Fast&Legal
11-12-2010, 01:24 PM
:applause::applause::applause::applause::applause:
Last Updated on Friday, 12 November 2010 11:45 Friday, 12 November 2010 10:11
Written by Denise Civiletti
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UPDATED- A divided Riverhead Town Board voted this morning to terminate its contract with Riverhead Resorts.
With Councilman John Dunleavy casting the sole no vote, the board in a special meeting today voted to cancel the Resorts deal.
Dunleavy said he thought the town should wait until its regular meeting next Tuesday, to allow the purchaser an adequate opportunity to make good on its promise to tender two past-due contract extension payments, totaling $3.9 million, to the town.
"This company has paid the town $7 million in nonrefundable down payments, which we have used to keep the tax rate down, to benefit the taxpayers of the town. I just don't think this is fair," he said in an interview after the vote. "And it's not like we have anybody else waiting in the wings."
"Finally we are getting this 800-pound gorilla off our back," said Councilman George Gabrielsen before casting his vote to terminate. He and Councilwoman Jodi Giglio have both advocated terminating the Resorts contract for months.
But until today, Dunleavy and Councilman James Wooten were not in favor of killing the deal.
Wooten said even though he was not an original proponent of the sale of 750 acres to Riverhead Resorts for $155 million, he feels it's unfortunate Riverhead Resorts was not able to consummate the purchase. He concluded he had no choice but to terminate the contract, he said, because Resports was not able to come through with the promised extension payments.
Supervisor Sean Walter, who was the deciding vote when board members were split 2-2 on the termination question, voted yes to cancel the contract without comment.
Walter issued a written statement just after the vote.
"Ding dong the witch is dead," Walter wrote. "Today we bury the Riverhead Resorts transaction once and for all."
Walter described his previous vote to table the contract termination resolution as leaving "the porch light on and the door open for Resorts to possibly present us with a large check because these are difficult financial times and I could not on the one hand tell town employees that they are losing their jobs when it was possible we might reap a large windfall from Resorts.
"I may have looked inconsistent to some," Walter wrote, "but if there was a shred of hope to avoid laying off employees and at the same time making the town's finances more secure , I was, and am, willing to pay the political price."
Riverhead Resorts attorney Mitchell Pally of the Weber Law Group did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment.
"Now we can move forward with EPCAL," Gabrielsen said.
Moving forward, the councilman said, includes updating the land use plan for the site and pursuing a subivision to create smaller lots, perhaps as small as five or 10-acres apiece, Gabrielsen said. "There will be a market for those lots," Gabrielsen said. "If we had it subdivided already we could have sold one of those lots today," he said in an interview after the vote.
The Town Board met Wednesday with the planners Terri Elkowitz and Ken Schwartz of VHB Engineering, Surveying and Landscape Architecture to discuss developing an updated land use plan for the Enterprise Park. (See related story.)
Walter said he believes the planned recreational use district which covers most of the town's remaining land at EPCAL, and all of the property that was to be sold to Riverhead Resorts, doesn't work. He wants a planning firm like VHB, which is involved in planning redevelopment projects at the Shoreham nuclear power plant site and the area around the Ronkonkoma LIRR station, to review the EPCAL zoning and advise the board on how to change it. The supervisor said the town should reinvest some of the nonrefundable contract down payments it received from Rechler and Resorts in planning services for the site.
The U.S. Navy in 1998 deeded title to Riverhead Town to 2,900 acres of land in Calverton where the Grumman Corporation had manufactured military aircraft for two generations. The military contractor, which leased the property from the Navy, was once the largest employer and taxpayer in the Town of Riverhead, and the gift of land by the federal government to the town was intended to help the town replace lost jobs and two base.
The town hired consultants to devise a land use plan for the site, which, in final form, called for the recreational use district on nearly 800 acres of the 2,900-acre site.
Since the zoning was implemented, the town has seen several proposals for development in the recreation district, none of which has ever been brought to fruition, including two separate deals in which the town actually signed contracts of sale with would-be developers.
Rivehead Resorts managing partner, Scottish home builder John Niven, came to Riverhead last month to ask the Town Board not to cancel the contract, which he had sought to renegotiate by reducing the purchase price from $155 million to $108 million, citing the depressed real estate market. He also indicated that Resorts partner Bayrock Riverhead was not longer a partner in the deal. Both the price reduction and the removal of Bayrock from the partnership would reqire the town to hold a new qualified and eligible sponor hearing on the sale.
