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Questions Surrounding Town Of Haverstraw’s Payment For A Lease Valuation and Identity of “Client” May Undermine The Deal
By Tina Traster
The Town of Haverstraw wants the building owned by the Knights of Columbus (Haverstraw Council) on 56 West Broad Street in the Village of Haverstraw. First, it sought to acquire it through a donation and when that failed it proposed a long-term lease for the bulk of the building, leaving the Knights access to their office and conference room, with occasional use of the bingo parlor.
Town of Haverstraw Supervisor Howard Phillips has been on a mission to own or lease the building for two years, but the plan has met with opposition from village officials, taxpayers, a couple of Knights in the Haverstraw Council, and the Attorney General’s Office, which would have to sign off on the plan because it involves that transfer of an asset held by a nonprofit.
Now, in a last gasp, attorneys for the Knights, who are being financed by the Town of Haverstraw, have turned to the courts for approvals but potential defects in actions the town has taken could undermine the legal process. The petition filed by the Albany-based law firm of Girvin and Ferlazzo on behalf of the Knights asks the Court to either allow the Knights’ holding company to convert from a charitable to a non-charitable non-profit (a proposal which the AG’s office rejected last December) so it can lease the property without needing approval, or approve the lease arrangement proposed by the town.
The proposed 25-year leasing arrangement, which was approved by the town board last year, includes a one-time payment to the Knights of $20,000, $500 in monthly rental payments, and the absorption of the fraternal order’s expenses, including the Knights’ real estate taxes, insurance premiums, and utilities.
Rockland Supreme Court’s Justice David Fried will be faced with a series of inconsistences in the valuation presentation, most notably whether the submission meets the strict criteria established by the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau for valuation. Attorneys for 56 West Broad Street Angels submitted a Valuation Analysis prepared by Mamaroneck-based Valuation Plus, Inc. (VPI). Haverstraw paid the firm $3,000 to prepare a lease analysis of the Knights’ property.
Under “A Guide To Sales, Leases, and Other Dispositions of Assets by Not-for-profit Corporations,” the AG’s office says the valuation or appraisal must be “independent” and that the non-profit “must retain and pay the appraiser’s fee.”
An appraisal prepared for and/or paid for by the purchaser/lessee is not acceptable, according to the guidelines.
The valuation analysis says, “We have been engaged by 56 West Broad Street Angels Holding, Inc. dba Knights of Columbus Haverstraw to appraise the subject property.” It also says the scope of work was “agreed to with the Client,” but this begs questions as to who is the actual client and whether the analysis complies with the Attorney General’s requirements.
Based on Valuation Plus Inc.’s invoice to the Town of Haverstraw (obtained by RCBJ through a FOIL request), the “Client” is listed as “Town of Haverstraw,” not 56 West Broad Street Angels nor the Knights of Columbus. The town both being the “client” and paying for the valuation conflicts with AG’s guidelines and undermines the independence of the valuation analysis.
Also, the valuation is dated “July of 2025,” which is months after the town and Knights’ leadership negotiated the terms of the lease. The AG’s office requires the valuation “should be obtained and reviewed before the property is marketed and before a transaction is negotiated with a buyer” — not after the fact. The reason for securing the valuation first is to assist with determining a fair market lease. The valuation is not intended to justify lease terms already negotiated.
On April 30th, Fried signed an Order to Show Cause for the Attorney General’s Office to weigh in on the petition and demonstrate why the Court should not grant the relief that the Knights are seeking. Fried will also have to consider the history of rejection by the Attorney General’s office, which lawyers for the Knights have not disclosed in their court papers. The Attorney General’s Office was served with the petition and Order To Show Cause and has until to May 27 to respond.
Over the past year, the town has spent more than $19,000 of tax-payer money to fund Girvin and Ferlazzo’s representation of the the Knights, first in a petition before the Attorney General, and when rejected by the AG’s office, in Rockland County Supreme Court.
Haverstraw has been subsidizing the Knights as part of its effort to take or lease the building. In 2024, the town paid the Knights $7,000 per month, plus expenses related to maintaining the aging building, along with thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees for representation before the AG’s office. This arrangement was hatched in 2024 when the Knights were poised to sell the building to an affordable housing developer for $2.4 million. For more than a year, the Knights were negotiating with Kings Katherine LLC, which planned to build 100 affordable housing units, a parking deck for the Village of Haverstraw, and allocate space in the building for the Knights in perpetuity. Phillips was unabashedly vocal about wanting to keep out affordable housing in the Village.
Phillips, along with a quorum of town officials, held a private meeting at the 11th hour with Joe Vargas, the then-new Grand Knight, where the parties hatched a deal for the Knights to forego the sale and donate the building to the Town of Haverstraw instead. The Knights, saying their Catholic Fraternal organization was on life support, latched onto a deal that would make them flush — at least in the short term. The proposed donation of the building angered the developer, tax watchers, defenders of the Constitution’s separation of church and state, Village of Haverstraw officials who have been champions for affordable housing, and the former Grand Knight who had shepherded the original sale. When the donation could not be completed, the Town and Knights’ leadership negotiated a lease deal.
Last year, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national organization that fights to protect the separation of church and state told the Town of Haverstraw that its plan to lease the Knights of Columbus violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits government funding of religious practices.
