Fast and Furious

A previous post discussed the interweaved collusion between our Town Supervisor, his Town Board, his various committees which he has appointed as his hand-picked favorites in order to further his agenda. The business owner of Deli Delicious, sought numerous variances and approvals to make major alterations to a business which has now been voluntarily closed for two years by its owner, Ernest Tartaglione. Now, he is back seeking more variances to attempt again to add a drive-through window in his small deli. We believe his goal is to “flip” the building, allowing the purchaser to have the drive-through window be grandfathered into the sale.

Two years ago, when Mr Tartaglione was refused his zoning variance requests from the Zoning Review Appeals Board, he quickly placed plywood over the windows and front doors and spray painted the word “Closed” on them. He continued to use the basement office after posting the illegal signage on the building without permits. The building department left him alone. But when a neighborhood homeowner temporarily closed in his garage door with a wall, the Town inspectors were there immediately issuing violations and taking him to court. Back then, Tartaglione claimed he was losing $4k a month by not having his requested drive-through window. While he might have been losing money and was willing to spend an estimated $100k to add this window, closing the business to make that point is like cutting your nose to spite your face.

His claim of hardship just didn’t ring true. He said his business was down tremendously. Meanwhile, other eateries in the immediate area were thriving! His decision to board up the business could only be interpreted as spiteful! A case in point for a successful eaterie is the new Smashburger directly across the street from his deli without a drive-through window. We’re reminded of the old saying, “Give the people what they want and they’ll beat a path to your door.” Perhaps Mr Tartaglione didn’t offer the public what they wanted and they’ve beaten a new, more tasty path, to another non-drive-through eaterie.

Moving beyond the collusion at 22 Tarrytown Road, is the desperate manipulations by our Supervisor with 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the former Frank’s Nursery property and his desire to gift the land to his latest, favored beneficiary, GameOn 365. This property has been vacant since the Town acquired it through foreclosure in 2011. With no taxes generated from foreclosure as the property becomes tax exempt, the Town’s residential and business taxpayers are forced to cover the school and town taxes. The property altogether and indefinitely ceased to generate tax revenue for the Town.

It was eventually revealed the site was contaminated with chemicals, spilled heating oil and urban renewal debris from White Plains. All suggestions to use the property as a new location for our Police Department and Courts, as well as a temporary location for our library during its construction, were abandoned by those parties once the hidden contamination factor was exposed. Almost immediately afterwards, the property was simply ignored. Still, Mr Feiner never failed to find an opportunity to tout the Town’s AAA Bond Rating. Rather than remediate the site, properly market it, and sell it, the Problem Solver entered an unadvertised, private, covert deal with a startup company called GameOn 365.

The deal Mr Feiner made with GameOn 365 was to offer them an illegal lease for the property. As we’ve previously posted, Westchester County and New York State law states that foreclosed upon property must be sold by the municipality acquiring the property unless they choose to use it for Town use, such as a park, new Town facility, etc. But Mr Feiner chose not to go down Honesty Street and turned onto Corruptible Drive, once again in violation of the law. Having taken an oath to uphold the laws of the state of New York, he should be removed from office.

Once Mr Feiner’s illegal lease plan was exposed he switched gears and announced he would offer the property for sale to GameOn 360 for $1.66M. The neighborhood lawsuit challenging his illegal lease deal with GameOn 365, was screwing up his plans. Before he was due in court, he offered to hold a public referendum in what would be the then-upcoming elections and finally dropped the illegal lease idea, negating the lawsuit. His new scheme was to offer the public a referendum to see what they would want done with the property. This might have been a good and legal idea had the referendum been crafted properly and not slanted toward a predetermined outcome. But the wording was so biased to generate approval, it was quickly viewed by everyone as a farce.

Ever the shrewd politician, Mr Feiner knows that voters only pay attention to the headlines and not the real story. He also knows there is a core group of Democrats who will blindly vote for him and any of his propositions, giving any of his convoluted ideas “legs”. So he directly or indirectly had yard signs posted and probably suggested to the involved party to plant signs throughout the Town and place advertisements in area newspapers, stressing the need to promote the bogus fact that the Town would get $5M by passing the referendum. But wait! The “new” 1800’s-style voting system had an unintended flaw: the referendum was on the back of the voting sheets and were ignored by voters! Every the quick thinker, Mr Feiner did an email blast, Facebook post, blog post, phone calls and news releases to remind voters to flip the ballot over and vote for the referendum. His quick scrambling worked and the vote passed.

We suspect this saga unfolded with Mr Feiner learning behind closed doors that GameOn 365’s “offer” to purchase the property also had no “legs” as their finances were nil. Based solely on an offering by several stockbrokers seeking investors, the GameOn 365 corporation could not afford to purchase the property because they had no money. Mr Feiner needed another plan to stall long enough to allow GameOn 365 to get some cash for at least a down payment. But there was now another wrinkle. Not only had the G10 attempted to stop the deals Mr Feiner was trying finagle into being with logic and legal footings, but House of Sports, an already established sports facility based in Ardsley, doubled the amount of money offered for the property and would address the necessary remediation!

