PLEASANTVILLE: Westchester County Seeks To Get Back $2.6 Million For Abandoned Affordable Housing Project

PLEASANTVILLE (WESTCHESTER COUNTY) NY: In 2016 the county executive Rob Astorino signed off on a $2.8 million deal to subsidize construction of 14 apartments in Pleasantville. 

Westchester County  paid $1.8 million for a vacant structure at 98 Washington Avenue near the center of the Pleasantville business district, and then sold it to Migi for $1.

The county also agreed to pay Migi $993,000 to partially cover the costs of gutting the structure and building 14 rental apartments.

The apartments were never completed.

SUSPICIOUS DEALINGS:

The deal was even more lucrative to Migi than the county’s lawsuit lets on. The complaint does not say from whom the county bought the property. According to property records, it was Migi.

Hudson City Savings Bank had bought the property for $1,425,000 in a 2013 foreclosure sale. Migi bought it from the bank a year and a half later for $1,150,000.

So when Westchester bought the property from Migi for $1.8 million, and sold it back to Migi for $1 on the same day, the company realized a 57% profit of $649,999.

The county’s lawsuit also does not explain how Migi was selected for the project.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY SUPREME COURT LAWSUIT: 

Now Westchester is demanding $2.6 million from the developer, Migi Asset Acquisition LLC, Long Island City, in a complaint filed. last month in Westchester Supreme Court.

The county says Migi has drawn $788,533 from the $993,000 subsidy and has mortgaged the property for $2.2 million.

But the building permit expired in February 2021, the complaint states, and the developer has not tried to renew it.

Westchester claims that Migi abandoned the project