Massena property deal, appraisals draw criticism
MASSENA — The Town Council's decision to sell a 16.9-acre surplus parcel returned to the community by the New York Power Authority has drawn criticism recently, but town officials involved in negotiating the sale say they made the best decision for the community given the circumstances.
Those officials suggest the issue was being used as a political football in an attempt to discredit Councilmen Charles A. Raiti and Albert N. Nicola.
Their unsuccessful challenger in the recent election, Donald J. Lucas, raised the issue at a recent debate, questioning the town's decision to sell the property, the existence of two different appraisals and the secrecy surrounding the sale.
Councilman John F. Macaulay and Mr. Raiti were appointed to a committee formed to evaluate two bids the town received on the Route 131 parcel in January 2008.
Great Laker Development, a partnership between Heritage Homes owner Richard Maginn and Perras Excavating's Wayne, Mark and Jeff Tyo, originally offered a high bid of $425,000 for the parcel.
The original appraisal, completed by Michael L. Varley of Varley Appraisal Group Inc. in April 2007, was $925,000.
But Mr. Raiti and Mr. Macaulay said the first appraisal was flawed because it assumed the town would run sewer lines to the parcel before it was sold — something the town has not agreed to do.
"The first appraisal included what's called an extraordinary assumption because it said we were going to bring sewer out there," Mr. Raiti said. "That inflates the property value because utilities or infrastructure are assumed to be already out there, so the buyer doesn't have to pay to have them put in."
Before agreeing to sell the parcel, town officials sought a second appraisal of the property that would calculate its value "as is" — without sewer service or on-site water.
"We went back to get the new appraisal because they shouldn't have made that first assumption. We're not necessarily going to bring sewer out there on our own," Mr. Macaulay said. "We wanted an estimate of the value of the property only."
The second appraisal was prepared in June 2009, and lowered the appraised value to $480,000.
In that appraisal, Mr. Varley noted that bringing sewer service from the village lines 1.4 miles to the property — at the estimated cost provided by the town engineer of $55 per linear foot — would be approximately $406,560. Since the developer likely would be responsible for installing sewer and water service at the site, the appraiser subtracted the projected costs from the appraised value, to come up with $480,000.
In August, the town agreed to sell the property to Great Laker Development for $450,000. While the developer's bid had been $425,000, Mr. Raiti said, the town was able to persuade Great Laker to come up to $450,000 for the parcel, which the developer agreed to pay.
Mr. Lucas has questioned the deal, arguing that the parcel could have been sold for a much better price if officials had looked for buyers outside of the area.
"I don't know why anybody in Massena wouldn't be thrilled to death about this thing, knowing that these are reputable people from our town who are going to try to do this big a development," Mr. Macaulay said.
