The Rye City Council will meet this Wednesday, April 25, 2012 to approve granting Lester's clothing store a right of first refusal on the purchase of the city owned building 1037 Boston Post Road. Lester's is the current tenant.
The building was purchased during the Otis administration and was a major campaign issue when now Mayor french ran for office against Otis. Since french took office the city has been working to unload the building. When purchased the intention was to place a new police headquarters in the location.
The City’s lease with Lester’s of Rye, LLC, ends in February 2013. The City has had discussions with the current tenant regarding the possible sale of 1037 BPR and Lester’s has demonstrated a strong interest in purchasing the building. The City will determine if there are any other interested buyers in the Property during a due diligence period ending June 13, 2012.
A listing sheet will be distributed describing the property and specifying the terms of any offer. Lester’s of Rye, LLC has put an offer in on the property and the City has agreed to grant Lester’s a right of first refusal to purchase the property after the due diligence period has ended.
We NEED to accept this offer.
We MUST accept this offer.
We HAVE NO CHOICE but to accept this offer.
This is A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY unlikely to ever recur.
There ARE FEW ATTRACTIVE ALTERNATIVES to accepting this offer.
It is OUR FIDUCIARY DUTY to accept this offer.
After DUE CONSIDERATION this offer is in Rye’s best interests.
After CAREFULL STUDY this offer is in Rye’s best interests.
After MUCH RESEARCH this offer is in Rye’s best interests.
We CANNOT ENVISION A LATER, BETTER OFFER.
We CANNOT DELAY.
We MUST ACT NOW.
We MUST ACT NOW.
We MUST ACT NOW.
(all of these sentiments were used to justify the purchase of 1037 Boston Post Road.)
Patience = Profit (or at least the avoidance of loss) in Real Estate
@tedc
Are you saying you agree with the impatient purchase of 1037 BPR? If a seller needs to be patient when selling real estate in order to assure a profit wouldn’t it follow , in your bizarro world of real estate, that being IMPATIENT is the only way to buy real estate?????? In that case, I see you’ve been a proponent of the purchase of 1037! Why then have you complained so much?
@Phony – I don’t claim to be the most insightful of people, but I believe Ted’s wording is just dripping with sarcasm.
Reprint from last week –
“GUESSING THE LOSS ON UNLOADING OTIS”
Number 9, Number 9, Number 9, Number 9…..
The Rye City Council is seemingly committed to realizing what most expect to be a whopper of a loss on The Otis Building (AKA 1037 Boston Post Road or Lester’s Clothing Store) – but with all the corruption and other news this week the “reveal” of the basic terms of this potential sale deal still remain firmly cloaked in secrecy. That actually wasn’t supposed to happen.
Item # 9 of last Wednesday’s Council Agenda refers to an attached Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Lester’s. The memo was naturally not attached. Nor has it yet been in public by anyone anywhere despite repeated calls for its release. The public did get to witness the adjournment into a so called “Executive Session” of the council and staff right in the middle of the normal council session when Item #9. When they emerged the announcement was that a Special Meeting would be held next Wednesday April 25 at 7PM. Councilman Sack then publicly extracted Mr. French’s promise to release details of the deal prior to that session. (Update – maybe 1 minute prior is the new plan?)
I would not expect this MOA to appear without an attached lengthy justification statement. This was, after all, a horrific deal from the jump – inexplicable to those watching Mr. Otis push, shove and mislead to justify the biggest commitment of taxpayer dollars in decades. Then when everyone except the political insiders knew it was a terrible deal, Mr. Otis commissioned an “engineering” study to justify his zeal for the purchase. The study soon arrived and it said the building was unfit for the purpose it was being bought for. In fact – very very unfit.
So what did Mr. Otis do with his election now ahead? He ordered the report marked “draft” and thus impervious to public eyes despite repeated FOIL attempts by worried taxpayer advocates. Mr. Otis then lost his mayoral reelection bid and allowed the report to be finally released but by then the unfit structure was committed to be ours and more than $5 million left our treasury, stretching our “borrowing capacity” (something now dear to Mr. French’s heart) to unacceptable levels. Unacceptable especially since Mr. French wants to try adding $10 million more to our tiny balance sheet so desperately that he orders meeting venues moved away from pesky cameras. (Didn’t quite work)
So as we await Mr. Jovanovich’s upcoming “loss on sale” justification (he will surely be the primary ghost author here as this has been his signature issue for years) we should reflect on how much what we lose today could be otherwise spent in our small town.
So BOHICA fellow Rye City taxpayers.
This time it’s different.
We promise.”
Then, in the breaking news department today, regrettably, there’s this –
http://www.lausdeo10580.com/lausdeo10580/2012/04/new-york-state-tax-warrant-issued-to-mayor-or-rye.html
I’M INVOLVED WITH CORRUPTION
I’m involved with corruption. Yes – I’m involved with corruption. That’s right. I candidly confess it. I did it – and I’m doing it – and I’m going to keep on doing it. My involvement with corruption is getting deeper and deeper by the day.
