Transit-oriented development getting green light.

The smart growth movement, which has fought for preservation of open spaces and limiting sprawl and traffic, has taken a turn toward transit.

LCOR, a national development and management company that concentrates on large real estate projects, has long recognized that linking development to transportation can be the ticket to a profitable project. We've successfully positioned ourselves as leaders in the area.

And as specialists in public/private partnerships, we're finding that transit venues play an ever-increasing role in siting decisions. More and more, advocates of smart growth -- representing both the public sector and the private sector -- are focusing attention on steering development to locations near public transportation.

Accordingly, Transit-Oriented Development -- or "TOD" -- is the new catchword describing the construction of commercial and residential properties with easy access to existing subway and train stations and airports.

The real estate community has long known the tremendous importance of location. But as commuting times grow longer, and as gridlock tightens its grip on metropolitan districts, proximity to public transportation has become an important, development site criterion.

Real estate investors also recognize the value that TOD can add to a project's bottom line. Landlords can collect higher rents because of the proximity to commuting. Furthermore, smart growth planning frequently allows higher density.

Smart growth proponents emphasize the role public transportation plays in reducing traffic congestion and air pollution, and limiting the need for new highway construction. Political and community leaders are now following their lead by supporting Transit-Oriented Development as a key component of their anti-sprawl strategies.

LCOR has recently been pursuing several development projects situated nearby trains or planes in the New York area.

For each of the three projects cited below, proximity to transit was a major factor in building support from politicians, planners and prospective occupants of the site.

Gaslight Commons is a $34.5-million. 200-unit, luxuxy residential complex located adjacent to the NJ Transit Sloan Street Railway Station in South Orange, N.J. Opening in two phases, the property is now about 50% leased and expects to be fully leased by the fall. The short walking distance to the train station has readily attracted Manhattan commuters desiring easy access to the city.

Our company received the "2002 Smart Growth Award" from the state's largest smart growth advocacy group, New Jersey Future, for building Gaslight Commons near public transportation and on a former brownfields site. The advocacy group honored both LCOR and the Village of South Orange for the project, calling it "an example to communities across the state of what is possible through redevelopment and revitalization."

In New York State, LCOR is developing a second property adjacent to a suburban train station. The $137 million Bank Street Commons will be a 2-tower, 500-unit luxuxy residential complex located next to the MetroNorth Railway Station in White Plains in Westchester County. The Westchester Financial Center, along with the downtown White Plains shopping district and shopping malls, are within walking distance.

In addition to the residential towers, the project has won site plan approval to construct a 100,000-SF, 200-room hotel as part of the development.

Municipal leaders are excited that the project will boost the city's economy when future residents walk downtown to shop or take the train. White Plains mayor Joseph Delfino called the project "a major milestone in the revitalization of downtown White Plains."

The community is also pleased that the TOD initiative will, after 20 years, finally fill in an unsightly, aesthetic gap in the city landscape. The site, which had been subject to several prior, failed development attempts, had until now been widely known as the "Hole in the Ground."

In the third instance, our company is taking TOD one step further by developing JFK Corporate Square in downtown Jamaica. The master plan encompasses five-million square feet on ten acres of underutilized land. JFK Corporate Square will be situated at a prime, outer-borough transportation hub at the nexus of key New York subway stations, the Long Island Railroad Jamaica Station and the forthcoming Air Train, a light rail train shuffle to JFK airport.

Access to trains and planes makes the development's location compelling for airport-related businesses. The project will bring new commercial life to the Jamaica community by capturing powerful, economic spin-offs generated by JFK Airport.

In addition to these metropolitan area LCOR projects, the company is developing ambitious TOD properties in other pails of the country.

In North Bethesda, Maryland, for example, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) selected LCOR -- through a competitive process -- as its development partner for a 32-acre site at the White Flint Metrorail station. The $625-million initiative is the largest joint development project that WMATA has ever approved.

The die is cast. Throughout the Northeast, metropolitan areas will continue to expand. Traffic congestion will steadily increase. As more motorists yearn to desert their vehicles to elude the traffic and the gridlock, access to public transportation will grow in importance for residential and commercial properties.

In keeping with this trend, TOD has emerged as an important consideration for LCOR in our evaluation of prospective, public-private partnerships. Transit-Oriented Development is clearly growing in popularity, and its public policy rationale becomes more compelling every day. It makes sense for the development community to stay attentive to the opportunities presented by Transit-Oriented Development.