Flooring and cabinetry merchant John Posimato wants to use bankruptcy court to sell the Elmsford property that houses his Flooring & Kitchen Design Center.
Posimato of Mahopac filed a Chapter 11 reorganization petition on Feb. 20 for 267 Saw Mill LLC.
Saw Mill LLC owns the property on Saw Mill River Road where he runs Flooring Liquidators Inc. and Premier Flooring of Yonkers. Those companies have not filed for bankruptcy protection but are listed as co-debtors, with Posimato himself, on the Saw Mill petition.
“My goal,” Posimato states in an affidavit, “is to consummate the sale under the context of a Chapter 11 case.”
Saw Mill declared assets of $2.5 million and liabilities of $3.7 million.
There is only one asset, the property. The liabilities consist entirely of mortgages to Mahopac National Bank, New York Business Development Corp. and NewTek Small Business Finance.
Posimato bought the one-acre property for $1.6 million in 2008, according to a Westchester County property record. He built a 9,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse for Flooring Liquidators and Premier Flooring. Then in 2016, the company began doing business as the Flooring & Kitchen Design Center.
For years he has been trying to sell the property, for a reason that is not explained in the bankruptcy petition. He originally listed the property at $3.94 million, and when no one expressed interest he lowered the price to $3.2 million.
“I ultimately received an all-cash offer for $2.5 million,” he states in the affidavit, “which I accepted. The price is less than what is owed.”
He did not disclose the buyer”™s name.
The town of Greenburgh has assessed the property at more than $3.2 million, but Posimato claimed last year that it was worth $831,550, on a petition to lower the assessment filed in October in Westchester Supreme Court.
The bankruptcy papers say nothing about the future of the Flooring & Kitchen Design Center. But federal tax liens filed in 2017 indicate that the corporate entities, Flooring Liquidators and Premier Flooring, were struggling. They owed the government $112,900 for unpaid taxes in late 2016 to mid-2017.
Saw Mill is represented by White Plains attorney Anne Penachio.