But here’s the rub; I’m not benefiting from it, my business interests aren’t getting richer from it and I’m not personally profiting from it to the tune of one red cent. In fact corruption disgusts me. And some days it feels like a waste of life. Why? Because I’m part of a growing group of Rye good government activists digging into influence peddling and other forms of local corruption and finding deeper, broader, bolder and more shameful discoveries every day.
It’s sickening at one level. And it pretty much killed my Forest Avenue neighbor. Yet encouragingly while Rye’s political class tries to waive it away, trivialize it and diminish the findings of our work, other’s here have lifted their heads, sense a change and awakened to the feeling that things are not as represented, not wholly candid, not accurately portrayed, and not getting better.
New chapters begin all the time. Yesterday for instance a newly public, formerly secret, confidential city strategy memo was mailed to all the members of the Rye City Council and the local media. I think it’s indicative of what turns up now almost every week in Rye. This memo was written a few years ago by a senior city hall employee. It concerns the use of city funds to purchase a building across the parking lot from the Rye City Hall. The letter writer is “eager to begin the process” of buying the building with taxpayer funds. But in the right way. The author’s strategy recommendations are quite candid.
“Some Council members suggested at last night’s meeting that the public be involved in the process. This can be tricky since the universe of participants is almost limitless and there is no real known appropriate community organization, other than maybe the City Council itself, which are the publics’ elected representatives. If a broader voice is desired I recommend setting up a website similar to the one I created for the CBD Plan2. The website could explain the various alternatives, include other background information and provide an opportunity for public comment. All responses would be recorded and provided to the Council and consultant for their use and information.”
And the memo goes on –
“..If four or more members attend one session it likely constitutes a quorum of the council and the meeting may need to be properly noticed and open to the public. If this is a concern I recommend that the interviews with the Council be staggered with no more than three members at any one session. Also, any Council member that cannot attend should be encouraged to provide written comments to the consultant.”
Now waive away what you want, call it a mischaracterization, claim it’s taken out of context, tell me I’m ignorant of public governance procedures or just call me crazy and start cooking up some phony charges against me. But I for one don’t think we’re wasting our time in pushing for the whole truth and digging where we’re unwelcome. Especially if we can save the city from itself and it’s so called “advisors” – and save literally millions of taxpayer monies to boot. This wasn’t the Rye I grew up in.
Join us. Get involved with corruption.
Quick Update.
Thanks for the calls and great to see others. Like I said, your instincts are dead on. As I noted make sure to read down this entire MyRye string. And new revelations of unethical conduct should be out shortly. In the meantime, here’s last Friday’s story out from Laus Deo 10580.
THE SECRET SALE OF 1037BOSTON POST ROAD
IS FRENCH ADMIN ABUSING EXEC SESSION?
“They promised a memo would “be distributed [to the public] describing the property and specifying the terms of any offer” made by Lester’s of Rye’s to purchase the city-owned property at 1037 Boston Post Rd. Yet, when the City Council met again in executive session a week later, no such document concerning the sale of the controversial property had been made available.”
Read the rest here –
http://www.lausdeo10580.com/lausdeo10580/2012/04/1037-boston-post-rd-blackoutis-city-council-abusing-use-of-executive-session-the-city-promised-that-alisting-sheet-will-be.html
@Tedc
Isn’t the group that you assembled, the “Rye good government activist” group, the group who campaigned FOR Mayor French? Aren’t you the clowns that campaigned to elect the Council that is currently occupying City Hall??????? Apparently, your sense of judgement is flawed. REALLY flawed, flawed to the point of incompetence. Face it tedc, you’re the incompetent one. The one who wanted all these unethical people elected. This isn’t a trial and error type of deal. You don’t get to keep picking people until someone finally pleases you. That type of thinking is for idiots. You had your chance to do your due diligence and you screwed up. Mayor French was running for election for A YEAR and you failed miserably to do your research on him and now you want people to listen to you again. Face it Tedc, you have no idea what you’re doing and have no clue what you really want.
@Robert Zahm
“I don’t claim to be the most insightful of people, but I believe Ted’s wording is just dripping with sarcasm.”
Tedc’s last line “Patience = Profit (or at least the avoidance of loss) in Real Estate” was not sarcasm. He meant it which means that the sarcasm that preceded that line didn’t make any sense. He belittled the decision to hastily buy 1037 BPR but then proceeds to seriously say that when SELLING real estate you need to be patient. Well, if you need to be patient to sell real estate it would only follow that when BUYING real estate you need to hastily buy to ensure a profit. Tedc has demonstrated many times in the past week or so that he has no idea what he really wants and has no idea what he is doing. He’s just grasping at straws. Not good for anyone actually listening and following his rhetoric.