Waterfront parcel lease gets nod

By Paul Kirby, Freeman staff Daily Freeman February 17, 2006

KINGSTON - A Common Council panel Thursday night recommended that the city enter into a lease with a retired Brooklyn attorney for waterfront property near a former marina that he has already purchased.
But the Laws and Rules Committee's favorable vote of 4-1 does not force the matter out of committee and Robert Iannucci, a developer who has purchased a large tract of waterfront property including the former Ulster Marina on Abeel Street., will have to wait for another committee's recommendation.
The lease agreement for the 1.5 acres at 472 Abeel St. that was recommended by the committee was not specifically ironed out when the panel voted for it Thursday night. The Finance/Economic Development Committee is expected to determine specific terms of the lease, including the price, during its March session.
Alderman Richard Cahill, R-Ward 6, the council's minority leader, voted against the resolution. Cahill, who is a member of the Finance/Economic Development Committee said because the committee did not have the specifics of the lease he had to vote against it.
Cahill said the lease should only be voted on once all of the details are ironed out.
"It seems to me before you vote on a lease of this nature ... it strikes me that it would be preferable to have, before you are going to approve it to a specific person, the lease contract in front of you," Cahill said.
The committee made its decision after the Common Council had agreed to sell the property for $60,000 to Iannucci in December. Later, city officials found out that under law it is required to get state Legislature approval to put up city-owned waterfront property for sale by bid.
Mayor James Sottile has said he would send off letters to Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, and Sen. William Larkin, R-Cornwall, asking them to sponsor state legislation which would allow the city to put the property out to bid for sale.
Sottile has said he was not aware that permission had to be granted by the Legislature to first put the property out to bid. In addition, the law requires that the city sell the property to the highest bidder.

©Daily Freeman 2006

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