P’ville Sells Old Recreation Center to Local Contractor
A little more than two weeks after the Village of Pleasantville opened the doors to its new recreation center, the Board of Trustees voted last week to approve the sale of its old facility.
The former recreation center, also known as Library Hall and located at 359 Bedford Rd., was sold to Mike McCormack of McCormack General Contracting of Hawthorne for $100,000. The house has been empty since the recreation department vacated the premises in 2007.
Pleasantville officials decided the property was no longer needed for municipal purposes and it was in the best interests of the village to sell the two-and-a-half-story house, which was built in 1897.
While the $100,000 sale price might appear to be low, Mayor Peter Scherer said last week the board imposed a condition that the village landmark must be preserved. The structure cannot be torn down without the consent of the board, he said.
“Although I regret that there wasn’t a way to keep that as a public building as it’s been through the first 115 years of its life, I am nothing but delighted that it is protected and in the hands of an owner who has the wherewithal to turn it into an asset, not only to the neighborhood but to Bedford Road,” Scherer said.
What McCormack, a Pleasantville native, had in his favor was the confidence officials had in him to renovate the building, Scherer said, noting that McCormack owns a contracting company and has a good track record within the village.
The mayor said the village talked with 15 prospective buyers and was presented with two previous offers that would have put the property back on the tax rolls sooner, but both fell through. The village was going to sell the house to a family, and the other offer came from the United Methodist Church located at 70 Bedford Rd.; neither transaction could be completed.
For Trustee Jonathan Cunningham, the sale is welcomed after a “long, painful process.”
While Cunningham understood how other board members wanted the property preserved because of its historical significance, he said he wasn’t in the “adamant camp” of maintaining the structure as a municipal building if that meant having it remain empty for years.
“We were able to come to a place where, one, get the building sold; two, (it) puts the building in the hands of someone who not only has the financial wherewithal but the skill set to restore it to its original glory,” Cunningham said. “And three, (it) puts it back on the tax rolls for the village, and the town and the school district.”
Scherer said McCormack plans to comply with the current zoning that allows only a one- or two-family house on the property.
The village’s recreation department moved out of Library Hall, which had served as the village’s public library in its earlier years, when leaks in the building made it unsafe for it to be inhabited. Since late 2007, department staff worked at village hall.
On Jan. 12, the recreation department held its ribbon cutting for the new recreation center on Marble Avenue, the site of the former ambulance corps headquarters.
