Bubble Floats Next Door, Feiner’s Deal Undone

The lamestream media is reveling in the news that the Town of Greenburgh has decided to sell the former Frank’s Nursery at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to the Ardsley-based Elm Street Sports, owner of the successful House of Sports in Ardsley. Their current facility is located in a light industrial neighborhood near the NYS Thruway. What the media is not doing is asking Mr Feiner direct questions as to why he changed his position?

This agonizing ordeal was spread out over about three years. With an illegal lease, a bogus referendum and countless wasted hours, money, unsubstantiated claims of due diligence, repeated bad move after bad move, his Town Board has only now had a change of position. ABG can only wonder if this move was made strictly to remove this issue as a talking point with Town Supervisor candidate Robert Bernstein?

You’ll recall that Mr Feiner met with GameOn 365 representatives before the Town acquired the foreclosed Frank’s Nursery property. By first meeting with representatives of GameOn 365 before the Town had the property, claims of collusion were made. Representatives of the Westchester County District Attorney have maintained there were no laws broken by Mr Feiner by doing this. While that may certainly be the case, and there were no laws broken, public trust and an ethical violation are no doubt in play. Since Mr Feiner controls who is a member of the Town’s Ethics Board, an obvious and ethical contradiction, he effectively remains defiantly unchallengable. This seems to be the modus operandi of Mr Feiner and his Board: skirt the law and ethics be damned!

ABG reached out to Elm Street Sports to get their side of this story to no avail. ABG wonders what else changed and why suddenly everyone on the Town Board acquiesced to this new position? Could it be the damning 3-minute comment that the Elms Street Sports attorney* made at the last Town Board meeting where he detailed how the Town Board members would be individually culpable for their decision to sell to GameOn 365? Could it be that same comment period when he said that every individual taxpayer throughout the Town could be co-litigants as co-owners of the former Frank’s Nursery property in a group action lawsuit against the Town and its Board ? Could it be Councilman Ken Jones’ eccrine suduriferus glandular exhibition each time the subject is broached that has coerced his change of opinion? Regardless of the reason, we await for the “spin” from the Board with baited breath. This would be fun if it weren’t so sad!

Another misstep by our Town Board and Mr Feiner, who continued to play games in hopes of salvaging his original done-deal with GameOn 365 is he is no longer dealing from a position of strength. GameOn 365 has informed the Town they are no longer interested in the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. They are hoping to purchase the golf driving range just adjacent to the old Frank’s Nursery. Mr Feiner can no longer leverage the property now that there is no longer two competing bidders. Another Feiner fiasco that is sure to go the wrong way for the Town. Since House of Sports knows how little Mr Feiner is willing to accept for the property, House of Sports is now in the drivers seat.

One concern for residents after the sale of the golf driving range to GameOn 365 will be the zoning of the property. Or, perhaps the re-zoning. Since it is already zoned for a commercial (and perhaps sports) usage, there may be little anyone can do to stop this 8-story behemoth from being erected. Residents of Westchester View Lane, who vehemently and rather vociferously supported this venture, will no doubt be even happier welcoming GameOn 365, now that it promises to be built literally in their backyards! Ah, summer evenings will never be the same with compressors, air conditioning units and of course, mood lighting in their backyards. Will this cause flocks of people to seek purchasing homes here at record prices? We’ll just have to wait and see.

As we, and others, have mentioned previously, GameOn 365 is little more than a “hopeful” venture by several stock brokers apparently tiring of the depressed economy in hopes of making a quick buck. Or, perhaps they’re seeking what they believe would be a “fun” job. Work is work guys, and anytime you begin to think it is something else, you’re in for a rude awakening. Regardless of their motivation, their execution is still suspect. This time, however, the residents won’t be on the hook for a bad deal, a private enterprise will be. Let’s see how much they sell their property for and whether or not it goes as cheaply as Mr Feiner was willing to sell comparable property. All of this could have been avoided had Mr Feiner not struck a back room deal and just followed the law!

* Attorney and law firm who successfully won the Fortress Bible Church case against the Town.