Not Acting Like We Need More Parks

Municipalities are exempt from property taxes if the property is used for the benefit of the public. If that same property is owned by a town or government but leased to a private company to operate a business, it is no longer tax exempt and will incur the appropriate taxes.


A devalued property, with fixed amounts in their lease for, say, fifteen years will be getting a much greater financial (i.e. 1% rental increases for each of ten years) and operational advantage than say a private company which rents space from a private landlord. Herein is the gist of what is happening with two similar companies within the Town.


House of Sports, located in Ardsley, NY, has asked for nothing, received nothing and played by the rules creating their business. They are in the final stages of building construction of a 120k square foot, multi-story building in a commercially zoned section of the village. It sits at the same location the former Selecto food warehouse had been, between a motel and I-87 and is accessible via Rt 9A. There are several other businesses nearby, such as RSA Computers, a car wash and others. It blends with the surrounding area.

Image taken from House of Sports Website

GameOn 365 is offering to lease the property at the former Frank’s Nursery location on Dobbs Ferry Road. The facility GameOn 365 wants to open is a bubble which will provide 79k square feet of indoor recreational room. What their website does not provide is the square footage with the courts and additional structures on the site. This makes an apples-to-apples comparison difficult. They are asking for a zoning change from residential to commercial use. It will invariably require additional zoning and other variances. It does not blend with the surrounding area.

Image taken from Westchester Field House Website

While these two companies may be competitors by nature, that point is less significant than the unbalanced theatre of operations with which these two businesses will be performing.There are numerous issues surrounding the proposal that residents, civic associations and others have vociferously complained about. We’ve posted before about them and will not repeat what’s already be said. Suffice to say that the change of zoning is a significant one which will have repercussions for at least 15 years to the area. 

The Paul has stated that we don’t need more affordable housing in Greenburgh and that there is a glut of it already and that’s why we should support this proposal. Perhaps he is correct that there is a glut throughout the Town of affordable housing. Our objections aside, we also felt that remediation of the property, a genuine effort to sell or lease it – not to the lowest denominator but rather the highest – must be from a position of strength. Gerry Byrne, one of two of our Recreation Commissioners stated at one Town Board meeting that we are always scrambling for open parks for recreational activities. If that’s the case, what is happening here doesn’t support his statement. Clean the property up, make it usable for the Town’s Recreation Department and we all benefit and the tax issue disappears.

Experts in real estate have spoken at the numerous forums and suggested we as a Town could do better. ABG knows they are correct. The Paul and his Stepford’s know they are correct. Slow down this express locomotive and let’s finally do better. We can only hope.