THanks Riverhead Local
Last Updated on Friday, 12 November 2010 11:45 Friday, 12 November 2010 10:11
Written by Denise Civiletti
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
UPDATED- A divided Riverhead Town Board voted this morning to terminate its contract with Riverhead Resorts.
With Councilman John Dunleavy casting the sole no vote, the board in a special meeting today voted to cancel the Resorts deal.
Dunleavy said he thought the town should wait until its regular meeting next Tuesday, to allow the purchaser an adequate opportunity to make good on its promise to tender two past-due contract extension payments, totaling $3.9 million, to the town.
"This company has paid the town $7 million in nonrefundable down payments, which we have used to keep the tax rate down, to benefit the taxpayers of the town. I just don't think this is fair," he said in an interview after the vote. "And it's not like we have anybody else waiting in the wings."
"Finally we are getting this 800-pound gorilla off our back," said Councilman George Gabrielsen before casting his vote to terminate. He and Councilwoman Jodi Giglio have both advocated terminating the Resorts contract for months.
But until today, Dunleavy and Councilman James Wooten were not in favor of killing the deal.
Wooten said even though he was not an original proponent of the sale of 750 acres to Riverhead Resorts for $155 million, he feels it's unfortunate Riverhead Resorts was not able to consummate the purchase. He concluded he had no choice but to terminate the contract, he said, because Resports was not able to come through with the promised extension payments.
Supervisor Sean Walter, who was the deciding vote when board members were split 2-2 on the termination question, voted yes to cancel the contract without comment.
Walter issued a written statement just after the vote.
"Ding dong the witch is dead," Walter wrote. "Today we bury the Riverhead Resorts transaction once and for all."
Walter described his previous vote to table the contract termination resolution as leaving "the porch light on and the door open for Resorts to possibly present us with a large check because these are difficult financial times and I could not on the one hand tell town employees that they are losing their jobs when it was possible we might reap a large windfall from Resorts.
"I may have looked inconsistent to some," Walter wrote, "but if there was a shred of hope to avoid laying off employees and at the same time making the town's finances more secure , I was, and am, willing to pay the political price."
Riverhead Resorts attorney Mitchell Pally of the Weber Law Group did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment.
"Now we can move forward with EPCAL," Gabrielsen said.
Moving forward, the councilman said, includes updating the land use plan for the site and pursuing a subivision to create smaller lots, perhaps as small as five or 10-acres apiece, Gabrielsen said. "There will be a market for those lots," Gabrielsen said. "If we had it subdivided already we could have sold one of those lots today," he said in an interview after the vote.
The Town Board met Wednesday with the planners Terri Elkowitz and Ken Schwartz of VHB Engineering, Surveying and Landscape Architecture to discuss developing an updated land use plan for the Enterprise Park. (See related story.)
Walter said he believes the planned recreational use district which covers most of the town's remaining land at EPCAL, and all of the property that was to be sold to Riverhead Resorts, doesn't work. He wants a planning firm like VHB, which is involved in planning redevelopment projects at the Shoreham nuclear power plant site and the area around the Ronkonkoma LIRR station, to review the EPCAL zoning and advise the board on how to change it. The supervisor said the town should reinvest some of the nonrefundable contract down payments it received from Rechler and Resorts in planning services for the site.
The U.S. Navy in 1998 deeded title to Riverhead Town to 2,900 acres of land in Calverton where the Grumman Corporation had manufactured military aircraft for two generations. The military contractor, which leased the property from the Navy, was once the largest employer and taxpayer in the Town of Riverhead, and the gift of land by the federal government to the town was intended to help the town replace lost jobs and two base.
The town hired consultants to devise a land use plan for the site, which, in final form, called for the recreational use district on nearly 800 acres of the 2,900-acre site.
Since the zoning was implemented, the town has seen several proposals for development in the recreation district, none of which has ever been brought to fruition, including two separate deals in which the town actually signed contracts of sale with would-be developers.
Rivehead Resorts managing partner, Scottish home builder John Niven, came to Riverhead last month to ask the Town Board not to cancel the contract, which he had sought to renegotiate by reducing the purchase price from $155 million to $108 million, citing the depressed real estate market. He also indicated that Resorts partner Bayrock Riverhead was not longer a partner in the deal. Both the price reduction and the removal of Bayrock from the partnership would reqire the town to hold a new qualified and eligible sponor hearing on the sale.
THanks Riverhead Local