The former Frank”™s Nursery property in Greenburgh is poised to have a new owner, again.
After the town acquired the 7 acres of land in 2011, Greenburgh officials have tried to sell and auction the environmentally tainted space, but all of those options were met with controversy and criticism.
However, in the last year, Town Supervisor Paul Feiner said there has been extensive advertising to the sell the property, which has yielded a variety of offers.
A community meeting was held this month to present the potential purchase options and elicit feedback on the offers. Options for the property include a 200-unit apartment building, a storage facility, an independent living complex and two assisted living facilities.
No one, Feiner said, seemed to object to the assisted living option, so it was decided at the meeting that a broker would begin negotiating with the applicants. After that, a recommendation will be made to the town board. Feiner said the town is hoping to have a contract sometime in July.
The apartment complex idea posed problems because of traffic, and Feiner said “some people were concerned about creating a commercial corridor” if the storage facility were built. Others liked the idea of the independent senior building, but that would require rezoning the space.
“The property”™s been so controversial over the years,” Feiner said. “If it requires rezoning, it”™s going to take additional hearings and there will be more delays.”
What has plagued the redevelopment of the property goes back to before its ownership by the town.
S&D Realty owned Frank”™s Nursery at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road in 2001 when about 500 gallons of No. 2 fuel oil spilled and contaminated the site with carcinogens and other chemicals. The realty company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy later that year and the property was eventually foreclosed on, leaving it to the town to sell and clean up.
A Harrison-based company, Woodard & Curran Engineering, released a study of the property in 2013 that found it could cost millions to bring the land up to environmental standards.
In 2011, Greenburgh received an offer from Game On 365 LLC for a purchase price of $1.7 million with a promised additional $1.3 million over the next 13 years. This drew skepticism from the public about whether the $1.3 million was guaranteed.
Around the same time, Ardsley-based House of Sports made a $3.5 million cash offer. The property was offered to both companies, and that ultimately led to each company threatening lawsuits if Greenburgh were to contract with the other.
Last November, the site was scheduled to be auctioned, but that was delayed after potential developers expressed reservations about the environmental condition of the property.
Moving forward, Feiner said the next step is to have a preferred buyer and then work with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to come up with a plan to fund and clean up the property.
Feiner said after this summer that “this will be one less controversy, hopefully.”
