Hostra gifted $4.2 million Garden City house for University President
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| From Zillow.com |
Pretty nice digs for Hostra President Susan Poser.
The university announced on December 15 that Hostra had acquired a "presidential residence" in Garden City through a "generous donation" from a member of the school's board of trustees.
Hofstra did not identify the residence nor name the trustee.
However, sales listings in the area and records from the Nassau County Clerk indicate that this house was sold to Hofstra on Dec. 14 for $4.2 million. Its a pretty good guess this is the Presidential residence, not a dorm for out-of-state students.
The land records do not indicate who the generous trustee was but the talk around town is Peter Kalikow.
One question, of course, is why did Hofstra acquire a home for its president in Garden City and not Uniondale or Hempstead Village.
Hofstra, after all, is located in Uniondale with a small section in Hempstead Village.
But maybe a prestigious Garden City address is considered more presidential.
Another point to make is that this will likely take the house off the tax rolls since Hofstra is a tax-exempt institution.
According to Nassau County, the house this year paid more than $14,000 in property taxes, with a "home improvement" exemption of $1,921.
Don't know how much in village taxes will be taken off the roll.
The property description on the county assessment roll, by the way, says the house has six bedrooms and 3-1/2 baths, not eight baths as claimed in the above photograph from the multiple listing service.
Finally, Poser's objections to a casino at the HUB takes on a new look since she is talking as a Garden City resident as well as a university president.
She recently wrote an op-ed for Newsday where she expressed concern about gambling effects of students. But she also worried about traffic through her new hometown.
"With a casino at the Hub, Garden City, Westbury and other local villages will be coping with daily caravans of buses passing through their neighborhoods," she wrote.
"A casino at the Hub is not about the future, and it would not be an
engine for economic and social prosperity. It would be dangerous for
adjoining neighborhoods, and create a nightmare of traffic and
pollution, not to mention anti-social behaviors that often crop up
around casinos."
However, her educational neighbor Nassau Community College, which is also located in Uniondale, welcomes the proposed casino development and has proposed a joint learning platform for some of its students.
In her op-ed, Poser instead backed the idea of a "mixed-use development" at the HUB that could "answer Gov. Kathy Hochul's call to build more affordable housing on Long Island."
More affordable housing on the largest undeveloped tract of land in Nassau County?
When Mitchel Field was developed back in the 1980s, Uniondale residents were essentially promised their streets would be paved in gold from all the new commercial taxes generated by the office development. They were also told that new lanes would be added to Meadowbrook Parkway to ease the traffic congestion and improvements would be made to surrounding roads.
Instead the new buildings received seemingly endless tax abatements; there were no new Parkway lanes and Uniondale endured increased traffic, higher property taxes and a very strained underground public water supply.
Affordable housing requires subsidies. Will Uniondale pay those subsidies? Will Garden City?
Pretty nice. Assuming the university does not pay taxes either but are promoting how Mitchell field shall be used. I have an idea Give Hofstra the Mitchell field property then remove their tax exemption for everything they own. They could then build anything they want. Until they pay taxes their voice should be meaningless
ReplyDeleteHofstra as an institution has a right to object to a proposed casino next to its campus. It doesn’t deserve this hit piece that sounds like Sands wrote it.
ReplyDeleteIt’s great now the leaseholder of the coliseum property has options He can just rent out the property to NYC. All the migrants can be housed there and it has plenty of space for a tent city if necessary. And of course all the children can go to the Uniondale Schools No problem just put trailers on the school grounds to accommodate the kids. Hopefully this keeps the non tax paying Hofstra happy
ReplyDeleteThese are the standard talking points / scare tactics by Sands: 1) If you turn down the casino, the state will convert the hub into low income housing. 2) When the Islanders played at the Coliseum there was no traffic. 3) People are gambling on their phones all day long. 4) It's not really a casino (they almost never use the word),, it's an "Integrated Resort". I hope LIuncoverednews can uncover the millions that Sands is spending to buy influence and support every month to force this awful proposal on Long Island. Sands should be required to make a monthly filing of all its payments if they are the good corporate citizen they claim to be - full transparency is needed now.
ReplyDeletemaybe I'm nuts, but those talking points are not scare tactics, and are 100% true. The State is looking to put housing there (look at Hochul's aggressive housing plan targeting Nassau County), people are gambling on their phones (Draft Kings and Only Fans), and traffic wasn't that heavy for Islanders games (It was heavier for specific concerts though). The only point maybe you can argue is not calling it a casino...but I guess that depends on how big it is in their plan.
DeleteThe Sands is a public company, isn't it? Can't you look up their filings?
Sands is public company - 60% of their revenue is from gaming (not 10%) and most of their profits. What Sands will not do is disclose in their filings is all the millions of dollars that are paying and to who they are paying those funds to. They need to step up to voluntarily disclose all of the people they are paying and all the deals they are cutting - every dollar should be accounted for - no secret deals. The residents of Long Island need full disclosure - it is just the right thing to do.
DeleteThe non tax paying Hofstra needs to get an assessment of the value of all their property and begin paying taxes immediately. If The Sands brings in revenue and creates jobs go for it. Let’s also publish the salaries and benefits of the administration of the university. In the absence of the Sands project the leaseholder should go ahead with a tent city
ReplyDelete