We neglected one vital point with all that we exposed in the previous article, Pretending To Be Honest, Open and Transparent. There is another critical factor that will ensure GameOn 365 be the successful bidder that acquires the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road under the guise of an auction run by a third party. That point is simply advertising. How the property will be marketed and advertised will either increase the interest in purchasing the property or not.
As mentioned in our previous article, Ardsley's House of Sports offered the Town $3.5 million in cash and full remediation of all contamination for the former Frank's Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. But since they were not Mr Feiner's business of choice, and the newly formed GameOn 365 was, Mr Feiner fabricated a lie that the House of Sports offer was not a serious one. As Donald Scherer, CEO of House of Sports said numerous times, he is always serious when it comes to money. So, Mr Feiner again took it upon himself to intentionally inflict more financial pain to the Greenburgh taxpayers by refusing a valid and more substantial offer.
Reviewing the Frank's Marketing Budget v2, there appears to be line item disbursements listed detailing advertising in several print and online mediums. One example is the Journal News (1x3 ad) for $379; run three times for a total of $1,137. At face value it sounds good doesn't it? The problem with a 1" x3" ad in any paper or online is that it's the size of a mailing label and will not much exposure and review at all. If the Town were serious about advertising in the Journal News, they should be doing an ad that is three or four columns wide by 15". That is the size of an average story in the paper. While we're not trying to beef up ad sales for the Journal News, they are simply taking the money and running what will be the size of a classified ad. How much information can be put in this ad? Realistically, it will probably say: Property For Sale, 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, call 914-993-1500. If there's any room left, maybe they can add: Serious offers (from GameOn 365) only.
Other print media advertisements listed tout more of the 1"x3" advertisements as well. There are several more ads in the Journal News. One such ad is a color ad in the Real Estate section that is 2"x3.5" which is the size of a business card. How much information can realistically and correctly be included in an ad of this size and still be effective. It can't. There's a 2" x 3" Wednesday and Saturday combo ad in the Wall Street Journal that will cost us $1830 for three ads. There are several other 1"x3" ads that will be run in other papers for a substantial amount of money. As we've watched our tax dollars urinated away by Mr Feiner's other follies we now come to this auction. We will see a total of $25,938 spent on ads that will have little or no success because the methodology is flawed.
Our previous article discusses what's called a Stalking Horse and that allows the seller and bidder to engage in a sale without actually having to bid for the property. This is the slight of hand that Mr Feiner, the Town Board and the others will use to ensure GameOn 365 receive the property. When information about the GameOn 365 proposal was requested by the Freedom of Information Laws, the request was denied as was the appeal. If there is no proposal on file, why was GameOn 365's name the only one on the Retention Agreement posted on the Town's website. We wonder if they in fact could be considered as having submitted a serious offer since no paperwork is on file at Town Hall? House of Sports made a legitimate offer. Why weren't they included in the Retention Agreement?
Games are being played again by the Town Board and especially Mr Feiner with the former Frank's Nursery property and what will be done with it. When the games stop, maybe then we'll see A Better Greenburgh.
Showing posts with label Ken Kones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ken Kones. Show all posts
Monday, June 23, 2014
Pretending To Be Honest, Open and Transparent
Mr Feiner has tried for the better part of three years to illegally lease, then sell, then connive a way to gift the contaminated former Frank's Nursery property to his favored GameOn 365 buddies. He even went so far as to craft a lopsided and intentionally poorly worded referendum to provide the results he wanted to move the illegal deal forward. Ever the crafty politico, his plan worked. A complicit media even fed the public Mr Feiner's deceptions without question. Continuing to claim that he wanted the best deal for the Town, Mr Feiner steadfastly refused to entertain or accept a cash offer for double the amount, $3.5 Million, from an existing and profitable Town business, House of Sports in Ardsley.
Now Mr Feiner has finally decided its time to stop playing games and auction the property off. Or is it? The end game is never what it appears to be when Mr Feiner and his Town Board have an ulterior motive up their proverbial sleeves. There is multiple documentation on the Town's website regarding the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the hiring of GA Keen Realty Advisors to perform the advertising and the auction of the property for the Town. But its what missing that has us concerned.
