Many questions raised at OCT 17 Margate commission meeting.
Margate spending millions in taxpayer funds for a contaminated gas station and hoping EXXON will clean it up fast.
Margate Real Estate exec: It’s very peculiar that anyone would buy a contaminated property prior to clean up.
LISTEN to Margate Commission AUDIO from OCT 17.
Seems like most residents are against this multi-million dollar deal to build a parking lot.
Even business owners aren’t thrilled with this dubious purchase.
Not one Margate business announced their support for the project, except of course, for Colmar Hardware. They love the idea.
Margate Real Estate exec Sherri Lilienfeld questioned the deal. It’s rare to close on (buy) a property prior to contamination clean up.
Lilienfeld has experience in both residential and commercial real estate deals, some with contamination issues.
I always recommend to my clients, and attorneys who advise them, NEVER close the deal until ALL contamination is cleaned up. At the very least, there should be a significant escrow account that would more than cover the expected clean-up.
Seems like they’re still pushing for a year end closing with NO escrow. Not sure why they think that’s a good idea. It’s not. Why can’t Exxon do the site clean-up before Margate City closes on the property?
Abbott claims the gas station has completed most of their clean-up. He hopes Exxon will eventually tear down the gas station building and decontaminate the area.
Colmar Hardware is owned by Mayor Mike Collins and his father Tom Collins who serves on the Margate Planning Board.
Some allege the parking lot would primarily serve COLMAR HARDWARE around the corner.
Abbott and Collins have yet to explain how people would pay to park there. Meters? Attendant? Honor system? Permits? Auction?
Public Comment: This is a major loss of ratables coupled with annual expense for a non-critical amenity. Not smart when taxes and insurance are way up, home prices are soft, and a mandatory re-val is looming.
Note: Both Tom and Mayor Mike Collins get low grades for municipal transparency. Team Collins still blocking live ZOOM video of their meetings. They also prohibit remote public comment from 75% of their tax base. That would be non-voting 2nd homeowners.
We could own this contaminated site and do nothing with it for years.
Margate Commissioner Maury Blumberg
Margate Solicitor Scott Abbott: ideally…..part of the parking lot would become a park, maybe some benches, trees, landscaping.
Main fear: Margate buys gas station but can’t do anything with it for years as they wait for EXXON remediation / clean-up.
Commissioner Maury Blumberg: Remember, Exxon promised to clean up the Valdez oil spill. And you know how that worked out.
You get what you vote for. Good luck Margate. This guy’s a one man show.
Respectfully, I have no skin in this game and have developed real estate for decades. Ventnor is my home. So don’t shoot the messenger.
My eye has been on Ventnor for a long time. Growth, planning and its impact on the community can be in direct conflict with each other. When asked, I offer a honest opinion with the community in mind. I appreciate the ask when it comes.
I really have a difficult time seeing any benefits to the taxpayer who, by the way, is writing the check for this purchase.
The suggestion of green space and benches sounds great but it still has to pencil out showing the cost (both now and future and clearly identify the short and long term benefits. It’s really not that difficult of a process.
The perceived lack of transparency is a red flag 🚩 that screams “WT…?”
When I write my checks it’s as a result of clarity and understanding of these elements mentioned. Believe me when I say often that calculation is fluid. So buyer beware.
As for the lack of transparency, if true, cut it out.
Unbelievable
Is it possible to initiate a recall vote of the mayor based on no-confidence if this gas station deal goes through?
This seems like an act of self-interest of the first order at the expense of Margate residents, particularly combined with a lack of zoom meetings.
Quite a legacy for the mayor and board members. Be sure to bring your family and friends to see the beautiful parking
lot you created for the beach town of Margate.
What is the rush????
This is a bad financial deal for Margate.
Why does Exxon have an obligation to tear down the building?
The contamination is from hydraulics in the garage and oil spills from the work area. Exxon MAY have responsibility for the areas under and around any surrounding former tank areas.
It appears that the city had ample time to ask the tax payers what they wanted in a non-binding referendum.