Many people in Greenburgh have learned over the years that when Mr Feiner likes a project(s), he will go above and beyond normal channels to make it happen, regardless of legality, ethical concern, or neighborhood impact. The Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association persisted on meeting with Mr Feiner and his Town Board only to be completely rebuffed. Several emails and verbal requests were made of The Problem Solver to meet and discuss the situation with the 715 Dobbs Ferry Road property, but Mr Feiner had already committed his decision to sell to GameOn 365. Mr Feiner could keep the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association as bay indefinitely, but the cash offer of $3.5 million plus all remediation fees was a major roadblock to his plans. Not to be outdone, he began a campaign to discredit the offer from the House of Sports as not being genuine. One of the principals of House of Sports, said he is always serious when it comes to money and the offer was sincere!

To give the appearance of being forthright, and while being challenged by Edgemont’s Bob Bernstein for the Supervisor position in the upcoming Democratic Primary election, Mr Feiner announced that he would follow Hal Samis’ suggestion and auction off the property to the highest bidder. He was obviously believing his own tripe that the House of Sports offer was not genuine, thinking only GameOn 365 would bid. Regardless, the right thing might finally happen with this property in Greenburgh no less. Ah, not so fast. Once Mr Feiner won the Democratic Primary nomination, he switched gears and now the auction became a sealed bid. If there were truly an auction, Mr Feiner would not be able to control the outcome for GameOn 365. In fact, there were numerous ways the auction might not work out for GameOn 365, the Town, and the neighborhood. As time ebbed, slowly approaching the “auction” date, Mr Feiner kept attempting to change the “bid” dates without advertising the property, hiring a Real Estate broker, or doing the remediation.

His plan wasn’t working, so it was time for Mr Feiner to enter deflection mode. He decided to mandate his Town Board to officially request the Town Planning Commissioner, Thomas Madden, to look into developing a new zoning category for Recreational Zoning. Mr Feiner’s new plan for Dobbs Ferry Road is for it to be developed from a R-30 Residential zone to a re-zoned recreational corridor. This would ensure GameOn 365 have virtually no opposition for the property and limit other bidders from seeking a different use for the site –with or with remediation. Well, almost. Was the House of Sports offer sincere or not? Could this be the solution to his dilemma to ensure GameOn 365 be awarded the winning bid or not?

As ABG was preparing this article, it was learned that Mr Feiner will announce a postponement of the Frank’s Nursery site “auction” originally slated for December 3, 2013! While no reason was given, we’re pretty sure it could only be due to one of the following reasons below. You may recall the few “ground rules” Mr Feiner laid out for the auction/bid/sale. The minimum bid would be $3.5 million, sold “as is”, would require 10% down and the balance at the closing. G10 member Hal Samis, retired from the real estate industry, detailed several real estate publications and methodologies that should be utilized to ensure optimum advertising, bidding and results for the property. While the Town Board hasn’t followed his advice yet, there is still time – especially with this newest delay. Can you say fast and furious, or will this just crash and burn?

The first reason we believe for postponing the bid/auction/sale is that GameOn 365 approached Mr Feiner and informed him they don’t have $3.5 million for the bid. The second reason might be that Mr Feiner realized by making the corridor limited to recreation, in hopes of ensuring only GameOn 365’s seat at the table, he incorrectly assumed they could afford the buy into this high-stakes game, only to learn they couldn’t and get no bids. The third reason is that Mr Feiner finally had his epiphany and realized House of Sports would be the only real bidder, thus proving their offer was always sincere, real, tangible, actual, factual and the best deal for the Town. The fourth reason might be by changing the zoning other developers whom Mr Feiner claimed have shown interest in the property have withdrawn their interest.

You may also recall once House of Sports made their original offer, Mr Feiner repeatedly tried to discredit them with the mantra that the House of Sports offer was not sincere. The Town Board even picked up that ball and began purporting that as well. When it failed, he tried to say House of Sports was only trying to eliminate competition. While ABG doesn’t believe this to be the case, even if it were, so what, who cares? One business outbidding another business happens all the time. This isn’t the proverbial soccer game with no winners or losers. This is real life and real business, of which Mr Feiner has no practical knowledge. The goal of the Town, which Mr Feiner even said after the G10 asserted it numerous times, is that the Town has a fiduciary responsibility to get the most money it can for the Town as well as what is suitable for the neighborhood. GameOn 365’s offer was half of what House of Sports offered. It appeared to be a no-brainer.

It remains to be seen if the truth will be told as to why the postponement is happening. Regardless, we hope it’s discussed openly at the next Work Session at Town Hall. Don’t hold your breath. In the meantime, we’re sure there’ll be some “strategerizing” going on in the next Executive Session. This property has always been a ªdone-deal gone wrong”. The Town Board has the opportunity to do finally the right thing even though it took too long to get there. Let’s hope they do and honestly work toward A Better Greenburgh.