City moves forward with seizure

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RICK PFEIFFER, Niagara Gazette

(Via Yahoo) 

The city of Niagara Falls has filed a petition in New York State Supreme Court to force Blue Apple Properties, a subsidiary of Niagara Falls Redevelopment (NFR), to turn over the deed to roughly 4.7 acres of South End property to be used for the proposed Centennial Park project.

The Falls was awarded the property as part of a lengthy eminent domain proceeding against Blue Apple and NFR. The petition indicates the city is offering Blue Apple $4.029 million for the property, which is described as “the highest amount of any appraisal obtained by (the city).”

The Gazette has previously reported that the city’s purchase offer is more than $2.5 million higher than the $1.436 million the company paid for the land roughly 20 years ago. Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino said Thursday night that the city’s payment offer was “tendered” to Blue Apple in early July and the NFR subsidiary has rejected that offer.

The matter is scheduled for a hearing before State Supreme Court Justice Frank Sedita on Oct. 2. If the city’s request is granted, it would immediately take control of the contested property while negotiations over a final payment price could continue.

A spokesman for NFR said his client had “no comment on this filing” other than noting what he described as “a demonstrable factual and legal disconnect with regard to acreage and value” of the land the city is seeking from the eminent domain action.

“And, of course, the city’s eminent domain efforts have been injected with uncertainty and disarray by its commencement this spring of the so-called Quiet Title action, in which depositions of city officials are underway,” spokesman James Haggerty wrote to the Gazette in an email. “In the end, the actual value of the land and the boundaries of the property in question will be determined by the court when the valuation proceedings — and the separate but obviously interrelated Quiet Title action — are eventually resolved.”

Restaino called the action a next step in gaining control of the land needed for the Centennial Park project.

“It’s the natural course of the legal proceedings,” the mayor said. “The court has determined that vacant land is a blight, so as a city, we can take control of our own destiny.”

The property that would be subject to the proposed court action is bounded by Falls Street, Eighth Street, 10th Street and the former 10th Street Park. It represents just under half of the 10 to 12 acres of South End land that is subject to the eminent domain proceeding.

The remaining more than 5 acres of NFR land being sought for the park project is not subject to the new court filing. It is being contested in a separate “quiet title” court action where the city claims land that was once the former 10th Street Park was never legally transferred to NFR’s ownership as part of a deal in 2003-2004 between NFR and former Falls mayors Irene Elia and Vince Anello.

Restaino has said the city’s special counsel for the Centennial Park project has determined that NFR never completed the process of taking control of the parkland by gaining approval of the property transfer from the New York State Legislature.

The Centennial Park plans call for the construction of a “multi-faceted, year-round event campus” that would include a 6,000 to 7,000-seat arena for sporting and entertainment events, a smaller arena for sporting and entertainment events and a splash pad that could be converted into an ice-skating rink during winter months.