Still No Comment on 715 Dobbs Ferry Road

Wednesday night’s Town Board meeting was met with the usual questions and the typical non-answers from the Board and The Paul. Numerous residents queried the Board when they had their turn at the podium as to what was being done with the former Frank’s Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road (as well as other issues). Each speaker specifically suggested the property be advertised with a Request For Proposal (RFP) and not limit the property to only two choices, either House of Sports or GameOn 365. But The Paul stated he wants (not that the public’s opinion matters) to keep it as a recreational use. Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan said he didn’t want to necessary go with the highest bid. This is the Board’s “tell” that the property will go to GameOn 365!

For some unknown reason, The Paul stated the Board would make their decision in March, after doing their “due diligence”. One speaker actually said the last time he heard this was discussing with The Paul and several Board members the proposed Westhab project that no one in the neighborhood wanted and the Town’s Zoning Board voted against. The Paul said the same thing back then and that no decision had been made and they were doing their “due diligence”. Surprisingly(?), The Paul and his Stepford Board approved the project, became the lead agency and voted every proposal Westhab made through the system faster than ever before seen. ABG believes this “due diligence” is simply another of The Paul’s classic stall tactic. In March they will turn around and say they are ignoring the larger financial amount the Town could receive to hand over the property to GameOn 365. This is about the only real transparency in this administration’s government.

The Town certainly has the right to sell the property to anyone it choses because this property was acquired through foreclosure. GameOn 365 apparently has never had the funds nor currently has the funds to develop their proposal into anything substantial. On the other hand, House of Sports does. Regardless, The Paul did backflips trying to get GameOn 365 to be the (illegal) leasee of choice. A lawsuit filed against the Town to stop the illegal lease has now been met by a counter-lawsuit. It’s seems now GameOn 365’s principals are down to, “Nah, nah, na-nah nah!”

House of Sports, in Ardsley, has recently opened an indoor sports facility that already has about 1,000 members. They have offered $3.5 million for the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. The only thing House of Sports has requested would be a change for the zoning from residential to a commercial one. Since the property is currently zoned only for single family homes, and it’s highly unlikely The Paul and his Board will put the property up for an RFP and hand the property over to GameOn 365, it’s likely we’ll never see housing at this location.

Currently, without an RFP, there are only two competing offers for the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. What the speakers at this meeting continued to drive home was that there might be more we can do with this property if only the Town would expand the scope from two recreational companies to include other types of businesses. Actually, wouldn’t this be an ideal spot to locate the Ferncliff School? It’s the same amount of acreage The Paul has been illegally trying to give Ferncliff with the WestHelp property on the Westchester Community College campus. It’s an even flatter piece of land, which they claim is an important requirement for them. 

The Town owns the property and The Paul is no stranger to cranking the approval process right on through every back door known only to developers. Why won’t The Paul direct the Ferncliff School to 715 Dobbs Ferry Road if he is so interested in helping them? Because this is just another of The Paul’s misdirection scams. Ultimately The Paul won’t get any Valhalla votes if he doesn’t help the Mayfair neighborhood remove the low income housing they vehemently fought to keep out years ago!

Every time a resident asked The Paul what he was going to do with the property, The Paul hemmed and hawed and didn’t answer. Nor did his Board. This tells ABG that he still prefers to do a flawed deal with GameOn 365, and is willing to discard the higher offer from House of Sports. The Town has a fiscal responsibility to the Town residents to garner the most money for this property to pay down the back taxes, gain a profitable sale for the property and start generating tax revenue as quickly as possible. Our “go-along” Town Board and The Paul, whose seemingly only interest are padding their developer friend’s pockets, are clearly not looking out for the best interest the residents. This is a clear-cut issue that requires little thought or justification. Either The Paul and his Board should put the property up for an RFP or accept the highest amount of money for the sale of this property and do the right thing by the residents. We can only hope.