Town Of Chester Will Vote TONIGHT On Building Moratorium
Decision will impact Chester side of a Monroe housing development on Lakes Road near the proposed site of Henry Farms mega development.
Tonight at 7pm, the Town of Chester will vote on implementing a building moratorium.
If you want to be there for the meeting, you’ll have to visit the Chester Town Hall on 1786 Kings Highway.
If you can’t make it, and think the Town of Chester should pass their building moratorium, you can also send in a public comment to Linda Zappala, Chester’s Town Clerk.
Her email address is: LZappala@thetownofchester.org. Make sure to include “Public Comment Submission For 2/28/24 Town Board Meeting” in your subject line.
The moratorium, if approved, will last anywhere between six to nine months and will need to periodically be revisited by the board sort of like what the Village of Woodbury does with its own building moratorium.
Funny that.
The Chester moratorium will impact what appears to be an end run to get around the Town of Monroe’s Planning Board involving Henry Farms.
The Monroe Planning Board last heard from the Henry Farms representatives on November 9th, where a site visit was planned by the Board. No word on if that site visit ever happened just yet. I have followed up with Monroe Planning Board Chairwoman Bonnie Franson to see.
As I explained over in The Photo-News at the time:
Since this is such a major project, there are still many hoops Henry Farms will need to move through. For example, Lakes Road is dedicated as a Scenic Road, and any alterations or changes to Lakes Road would need to be reviewed by the Orange County Department of Planning and the Orange County Department of Public Works.
There are currently two planned entrances for the project off of Lakes Road. The county also needs an updated traffic study since new town roads will be needed to service Henry Farms. The list of agencies that need to either have the Henry Farm project provide an update, or review what’s currently in front of them, is extensive.
In another example, Henry Farms will require the installation of new water mains, two wells, and a sewage treatment facility, which will require further approval from both New York State and Orange County. The Orange County Department of Public Works also needs to review the proposed project’s sewer collection plans since the Moodna District currently has a moratorium. This is because the town of Monroe is over its sewage capacity in the Moodna District.
Virtually across the street from Henry Farms are two projects, including Oakwood.
One half of the project is in Monroe, and the other half of the project is in Chester. On the Chester side, the development is owned by Oakwood Subdivision LLC.
Oakwood Subdivision, coincidentally, changed ownership on the same day Meadow Hill LLC sold the property on the Monroe side of the project to Meadow Hill Subdivision LLC.
Got all that? It’s musical LLCs.
On the Monroe side, the Meadow Hill subdivision being planned would include the construction of six homes. This project will also feature the use of wells and its own sewage maintenance capabilities; 50% of the land would be preserved.
Part of that land being conserved will also be added to the nearby Appalachian Trail. Highlands Trail.
For now, no government entity has yet to be placed in charge of managing that specific parcel or the overall conservation efforts in the development.
Let’s Play Our Favorite Game: Who Owns That LLC?
Oakwoods Subdivision LLC is registered to 1449 37th Street, Suite 612, Brooklyn, New York.
As you can see, 1449 37th Street is an office building.
Interestingly, Suite 612 looks like it’s being used for a few different businesses.
These include:
49 OCEAN BREAZE LLC, which was created in March of 2023.
17 LAMBROS LLC, which was created in September of 2022.
109 JUNIPER LLC, also created in September of 2022.
There also appears to be an import business, UAG USA ASIA GLOBAL, which imports Nova Sunger mattresses from Turkey, that uses Suite 612.
Two of those LLCs share the same filing address: 5314 16 Ave, Suite 139, Brooklyn, NY, 1120.
49 Ocean Breaze LLC was registered to the same address, but to Suite 612.
So, what about that second address? 5314 16 Ave, Suite 139, Brooklyn, NY, 1120.
5314 is that entire building, starting with the Talk n Travel and moving over to the all white building. It’s not clear where Suite 139 is located.
According to PropertyShark, the property has not paid any property tax since at least 2020. The NYC Property Tax assessor, again according to PropertyShark, assessed the buildings most recent value at over $2M.
If you’re wondering why this is, its because the building is registered in NYC as an M1 building, meaning as far as New York City is concerned, 5314 16th Avenue is a church/chapel/Synagogue.
So, Who Owns Oakwood Subdivision LLC?
That exact filing address, Suite 139, also belongs to a File Right LLC, where the owner is listed as a Mr. Mark Fuchs. (And via LinkedIn, we can see there’s an account identified as Mr. Mark Fuchs who owns FileRight.)
There is also a 1118-1120 Rogers Sya LLC registered to the same address.
So, does Mr. Mark Fuchs own Oakwoods Subdivision LLC? That’s what the data suggests, but I’ll do more digging to confirm.
But Wait, There’s More!
Worth noting: There is also a Lightstone Management also registered to this building, who manages property. Ditto BNC Management. Both have terrible reviews posted online about them.
So, what you have are what appears to be property management companies housed in the same building as a bunch of non-profits and religious organizations.
The relationship between those organizations and the for-profit entities like Oakwood Subdivision is not yet clear, but again, I’ll keep digging.
What About Meadow Hills LLC?
The original Meadow Hills LLC was listed as PO BOX 1053, Monroe, New York, 10950 according to a filing with the Town of Chester by John Sorrentino in October of 2018.
John Sorrentino sold the property to Meadow Hills LLC, who then sold the property to Meadow Hills Subdivision, LLC.
Meadow Hills LLC is listed as 1252 50th Street, Brooklyn, NY, US, 11219. An LLC owns that property, 1252 50TH STREET LLC. Listed as a representative for 1252 50th Street LLC is an Albert Harstein at 1216 58th Street.
MEADOW HILLS Subdivision LLC has the listed address of 3705 14th Avenue, Suite 301, Brooklyn NY 11218, according to the Town of Chester Planning Board Chairman Don Serotta.
Suite 301 at this building is also used by Secure Life, which sells life insurance off the secondary market. According to LinkedIn, Joel Eckstein is identified as the president of Secure Life, where he is listed as having worked there for the last 13 years.
So, for now, we can say with some confidence according to this documentation that Mr. Joel Eckstein owns Meadow Hill Subdivision LLC, and Mr. Mark Fuchs owns Oakwood Subdivision LLC.
If Chester passes the moratorium, it’ll be worth tracking what happens with these two corporations.
Stay tuned.