The Westchester Brief | 04.21.26: 28 Arrests at IBM Somers

New York State Police confirm 28 trespassing arrests in 30 days at the former IBM campus in Somers, Westchester County. The most recent arrest involved a loaded 9mm pistol and a class C felony weapons charge. The driver: viral urbex (urban exploration) videos on TikTok and YouTube.

We go beyond the arrest blotter. The IBM Somers campus has been largely vacant for more than a decade after IBM consolidated operations. A prior redevelopment attempt did not complete. The property has become a Hudson Valley flagship for urbex social media content, and the enforcement response is struggling to keep up. The bigger question is what Somers, and Westchester more broadly, plans to do with these post-corporate ghost campuses.

We also cover the Westchester Magazine Builders Awards (Anthony Morando of Cuddy & Feder named 2026 Emerging Leader Honoree), the Barnes & Noble closure at the White Plains City Center, and White Plains Hospital's 2026 Castle Connolly Top Hospital recognition.

**0:00** Cold open
**0:20** 28 arrests in 30 days at IBM Somers
**2:30** Why urbex turned a ghost campus into a destination
**5:00** Post-corporate real estate and the broader pattern
**6:30** Quick hits: Builders Awards, Barnes & Noble, White Plains Hospital
**8:00** Close + YouTube CTA

**Sources:** New York State Police press release; News 12 Westchester — IBM Somers coverage; Mid Hudson News — fire reclassification

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

28 arrests in 30 days at one building in Summers, a loaded 9mm pistol, a crowbar, and a camera. This is what happens when TikTok meets a vacant corporate campus. This is the Westchester Brief. I'm Jim. Let's get into it. The former IBM campus on Route 100 in Summers has become Westchester's strangest public safety story. New York State police confirm 28 people have been arrested for trespassing at the site in the past 30 days. The most recent arrests came on April 13th. Two New Jersey residents, Violet Nids, 24 from Ridgewood, and Benjamin Vellino, 25 from Mahua. State police say the two entered the complex carrying a crowbar, a loaded 9mm pistol, a camera, and a large power strip. Vellino now faces two Class C felony charges: criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and burglary in the second degree. There was also a fire at the complex on April 4th. Initial reporting flagged it as suspicious. Later reporting indicates it has been reclassified as accidental, not criminal. The trespassing problem, though, has continued to escalate. Here is why the story matters beyond the arrest blotter. The IBM Summers campus is one of the largest abandoned corporate properties in the Hudson Valley. IBM consolidated operations out of it more than a decade ago. A prior redevelopment attempt did not complete. Since then, the site has sat largely empty, hundreds of acres in northern Westchester, and it has become a destination, specifically a destination for what is called Urbex, Urban Exploration, content creators. TikTok videos and YouTube videos of people walking through abandoned buildings have a massive audience right now. The IBM Summers campus is a Hudson Valley flagship for that content. The visual draw is significant, the enforcement response is struggling to keep up. Twenty-eight arrests in 30 days at one site is unusual enforcement volume for any location in this county. And the Velino case, someone entering the property with a loaded firearm, is a material escalation. That is not someone filming a video. That is someone treating an unsecured property as a cover for other activity. So here is the real question for Summers and for Westchester. What is the plan for this property? A corporate campus that nobody is using still has a tax line, still has a zoning designation, still affects the town around it. When the owner cannot or will not secure it, the enforcement burden falls on local police and on state troopers. Neighbors absorb the anxiety, and the social media incentive structure, real views, real followers, real ad revenue, keeps drawing more people to the site. This is not a summers-only story. Westchester has a handful of these ghost campuses, former corporate anchors that consolidated elsewhere. Places like the old Reader's Digest campus in Chappaquay, the old Verizon campus in White Plains. Each one is its own version of this question. What happens to post-corporate real estate in the suburbs when the corporation leaves? The answer is not obvious. Adaptive reuse is hard. Permitting is slow. Market demand is uncertain. But the absence of an answer is what the IBM Summers site is showing us right now. 28 arrests in 30 days, a loaded weapon on the property, a fire in early April, and TikTok cameras still rolling. Summers deserves a plan. The county deserves a framework for how to handle these properties. And residents deserve a clearer answer than we are making arrests. Here is what else is happening across Westchester this week. The Westchester Magazine Builders Awards were held last week at Harrison Meadows Country Club in Harrison. Anthony Mirando of Cuddy and Feder was named the 2026 Emerging Leader Honoree. Major developers including Toll Brothers, Capelli, Tavo Development, and the Vellani Group were in the room. Watch this space as the development conversation continues through the spring. Barnes and Noble closed yesterday at the White Plains City Center after 20 years. If you missed it, we covered what is moving in behind the closure: Minnesota, Bobo's Cafe, Nest, and Nook, and the broader shift happening across Westchester retail. Monday's episode has the full breakdown. And White Plains Hospital was just named a 2026 Castle Connolly Top Hospital, the highest ranked hospital in the Hudson Valley. It is also one of only two hospitals in New York to win both the Health Grades Patient Safety Excellence Award and Outstanding Patient Experience Award this cycle. Healthcare continues to be one of Westchester's most consequential growth industries.