The owner of an abandoned, contaminated gas station, across the street from White Plains Hospital and among a dozen properties the city has condemned for redevelopment, has declared bankruptcy.
Marianina Oil Corp. petitioned U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains for Chapter 11 protection on Sept. 23 declaring $1.6 million in assets and $14.2 million in liabilities.
“The property, despite the fact that it requires additional remediation, still has a considerable market value,” Marianina President Frank Codella states in an affidavit.
But he said Marianina needs bankruptcy protection to sell the property, because it “has no monies or working capital to continue to defend ”¦ pending proceedings or further remediate the property.”
The former BP gas station is at 34 E. Post Road, across the street from the hospital”™s emergency entrance.
Marianina bought the property around 1986 for $500,000. Afterward, Codella states in the affidavit, environmental contamination was discovered. BP Products North America paid Marianina $50,000 in compensation and the gas station agreed to take responsibility for all future contamination claims.
More contamination was found in 1994 when new underground gas tanks were installed. More than 1,600 tons of petroleum contaminated soil was removed, according to court documents in a pending lawsuit. But no groundwater remediation was performed, according to court records, and substantial contamination was left behind.
Codella contends that the contamination was remediated and that the state Department of Environmental Conservation “issued closure documentation” in 1996 indicating that the property was clean.
From 1995 to 2017, Marianina leased the station to other operators, and for the past three years the station has been inactive.
In 2017, White Plains Housing Authority sued BP for allegedly contaminating soil and water near the Winbrook Apartments. A toxic, subsurface plume was allegedly migrating from the gas station to Building 33, home of about 350 people.
In 6.6 years, according to a recent court opinion, the plume could reach the building and threaten the health of residents.
Federal and state housing agencies restrict development on contaminated property, so the plume also jeopardized the housing authority”™s plans to build Brookfield Commons, a $350 million project to replace Winbrook.
The housing authority dropped BP from the lawsuit and added Marianina, and a month ago, U.S. District Judge Nelson S. Roman granted the authority a summary judgment against Marianina.
The gas station company is also defending itself against a 2017 Department of Environmental Conservation action, for allegedly failing to get approval for a remediation plan.
And last year, White Plains Urban Renewal Agency disclosed plans to condemn a dozen properties on East Post Road, around White Plains Hospital, for unspecified redevelopment.
The Marianina bankruptcy petition values the gas station property at $1.6 million, and states that it has a pending lease with Gunks Holdings Corp., New Paltz, conditioned on cleaning the property.
The company”™s liabilities include $12.5 million to the housing authority, $1.7 million to BP and an unknown amount to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. All three liabilities are listed as disputed.
Marianina needs bankruptcy protection, according to Codella, to sell the property to White Plains or a higher bidder, “and liquidate the claims of the creditors.”
The company is represented by Manhattan attorney Robert L. Rattet.