The flyer for the sale of the property provides the most basic of information, none of which actually tells a prospective bidder/purchaser what they are really purchasing: multiple contamination and an R30 Zoning requirement. These two glaringly absent points are of major significance to anyone who would be interested in participating with the purchase of this property. Was leaving this information out intentional or accidental? Based on past performance of this Board and Mr Feiner, ABG is relatively certain it was intentional. But why?
The same documents posted on the Towns website lend a bit of a clue. We've already touched on the faulty flyer that will probably not be used with any real verve by the Town or GA Keen. In fact, we believe its creation was part of "Pinocchio Paul's" smoke screen to appear to want to advertise this property while maintaining a final strong hold over the process so that GameOn 365 will be the victor regardless of how many bidders or promises are made for R30 zoned construction. How do we know this, you ask?
There are two indicators that are skewing our opinion. The first is in the Retention Agreement on page four (4) under section F Good Faith. "The parties hereto shall deal with each other fairly and in good faith so as to allow each party to perform its duties and earn the benefits of this Agreement and shall not interfere, prevent or prohibit the other, in any manner, prior to or during the term of this Agreement from carrying out its duties and obligations under the Agreement." Ironically, this agreement was never utilized with the online "Town Square" website, the Daily Greenburgh. You'll recall that Mr Feiner and the Town Board entered into a one year agreement to use the website for no fee. And when the fee would be charged to the tune of $2,000 per month, Mr Feiner said they would not pay and cease using the site. Good faith operators? Hardly.
The second indicator that this is probably still a "done-deal" is on page eleven (11) under Schedule B-1. Here the page says "Game On 365, LLC" and below that it says "Remainder of Page Intentionally Blank". Blank indeed. This appears to be crafted with GameOn 365 as the sole beneficiary, again with the "done-deal" benefitting only Mr Feiner's cronies. Why would House of Sports intentionally be left off of this document? Probably because there was never any intention to sell or gift the property to anyone other than GameOn 365!
Then there's the "Stalking Horse" deal that can be found on Page two (2) of the Working Draft of Bidding Procedures. Stalking Horse? Really? Why not just say that GameOn 365 can bid prior to the auction and have a clear shot at purchasing the property as Mr Feiner intended all along? The Stalking Horse a) "allows the seller to solicit bids on the property prior to the Bid Deadline". ABG has learned that this is a common practice. And, b) "if the seller enters into a binding Real Estate Purchase Contract with the bidder prior to the Bid Deadline, which contract subjects the contract vendee to the Auction, such bidder shall be deemed the Stalking Horse". And of course, if the deal is made prior to the auction and the Stalking Horse is outbid, the Stalking Horse gets a 3% breakup fee plus reimbursement of actual, reasonable out-of-pocket due diligence fees. And, the auctioneer still gets paid. It seems the only people that will suffer, again, are the Greenburgh taxpayers.
The Town Board has rescheduled the Town Board meeting for tomorrow night. We'll see how accurate our assessment of what is taking place will actually be. It's deals like this with the crafty wording, intentional vagueness and colorful terminology that hurts our Town. This must stop. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.
Now Mr Feiner has finally decided its time to stop playing games and auction the property off. Or is it? The end game is never what it appears to be when Mr Feiner and his Town Board have an ulterior motive up their proverbial sleeves. There is multiple documentation on the Town's website regarding the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the hiring of GA Keen Realty Advisors to perform the advertising and the auction of the property for the Town. But its what missing that has us concerned.
The flyer for the sale of the property provides the most basic of information, none of which actually tells a prospective bidder/purchaser what they are really purchasing: multiple contamination and an R30 Zoning requirement. These two glaringly absent points are of major significance to anyone who would be interested in participating with the purchase of this property. Was leaving this information out intentional or accidental? Based on past performance of this Board and Mr Feiner, ABG is relatively certain it was intentional. But why?
