EastRidge breaks ground on Enrichment Center

Real Estate Weekly, Sept 14, 1994

EastRidge Properties has announced that a stand-alone day care center will be constructed on land in its Westchester Corporate Park in Harrison, New York. Ground breaking for the project was to take place September 14, with a targeted opening date of March 1995.

The new facility, called "The EastRidge Enrichment Center," will be the only free-standing day care facility located in a Westchester office park when it opens in the Spring of 1995. An 11,000 squarefoot, state-of-the-art building, The EastRidge Enrichment Center will accommodate up to 122 children between the ages of 8 weeks and five years. It will have separate, secure areas for infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers, and ample outdoor play space. Center hours and schedules will be tailored to meet the needs of participating sponsors or workplaces.

A collaborative effort is bringing The EastRidge Enrichment Center to Westchester. The Center will be managed by Resources for Child Care Management (RCCM), a nationally-known child care management and consulting firm based out of Morristown, New Jersey, which also secured financing for the Center. RCCM has been developing and operating workplace child care programs since 1984, and with the opening of The EastRidge Enrichment Center, is responsible for a total of 19 child care programs around the country. All meet or exceed the accreditation standards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

In addition to RCCM, five Westchester county businesses are underwriting the $2.3 million cost of the new facility: EastRidge Properties and several participants in the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care, a ground-breaking business strategy launched in September 1992 which is intended to increase the supply and quality of dependent care services in communities where companies' employees live and work.

EastRidge Properties is a 2 million square-foot portfolio of 18 office buildings in four Westchester County office parks: White Plains Office Park, Westchester Corporate Park, Rockledge Center, and Purchase Park. EastRidge Properties will be offering its tenant companies the opportunity to buy sponsorship packages to offer as a benefit to employees.

Westchester American Business Collaboration participants funding the EastRidge Enrichment Center are: IBM; PepsiCo, Inc.; Texaco Inc.; and the NYNEX Corporation through its Dependent Care Development Fund in partnership with its unions, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Greater Productivity

The collaborators expect the quality child care available through The EastRidge Enrichment Center to help area businesses improve work-force productivity.

Around the country, more and more companies are recognizing that child care problems are a major factor in productivity. Studies have shown that the struggle to find and keep quality care affects worker concentration and results in frequent absenteeism and changes in jobs. And the availability of affordable, quality child care resources has been reported as a top factor in employee's decisions to transfer into or stay with a particular job situation, according to a study reported in Working Woman (June 1993).

As a result, more companies are offering "family-friendly" employee benefits such as child-care resources.

"The EastRidge Enrichment Center will be an important resource to help area businesses be more family-friendly." said Ellen Lynch, vice president of Albert B. Ashforth, Inc. and director of property operations for EastRidge Properties. "Being able to offer employees quality day care helps businesses attract and retain a productive, motivated work force."

According to Lynch, any of EastRidge Properties' tenant companies can obtain priority enrollment status for their employees by becoming a corporate sponsor. Applications for enrollment to the center will be accepted by RCCM.

All parents, whether they are employees of one of the American Business Collaboration companies, employees of EastRidge Properties' tenants, or members of the general public, will be able to enroll their children, on a full-time or part-time basis, in one of three programs:

* Infant Care and Toddler Care, which will provide developmental care for children aged 8 weeks to 3 years.

* Pre-School Care, which will be provided for children 3 to 5 years old.