Commissioner Horn clearly stated, at me, during a commissioners meeting, “Jay, do we have to come to you whenever we want to spend money?”
My answer was, ‘When you spend $3mil+ of taxpayer money, you should ask the taxpayers as you did with the Boardwalk referendum.”
Collins and Horn said …. No! Blumberg said …Yes!
Collins and Abbott said it was an opportunity that they could not pass up. It will be an asset…. really?
Asset with a big cost to the taxpayers.
A property that will take out cash flow from our city budget and not deliver cash flow to our city.
Why are we settling before we know what financial problems we will be stuck with and for how many years of cost to the city.
Who does this benefit?
Any lawyers out there reading about this?
If so, are there any who are willing to opine on whether a resident or taxpayer suit to stop the project is possible, given the mayor’s clear conflict of interest or any other local or state law that might have been violated?
The way the city is being run currently leads me to think the state may need to step in to replace the current city government.
There is a problem with the city commissioners, the city planning board, the city construction office and so on.
No public access to meetings online, building projects that take 5 years to complete and are entirely oversized.
Another new bay project that removes parking on Amherst.
A $3 million contaminated gas station purchase on a side of town that doesn’t need it, a new part time position at $85k a year, a tequila bar rebuild that is complete on the outside with no approved permits, a business/residential complex that has zoning violations and expired CO’s and it has been occupied for a year.
Not sure a lawyer is enough for the problems that the current city government has allowed to happen in Margate.
It really needs to be addressed.
Are you nuts? Nobody wants this idiotic parking lot since it hardly serves enough population to make it worthwhile, and most of the population, like me, don’t want that parking lot.
It’s easy enough to park at Colmar so why pay gargantuan prices for what nobody but the big guns want.
There is CLEARLY a conflict of interest with this parking lot! This will ONLY benefit Colmar!
NO RESIDENTS or OTHER BUSINESSES are interested in a parking lot! The city “wants” Exxon to tear down the building and remediate the land? Really! WHO ARE YOU KIDDING? This will NEVER happen!
Park benches and possible landscaping in the parking lot? People are going to sit and relax there with cars going in and out and maneuvering to park? I think NOT!
Another shady deal by these 3………
Margate residents are constantly getting screwed and you all keep voting these 3 back in.
Shame on all of you.
Margate residents don’t have the cojones to do anything. You will be good residents and keep taking it. The board will build, shortcut, charge more taxes, and do what they want.
That is, unless voting residents start a recall vote and get them out one by one. I won’t hold my breath.
Marty Blumberg was never party to this deal. It does not pass the smell test. A referendum was the only sensible approach to this horrible self serving project. Collins and Horn never considered residents comments, they obviously have their own agenda. Margate voters are being betrayed.
Not sure there’s much of a demand to have a park with benches on Ventnor Ave.
No, I take that back: there is zero demand to have a park with benches on Ventnor Ave.
Terrible idea!
The above comments are nothing but uninformed blather from people who know nothing.
What a disrespectful. Comment!
Are you are one of the locals who say””go ahead and do what you want.”
When your taxes go up on your old home home that you love , then have to sell it because you cant afford the taxes .Then what will you say. “Hey Mike and Cathy give me more kool aid.
Wake up and stop defending your old buddies.
In case you haven’t noticed “Local”, you’re in the minority. No one wants this to go through except those that will benefit (i .e. Colmar, non-taxpayers). What is your supporting evidence? Is this just a Commisioner afraid to list their name?
Astonishing that Margate residents allow Solicitor Abbott to get away with this stuff. Do not trust that man. Just ask Ventnor.
Solicitor Abbott is breaking #1 rule in Real Estate. DON’T buy a contaminated property until it’s totally cleaned up. Abbott needs to be booted. Now.
TAXPAYERS are idiots in Margate for putting up with this stuff. YOU will be paying for this……..you understand???? Glad I got out,
Love it. Will be very convenient to park when going to Hot Bagels, Bocca, or any of the multiple businesses in that area. Any time to obtain lots for parking is a great opportunity.