The same documents posted on the Towns website lend a bit of a clue. We've already touched on the faulty flyer that will probably not be used with any real verve by the Town or GA Keen. In fact, we believe its creation was part of "Pinocchio Paul's" smoke screen to appear to want to advertise this property while maintaining a final strong hold over the process so that GameOn 365 will be the victor regardless of how many bidders or promises are made for R30 zoned construction. How do we know this, you ask?
There are two indicators that are skewing our opinion. The first is in the Retention Agreement on page four (4) under section F Good Faith. "The parties hereto shall deal with each other fairly and in good faith so as to allow each party to perform its duties and earn the benefits of this Agreement and shall not interfere, prevent or prohibit the other, in any manner, prior to or during the term of this Agreement from carrying out its duties and obligations under the Agreement." Ironically, this agreement was never utilized with the online "Town Square" website, the Daily Greenburgh. You'll recall that Mr Feiner and the Town Board entered into a one year agreement to use the website for no fee. And when the fee would be charged to the tune of $2,000 per month, Mr Feiner said they would not pay and cease using the site. Good faith operators? Hardly.
The second indicator that this is probably still a "done-deal" is on page eleven (11) under Schedule B-1. Here the page says "Game On 365, LLC" and below that it says "Remainder of Page Intentionally Blank". Blank indeed. This appears to be crafted with GameOn 365 as the sole beneficiary, again with the "done-deal" benefitting only Mr Feiner's cronies. Why would House of Sports intentionally be left off of this document? Probably because there was never any intention to sell or gift the property to anyone other than GameOn 365!
Then there's the "Stalking Horse" deal that can be found on Page two (2) of the Working Draft of Bidding Procedures. Stalking Horse? Really? Why not just say that GameOn 365 can bid prior to the auction and have a clear shot at purchasing the property as Mr Feiner intended all along? The Stalking Horse a) "allows the seller to solicit bids on the property prior to the Bid Deadline". ABG has learned that this is a common practice. And, b) "if the seller enters into a binding Real Estate Purchase Contract with the bidder prior to the Bid Deadline, which contract subjects the contract vendee to the Auction, such bidder shall be deemed the Stalking Horse". And of course, if the deal is made prior to the auction and the Stalking Horse is outbid, the Stalking Horse gets a 3% breakup fee plus reimbursement of actual, reasonable out-of-pocket due diligence fees. And, the auctioneer still gets paid. It seems the only people that will suffer, again, are the Greenburgh taxpayers.
The Town Board has rescheduled the Town Board meeting for tomorrow night. We'll see how accurate our assessment of what is taking place will actually be. It's deals like this with the crafty wording, intentional vagueness and colorful terminology that hurts our Town. This must stop. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Sports Bubble Collapses Along With Feiner’s Dreams
A news article from Waldwick, New Jersey, where GameOn 365 claims they operate their smaller, “sister” sports bubble, revealed their bubble collapsed yesterday under the weight of the snow! At the last Town Board meeting, Mr Jones, the latest Feiner convert to join the Board, stated he had visited Waldwick to see the bubble and as any good “Feinercrat” is wont to do, he began espousing it was in a residential neighborhood. The bubble he referred to is buffered with a ball field adjacent to the residential neighborhood, but is still in an industrial park. The entire complex is most probably paying commercial tax rates, not residential. This will not be the case with the 8-story bubble Mr Feiner plans to “green light” in the latest scam with GameOn 365. The bubble will be imposing to any of the homes near this latest proposal at the golf driving range.
At the last Town Board meeting when the discussion of the GameOn 365 Zoning Change Request was brought up, so was the issue of safety. The speaker claimed he had heard of a bubble that had just collapsed, which if correct, now makes two that were unable to withstand Mother Nature. Yet the bubble that collapsed yesterday is almost the size of the one to be installed on Dobbs Ferry Road! Each time GameOn 365 has met with another obstacle, their plans get revised and increase in size, getting grander and bringing in “partners” to work with them. Their intent now is to create a sports “complex”, promising an estimated 500 cars a day to the location.
