Counsel for Charles Poggi, the owner of the Poggi Press site at 1501 Adams St., says Hoboken’s $19.3 million appraisal “is far below the market value” in light of a resolution being approved last week that allows the county to consider acquiring the property.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“The Bhalla Administration is sending a flawed assessment to the HCIA [Hudson County Improvement Authority] and I think the HCIA should know that before it considers getting involved in this condemnation,” Anthony DellaPelle, of the firm McKirdy, Riskin, Olson DellaPelle in Morris Plains, said in a statement.
DellaPelle contends that the appraisal fails to give value to about a third of the property, while the remainder of the property is compared to sites outside of Hoboken that do not take into account the prime location.
“The city’s appraiser used sales data from properties that were in other towns and occurred years ago, instead of sales in Hoboken which occurred during the current red hot real estate market. We pointed out these errors to the city’s representatives months ago, but they have failed to correct them.”
He also pointed out that early this year the city appraised the property at $26 million, but quickly brought that number down to $19.3 million.
The measure before the council last week passed 5-3, with Council members Mike DeFusco, Tiffanie Fisher, and Ruben Ramos voting no. 6th Ward Councilwoman Jen Giattino was absent.
Those four council members had stalled the $192.5 million municipal complex plan, initially touted as a public safety complex that has evolved to also include the Department of Public Works, municipal court, council chambers, a pool, community center, and much more.
The project needed six votes to vote a related $44 million bond forward and it narrowly cleared 5-4 on first reading before the city ultimately gave up on that option and began pursuing a joint effort with the county.
Poggi also responded to Councilwoman-at-Large Emily Jabbour’s claim that he did not reply her email on the subject.
He said that she sent three different emails and responded to two of them, opting not to answer the third one since he felt it would be counterproductive at that point.
“My attorneys and I have attempted to carry on good faith negotiations with the city’s negotiating team, which does not include Councilwoman Jabbour,” noted Poggi.
“One of the biggest stumbling blocks in the negotiations is the city’s deliberate attempt to undervalue my property. If Councilwoman Jabbour wants to know why I don’t want to sell my property to the city, that’s a big reason.”
A city spokeswoman did not return an email seeking comment.
Backdoor Bhalla is at it again. Any word on what kind of backdoor deals have been proposed to get the county to go along with this scam? The only question is who will get screwed worse Poggi or Hoboken taxpayers.
Ravi wants to push ahead his massive spending/construction plan. He can’t get the votes on the City Council so he’s trying to backdoor it through the County. Ripping off the poor business owner of his property is par for the course. It’s Ravi being Ravi.
Same tired old negotiation dance my lawyer says it worth more than your appraiser says it worth.
It ends up with the court splitting the difference.