WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. By John F. Bailey. December 1, 2006: When the Westchester County Business Journal “For the Record” section reported that Kensico Terrace, the senior housing project being slowly built by former Democrat Councilman Bill Brown and his partner, James Bason reported that the City of White Plains had made a $848,497 loan to Kensico Terrace, filed in the County Clerk office November 9. Coincidently this “loan” is the amount of the grant the Common Council approved for Brown’s senior housing development November 1, 2005.
WPCNR contacted the Mayor’s Office and asked if this is additional money to the grant already approved, or whether the grant is a lone. David Maloney told WPCNR by telephone Thursday that the was a grant, not a loan and that I should not believe everything I read.
WPCNR retrieved the documents from the County Clerk office Thursday afternoon and according to the official filing recording the $848,497 loan, filed November 9, 2006, “The lender (City of White Plains) agrees to loan to the Borrower (Kensico Terrace) the principal sum of Eight Hundred Forty Eight Thousand Four Hundred Ninety Seven and 00/100 Dollars.” And the documents further state, “In consideration of the Loan, the Borrower has executed a promissory note (the “Note”) and the Borrower and County of Westchester Industrial Development Agency have executed a mortgage (the “Mortgage”) each in the principal amount of Eight Hundred Forty Eight Thousand Four Hundred Ninety Seven and 00/100 Dollars, which Mortgage secures the Note and covers the Project and the Property.
There was no payment schedule of the mortgage, or a copy of the promissory note included in the documents describing the loan WPCNR examined Thursday afternoon in the County Clerk’s office.
The document on Page 9 of the agreement between White Plains and Kensico Terrace states that “The Lender (City of White Plains) agrees that for payment of the Note and performance of the covenants and obligations of the Borrower contained herein, it will look solely to the Mortgaged Property defined in the Mortgage and such other collateral, if any, as may nor or hereafter be given to secure payment of the Note, and no other property or assets of the Borrower shall be subject to levy, execution or other enforcement procedures of any kind or character.”
This paragraph appears to mean the city has no recourse for repayment of the loan, should Kensico Terrace default on the bond other than sale of the assets of the actual Kensico Terrace building when it is complete. Kensico Terrace was originally scheduled to be completed in September 2006 and has just recently resumed construction after a series of sporadic flurries of activity.
One of the advantages of the grant now being a Loan is the city can count it as an asset. Whether or not they are actually doing that, WPCNR is unable to determine since the Mayor’s Office said it is not a loan earlier Thursday.
