Yonkers Ex-Domino Sugar Site Up For Redevelopment

Developers are ready to get sweet on a 33-acre waterfront site in Yonkers.

Cushman & Wakefield is marketing American Sugar Refining’s former refinery at 1 Federal Street in Yonkers, Bisnow reported. The Domino Sugar refinery was shut down late last year as plant operations were shifted upstate.

The recently rezoned site can accommodate roughly 2.6 million square feet of development, according to the brokerage, along with more than 2,600 residential units, commercial space, retail space and community space.

The site is located between a pair of Metro-North Railroad stations, each of which can get commuters to Manhattan in approximately 45 minutes.

“This site is uniquely positioned to support a dynamic, transit-oriented destination that will shape the next chapter of Yonkers’ evolution,” Cushman’s Ryan Dowd said in a statement; other brokers include Gary Gabriel and Niko Nicolaou.

As recently as 2020, the refinery was processing more than 4 million pounds of sugar daily. Domino Sugar acquired the site in 1990, though it had been in use for about a century already at the time.

Yonkers is one of four Westchester County municipalities that have seen a surge of multifamily development, with more than 2,000 units built since 2018. Combined with New Rochelle, White Plains and Mount Vernon, the area has seen more than 9,400 units delivered between 2021 and 2024, according to commercial real estate brokerage RM Friedland.

A potential project would be the second former sugar refinery to make a splash after Two Trees Development’s banner property on the Brooklyn waterfront.

One Domino Square, a massive mixed-use development that includes and surrounds the former Domino Sugar refinery, debuted in October 2024 with a 160-unit condo tower and a 399-unit rental tower.

The development has 45,000 square feet of amenities, including an aquatics center with an indoor swimming pool and spa, cold plunge, hot tub, steam room, sauna and a heated outdoor pool overlooking the East River. It also features a private dining room, barbecue grilling terrace and media room.

— Holden Walter-Warner