Hoboken Property owner Charles Poggi and his attorney say that the Bhalla Administration is sending flawed information to the Hudson County Improvement Authority in a desperate attempt to get the county organization to finance the condemnation of Poggi’s Adams Street property.
Last week the city council in a 5-3 vote supported a resolution to request the HCIA spend $19.3 million to finance the acquisition of Poggi’s block-long property. Poggi is unwilling to sell his property to the city and has maintained that he wants to redevelop the site himself.
Poggi’s attorney Anthony DellaPelle of the firm McKirdy, Riskin, Olson DellaPelle in Morris Plains, says the city’s assessment of Poggi’s property is inaccurate and the city administration knows it.
“The Bhalla Administration is sending a flawed assessment to the HCIA and I think the HCIA should know that before it considers getting involved in this condemnation.” said DellaPelle.
DellaPelle said there are two significant flaws with the city’s appraisal. The first is the failure of the appraiser to give any value whatsoever to about one third of the property.
The second flaw, said DellaPelle is: “the value that the city’s appraiser ascribes to the remaining portion of the property is far below the market value of the site because of it relies upon sales of properties outside of Hoboken which are not comparable to Mr. Poggi’s property and its location,” said the attorney.
“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,” said DellaPelle.
The attorney noted that the city’s original appraisal of the property in late January was over $26 million, which he stated is also inaccurate; “but at least it values the entire property” To make matters worse, the City lowered the appraised value to $19.3 million by early February. Suggesting that the Poggi property is worth only $19.3 million “is misleading the HCIA and the City knows it,” said the attorney.
ANSWERING JABBOUR
During last week’s council meeting during which Poggi pleaded with the council not to support the HCIA resolution, the property owner was confronted by City Council member Emily Jabbour who accused Poggi of not answering her March emails about his property.
Poggi says he did respond to two of her three emails, but considered further communication with the councilwoman would be counterproductive.
“With all due respect to Councilwoman Jabbour, she misled the public when she said I did not answer her emails. I did,” said Poggi.
“My attorneys and I have attempted to carry on good faith negotiations with the city’s negotiating team, which does not include Councilwoman Jabbour,” said 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,” said Poggi.
