East Post Road property owners take White Plains to court over eminent domain
Five landlords who own property on East Post Road in White Plains that the city”™s Urban Renewal Agency voted to take by eminent domain are challenging the action in court.
The suit was brought in the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn by Gabe Realty Corp., 12 East Post Road Associates LLC, 2 East Post Road Associates LLC, Adeogun Owonikoko Co. LLC and Mian Shah.
The Urban Renewal Agency has been moving ahead with the process to condemn 12 privately owned parcels on East Post Road and an abutting 13th parcel on South Lexington Avenue owned by the White Plains Housing Authority.
The East Post Road parcels are identified as numbers 1-3, 2-4, 60, 42, 34, 26-28, 22-24, 18-20, 14-16 and 12. The South Lexington Avenue property is identified as having street addresses of 184-188 and 190-192. The properties are across from White Plains Hospital.
The attorney for the landlords, Liane Watkins of the White Plains-based law firm Watkins & Watkins LLP, told the Business Journal that the Urban Renewal Agency is scheduled to submit a brief to the court on Jan. 13 containing its position.
“We haven”™t had any kind of a real response from the city,” Watkins said. “When they answered the petition they really (gave) like a pro forma answer ”¦ We haven”™t received offers, we haven”™t received other information and we”™re waiting on their briefs.”
Watkins pointed out that so far in the eminent domain process the agency has said that it wants to take the properties so they can be used for a public purpose but has not specified precisely what that public purpose is going to be. She said that it is premature for the property owners to have appraisals done in an effort to determine the values of their properties.
“I”™ve never seen one like this one where the municipality has deliberately failed to select or publicize their public purpose,” Watkins said. “They threw out a whole bunch of possibilities and included a catch-all, which is whatever else we ever come up with, and they haven”™t selected one. So I”™ve never seen a project like that.”
Watkins is arguing that the agency shouldn”™t have the right to go forward with their non-selected public purpose.
“They really should have selected one and they should have done the required environmental analysis based on that selected public use or purpose,” Watkins said.
“Here, by not selecting the purpose, they essentially skipped the environmental review and they said that they looked at the transfer of title from the current owners to the city and said that has no environmental impact. Well, of course not, as it never would, but they”™re pretending that there”™s no demolition and no construction to look at in terms of an environmental review, which completely misses the point of the statutory requirement and makes it quite laughable.”
Mayor Thomas Roach, who is chairman of the agency, had said at a Sept. 5, 2019, agency meeting that it had no specific project in mind for the properties.
Documents presented at the Dec. 5, 2019, agency meeting categorized the move as “returning the underutilized parcels to productive use” and “combating economic stagnation through stimulating, promoting and/or supporting new and/or existing economic revitalization.”
The agency determined that going ahead with the condemnation of the properties would not have adverse environmental impacts, would not adversely impact the land and would have no adverse impact on health and safety.
The properties cover approximately 4.18 acres and are a mix of residential and commercial. Familiar retail names along the strip include the Burke & McCowen hardware store, the Union Food Market and the One Source Pharmacy. Burke & McCowen, which has been in business in White Plains for about 97 years, has been holding a going out of business sale.
There has been speculation that the agency might seek to have mixed-use development take place on the properties, such as a residential building with street-level retail and an associated parking garage.
“As a landlord it”™s very sad,” Gabe Arango of Gabe Realty Corp., told the Business Journal about having to tell the tenants of his buildings, many of whom are relatively recent immigrants, that they might have to leave.
“Where are they going to go? They can”™t afford to pay for a one-bedroom apartment two- or three-thousand dollars,” Arango said. “Where are they going to relocate these people? Poor people have to live somewhere and this is why we are so concerned about displacing the 25 or 30 tenants we have in these buildings. I”™m not the only one complaining about this situation, about the way they are doing it.”
Arango noted that he has been in real estate for 45 years and, during that time, has considered White Plains to be a well-run city.
“White Plains needs opportunities. White Plains needs people. A city is known for the people who live in it,” Arango said. “The city has been good to me and to many other landlords. I”™m doing the job. We”™re housing the people.”
There was no immediate response from the city of White Plains to the Business Journal”™s request for comments.