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The offer from Elm Street Sports Group, LLC, doubles Game On's offer, and Elm Street would assume all costs for contamination clean-up. An environmental service agency found evidence of carcinogens on the land, occupied for years by Frank's Nursery.
Elm Street Sports owns House of Sports, an Ardsley athletic training complex that wants to turn the Dobbs Ferry Road site into a world-class soccer and ice hockey academy.
Elm Street CEO Donald Scherer wrote in a letter to Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner that even though Greenburgh agreed to sell rather than lease the property to Game On in December to avoid the legal challenge, such a sale would still be "a gross violation of your fiduciary duties."
Stephen Kass, an attorney who represents Elm Street, said selling the site to Game On without a competitive bidding process is illegal and irresponsible. In a letter to the Town Board, Kass wrote:
"Given the Town's well-documented history of disingenuous behavior in its land use and environmental review process, we are perplexed that the Town Council would risk going ahead with this transaction without even soliciting competitive bids to purchase the Site or seeking qualified independent appraisals of the Site's current value."
The board negotiated a selling price with Game On of $1.65 million, which Kass said is far below fair market value. Comparable Greenburgh land usually is marketed at $500,000 per acre, and the town would receive only $150,000 for the seven-acre parcel after back taxes, Kass said.
Feiner said the board plans to review Elm Street's offer and added that resolution of intent to sell the property to Game On has been taken off the agenda for Wednesday night's board meeting. Feiner said, however, that he's skeptical of the Elm Street offer.
"The issue is, some people are skeptical if it's a real offer. Is it just a delay tactic to keep Game On from building?" Feiner asked. "I'll have to discuss it with the town board."
At this time, the board has not decided whether they plan to issue another set of requests for proposals for the property, Feiner added.
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