Mount Kisco Enters Lease with its Attorney
The Mount Kisco Village Board of Trustees has approved a plan to lease space in a former post office building to a law firm that includes Village Attorney Whitney Singleton.
The board voted unanimously on Oct. 3 to approve the five-year lease of the building it owns on 120 E. Main St, which formerly housed a post office to the firm of Whitney Singleton. Terrapin LLC, a loan broker, which has leased space in the village building, does not want to continue its arrangement with the village.
Village Manager James Palmer said Singleton and Singleton has the option to extend the contract by another five years. The law firm will be charged $60,000 in rent for the first two years and their rent will increase by 3 percent each year, Palmer said. The village will continue to use the building’s conference room, hallway and other common areas and the Mount Kisco Historical Society will be allowed to put up displays in the vestibules, Palmer said.
Mayor Michael Cindrich said for years the village has looked to lease properties it owns when possible. Prior to the lease with Terrapin LLC, the building “sat dormant for over 10 years,” Cindrich said.
Cindrich said the lease with the law firm is “the best use right now” for the property.
Singleton said he would not do any work on behalf of the village in his new office.
“The lease was vetted by the Mount Kisco Board of Ethics” which saw no problems with it, Cindrich said.
According to a 2009 report in the “Westchester Business Journal,” the building opened as a post office in 1936.The property is on the National Historic Register, Cindrich said. The village does not want to sell the property because it may need it in the future, Cindrich said.
The current post office has operated out of Morgan Drive since the 1990’s.
Singleton and Singleton was located is 50 E. Main St. in Mount Kisco.