Margate leadership should DISCLOSE their financial / Real Estate interests in the City of Margate. You would be surprised by what these weasels control or own.
I am fully against this purchase.
First of all, the fact that the city is hoping that Exxon will eventually tear down the building and complete the clean up of the contaminated area sounds like they do not have anything in writing, or if they do, it does not cover all of these items. This should probably be clarified for the taxpayers BEFORE the deal is officially inked.
Secondly, I was told that this will benefit all of the businesses in town. I do not think that the businesses at the south end of town will see any benefit from this proposed lot, but I may be wrong. I think that if the businesses in the area want this lot, then the businesses in that area should chip in and purchase the lot themselves. They all started their businesses without parking on that lot, so they knew what they were getting into when they opted to move forward with their businesses. I want them all to succeed, but they should be succeeding without the taxpayer having to flip the bill for a lot that is going to cost the city millions of dollars.
Finally, the cost is outrageous. I went to the meeting and expressed my stance as being against this purchase, and was told that this lot will be an asset to the city. To me, this will actually be a long-term liability since it is going to take a long time to pay off, and it will always needs to be insured. I admit that the maintenance won’t be much on a parking lot so that really doesn’t factor into my equation, but that is still a cost and cannot be overlooked. If the final cost to the city is around $2M, and at most they can accommodate 30 parking places on that lot, then each parking lot will cost the city approximately $70,000. I do not see how each spot is going to generate $70,000 in revenue to just pay off the purchase price, let alone the additional cost (still unknown) to transform the lot from what we have today to an actual parking lot, as well as cover the cost for ongoing insurance. Even if we just look at the approximate $70,000 per spot for the purchase, then we are looking at many decades for each spot to generate enough cashflow to pay the city back and then become an actual “asset” for the city.
Let’s do the math on the above statement: We have approximately twelve weeks when the city has enough people in town that additional parking will be helpful (say mid-June once most kids are out of school and their families have transitioned to the beach for the summer, until right before Labor day). Twelve weeks is 84 days. During those 84 days, we have roughly between 10 am – 6 pm when the businesses see most of their activity and will benefit from additional parking than what is around today. So we have 8 hours/day x 84 days = 672 hours per summer that this lot may benefit those few businesses in the area. At $1 per hour parking rate we are looking at $672 per summer per spot. Well, $70,000 divided by $672 that we can hope to recoup per spot per summer gives us an ROI of 104 years. THAT IS OVER A CENTURY TO PAY RECOUP JUST THE PURCHASE PRICE. I also doubt that this lot will be at capacity with all thirty parking spots occupied at the same time, so this 104 years is the best case scenario. Even if we charge $2 per hour (and you won’t want to charge any more than this since people will just not pay more than that to go shopping), you still have over fifty years to get the purchase price back. I am also curious to see what the transformation, insurance, and minimal maintenance costs will be per parking spot, which puts the 104 years at $1/hour or the 52 years at $2/hour much further out than these calculations.
In the end this is too much money for the return. If this will benefit the businesses, then the businesses can join together and buy this lot and charge what they want. Leave the taxpayers alone and don’t use our money for this purchase, which in the opinion of a lot of taxpayers is not needed and not financially in the best interest of the city. Let a developer buy the lot, get it cleaned up, and build what they want so that the city can get tax revenue from that scenario. That then makes this lot an asset to the city because it is generating tax revenue. The current plan that was voted on by Mayor Collins and Commissioner Horn makes this lot a liability, and not an asset.
Why can’t our two Margate commissioners see the forest through the trees?
Perhaps parking can be secured without burdening tax payers with years of debt.
This gas station does not meet any logical goal.
If there’s enough people in Margate who are against this purchase, why is it being allowed to go through?
If we can impeach a President, but not impeach our officers who are creating havoc in our town?
Two people should not have the authority to go against the general population of Margate.
Simple question. Does anyone know what the acquisition of the gas station is going to cost individual homeowners. Yrly. For how long ?
Elections have consequences!!!!
Who voted for these crooks and when is their term up?