Wesley Hills, NY - Single Bidder for 20-Acre East Ramapo Parcel

Wesley Hills, NY - The East Ramapo school district's controversial call for buyers for its vacant Wesley Hills property has drawn a single bidder.
American Investment Group LLC, a Brooklyn-based company, has offered to pay $7,350,000 for the 20.7-acre property that is adjacent to Lime Kiln Elementary School, which is $850,000 over what the district set as its minimum acceptable bid.

Reached by phone at his Monsey office, Michael Goldstein, who co-owns American Investment Group with Brooklyn resident Mendel Greenbaum, said that, if awarded the bid, the company would develop single-family homes on the parcel. Goldstein said that he has been involved in the development of single-family homes on other properties in Rockland County.
The school district has previously stated that it reserves the right to reject any and all bids on the property.

The potential sale of the Wesley Hills property has generated controversy in the district, with many arguing that the land should be preserved as open space. "I would very much like to have that property left the way it is," "We don't want an increase in density in Wesley Hills as has occurred in Monsey," said Zelda Pepper, a village resident and a former East Ramapo teacher.

But Wesley Hills Mayor Robert Frankl sounded a more positive note about the property's prospective development and about American Investment Group. "I'm sure they have plans to build a magnificently beautiful subdivision," he said. "I'm sure they're professional people and they know what they're doing and we're going to get along famously."