The original proposal was slated as an oversized project on the former Frank’s Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Mr Feiner proposed illegally leasing the property to GameOn 365 and having the Town finance the funding for it. The surrounding neighborhoods rallied against it for numerous reasons.
Mr Feiner and the Board turned down $3.5 million in cash for the property including site remediation. Mr Feiner crafted a specially and carefully worded referendum to guarantee passage, allowing him to say the residents want this. When a lawsuit stopped him, Mr Feiner said he would hold an auction for the property. Every scheme Mr Feiner and GameOn 365 have agreed to, to gift the property to GameOn 365, has failed. Had Mr Feiner simply followed the law, this wouldn’t have been an issue. If the Town Board had done their job as well as their fiduciary responsibility and “due diligence ” for the taxpayers and not Mr Feiner or GameOn 365, this wouldn’t even be happening!
The safety concerns of a never-before-seen bubble of this size cannot and should not be ignored. What also must not be ignored is that this 8-story bubble does not belong in a residential neighborhood. The fact that a smaller bubble, and perhaps a second one at that, has collapsed, cannot, should not and must not be ignored!
Bubbles began being used to create an indoor atmosphere for three months during the year. It is not a panacea for “paper” companies to incorporate, start a business and avoid paying their fair share of taxes as would a brick and mortar facility. If GameOn 365 were serious about becoming a part of the community, the safety of its guests, employees and visitors, safety would be paramount. It’s not – only their profits are. Otherwise, they would be proposing a brick and mortar building, following building and safety codes, paying the regular rate of taxes and working with the communities and doing it in a commercial location. How many other good neighbors play by the rules? Many. Those are the ones we want to help us make A Better Greenburgh.
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| Photo Credit: CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM: Mary Beth Lane Nappi |
At the last Town Board meeting when the discussion of the GameOn 365 Zoning Change Request was brought up, so was the issue of safety. The speaker claimed he had heard of a bubble that had just collapsed, which if correct, now makes two that were unable to withstand Mother Nature. Yet the bubble that collapsed yesterday is almost the size of the one to be installed on Dobbs Ferry Road! Each time GameOn 365 has met with another obstacle, their plans get revised and increase in size, getting grander and bringing in “partners” to work with them. Their intent now is to create a sports “complex”, promising an estimated 500 cars a day to the location.
The original proposal was slated as an oversized project on the former Frank’s Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Mr Feiner proposed illegally leasing the property to GameOn 365 and having the Town finance the funding for it. The surrounding neighborhoods rallied against it for numerous reasons.
Mr Feiner and the Board turned down $3.5 million in cash for the property including site remediation. Mr Feiner crafted a specially and carefully worded referendum to guarantee passage, allowing him to say the residents want this. When a lawsuit stopped him, Mr Feiner said he would hold an auction for the property. Every scheme Mr Feiner and GameOn 365 have agreed to, to gift the property to GameOn 365, has failed. Had Mr Feiner simply followed the law, this wouldn’t have been an issue. If the Town Board had done their job as well as their fiduciary responsibility and “due diligence ” for the taxpayers and not Mr Feiner or GameOn 365, this wouldn’t even be happening!
The safety concerns of a never-before-seen bubble of this size cannot and should not be ignored. What also must not be ignored is that this 8-story bubble does not belong in a residential neighborhood. The fact that a smaller bubble, and perhaps a second one at that, has collapsed, cannot, should not and must not be ignored!
Bubbles began being used to create an indoor atmosphere for three months during the year. It is not a panacea for “paper” companies to incorporate, start a business and avoid paying their fair share of taxes as would a brick and mortar facility. If GameOn 365 were serious about becoming a part of the community, the safety of its guests, employees and visitors, safety would be paramount. It’s not – only their profits are. Otherwise, they would be proposing a brick and mortar building, following building and safety codes, paying the regular rate of taxes and working with the communities and doing it in a commercial location. How many other good neighbors play by the rules? Many. Those are the ones we want to help us make A Better Greenburgh.
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