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Supervisor Paul Feiner announced recently that the town is making “progress” in its efforts to sell the 7-acre Frank’s Nursery site on 715 Dobbs Ferry Road.
Feiner said Wednesday that the town is trying to sell the property for $3.5 million to Washington, DC-based Valterra LLC, or Capital Senior Housing, which wants to build an assisted living facility there.
The supervisor said he expects the “formal land use review process” to begin this month when the Town Board refers Capital’s special permit and site plan applications to the Planning Board for its review and recommendation.
Capital is also expected, he said, to submit a wetlands/watercourse permit application to town planners.
Feiner also said that the cost of cleaning up the site are “expected to be less than originally anticipated.”
According to media reports, test wells have showed toxins seeping into groundwater. The aging nursery buildings also have to be removed.
Feiner didn’t put a number of the cost of the cleanup Wednesday, but a report published by The Edgemont Community Council last year claimed the town was “on the hook” for $2 million.
The supervisor said the town could cut cleanup costs even further with Brownfield Tax Credits, which are administered through the state departments of Environmental Conservation and Tax and Finance.
Feiner added that once the property is sold, the town could receive $500,000 in taxes a year, most of which would be going to schools.
The road to the current plan is long and twisting.
Greenburgh acquired the property in 2011 through a tax foreclosure.
Later, a local group opposed to plans for a sports complex claimed the town didn’t have clear title to the land, citing an outstanding loan obtained by the nursery’s former owner, according to a 2014 lohud.com report.
The deal with the company Game On 365 eventually fell through.
Meanwhile, the town’s struggle to unload the property became a political hot-button issue in 2013 when attorney Bob Bernstein ran unsuccessfully against the longtime supervisor in a Democratic primary.
Bernstein alleged that there were backroom deals going on between Game On and the town, a charge which both vehemently denied, the lohud.com report said.
Feiner said then that the town’s move to extinguish any liens on the property had been filed in court and was public information, the lohud.com story said.
There is no doubt that the town owns the property, the supervisor said Wednesday.
To read the lohud.com article, click here.
To read the Edgemont Council article, click here.
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