ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Just one day after the Medley Centre mall property in Irondequoit was sold at auction, the previous developer of the property made an appearance in state supreme court.
Attorneys for Bersin Properties, Monroe County, the town of Irondequoit and East Irondequoit School District argued whether Scott Congel and his company are liable for supplemental payments agreed to in the pilot agreement.
This all centers around benchmarks set in that agreement for Medley Centre redevelopment that Congel asked for and penalties that would occur if those benchmarks were not met. Congel's attorney said although his client agreed to those milestones, the penalties are unenforceable. All told COMIDA, the town of Irondequoit, the East Irondequoit School District claim they're owed by Congel some $7 million in supplemental payments.
"There was an agreement in place and all along from the very beginning, two years ago, I had said it's a very simple premise. There's an agreement, there's a contract in place and we're going to enforce it and we're just going to do a simple, fair reading of that contract. That's what we did and that was our expectation the whole time," said Adam Bello, Irondequoit town supervisor.
"They're unenforceable for several different reasons. Generally speaking because it's described as a penalty which is unenforceable in the contract. Contemporaneous statements made by the executive of COMIDA and the town make clear they were unenforceable penalties," said Howard Graf, Bersin attorney.
The state supreme court justice said he'll reserve his decision. It's not known what effect that will have on Thursday's sale of the Medley Center to local developer Angelo Ingrassia.