials of a current RFP during a bus tour last week.

Avalon Bay Communities, which is the designated builder for Queens West's next residential phase, has projects under construction in Mamaroneck, Bronxville and in New Jersey, among many other sites.

The architects, Beyer Blinder Belle, known for their restoration work on Grand Central Terminal, have designed a building with 408 apartments - many with balconies a 600-car garage, rooftop terrace, a pool and clubhouse, and just over 10,000 square feet of street retail wrapping around to the next block.

In all, the three phases will bring in 1,000 luxury apartments, 60,000 square feet of retail, and more than 1,100 parking spaces.

Located next to the Metro North and Amtrack Station, the trains can whisk commuters to and from Fordham Road, 42nd Street and Stamford within minutes.

The station area, too, will be almost entirely rebuilt through a $14 million project that already has $12 million funded thanks to monies obtained by Rep. Nita Lowey and former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato that will flow through Westchester County to the project. This new Intermodal Transportation Center will have parking for 1,000 cars, taxi and limo areas, and more retail.

The train station is one of the selling points for the Avalon on the Sound apartments, Idoni says, half of which will be one-bedrooms, with the other a mix of two- and three-bedroom units.

"We're not looking for an impact from families," said Idoni, with an eye on school budgets. "We're looking for spending in the downtown district."

To the north of the train station, on the other side of North Avenue, the city has acquired some dilapidated structures on Garden Street site that will become a "modest, clean" bus terminal of about 14,000 square feet, along with adjacent parking.

The buses will be able to leave the highway at a newly beautified Exit 16 and quickly enter the terminal, no longer having to waste time or spread fumes traveling through the downtown streets.

The money for Exit 16 is coming via the New York State Empire State Development Corp. and a fund being raised by the Downtown merchants at the urging of developer Louis Cappelli, who is one of the partners developing New Roc City.

"We said [show them that the] private sector is willing to put up money to fix up roads that aren't even yours," recalled Cappelli, speaking after the tour at the Beckwith Pointe Beach Club, one of the many private shore clubs located along the Long Island Sound waterfront.

Twenty businesses have agreed in principal to pay $250,000 per year towards a $1.5 million to $2 million bond issue that will fund road and landscape improvements and other beautification projects.

"The county is committed to working with New Rochelle to commit the resources we can to make that development as nice as it can be, so it brings people into New Rochelle," said County Executive Andrew Spano, speaking to the group.

Those improvements are expected to entice further development to what is known as parcel 1A. Located adjacent to the highway, the city issued an RFP in January seeking a minimum 150,000 square feet in no taller than 240 feet or 20 stories that can have a single user or be a "significant" mixed-use building. There is the possibility of a Section 108 $10 million construction loan through HUD. Proposals are due April 2nd, but that date may be extended for a few weeks, as it comes right after the Passover/Easter holidays.

The city is also not neglecting open space issues. The city library is located across from the Avalon Bay projects, set back from the south side of Huguenot Street, which runs parallel to the northeast-bound Main Street shopping district.

County Executive Spano recalled Mayor Idoni told him he needed a park there to provide open space and anchor the apartment and retail projects.

The county has since provided $2.8 million to buy the 1.4 acres for Library Green. That site will soon become a passive oasis, a shortcut to shopping, and a cultural mecca for events like concerts and street festivals that often take place on the adjacent Memorial Highway. The park will have an audience-friendly seating hill on one side, a small stage, a "tot lot" and "seat walls," and will be surrounded by a forged iron fence for "security reasons."

"We will maintain the park ourselves, and it will take away from the density of Avalon and the heights of the buildings," said Idoni.

Cappelli compared the possibilities in New Rochelle to those that have already exploded Stamford, CT, but pointed to the huge difference: New Rochelle is only 15 minutes by train from Grand Central. "This city is happening," he said, laughingly advising other developers "except Avalon" to "stay away for a couple of years - about five," because the pro-development community is actually letting developers make a profit.

"The exciting things that are happening in this city will act as a catalyst," Cappelli said, "and this undiscovered jewel will not be undiscovered for long."