It looks like an abandoned gas station at a busy crossroads on the city’s far southeastern side will finally see some new life. The former Mobil station at East Brighton Ave. and East Seneca Turnpike closed more than two years ago, and the city has been trying to redevelop the site.
But Finance Commissioner David Clifford says until now, a legal technicality got in the way…
"They did a redesign of the street quite a few years ago. There were maps that said 'to be conveyed to the adjoining owner.' For some reason or another, that never got abandoned and never got sold. So, now we're finally doing that."
Common councilors approved the sale this week. District Councilor Bob Dougherty joined the mayor and Senator Chuck Schumer in the summer of 2013 to urge the owner of the property to clean it up while it awaited a buyer.
"Dunkin Donuts has been planning on going into the old Mobil for a while now. Then we found out that the city right of way pretty much went right through the property. So now it's been a complicated process of abandoning that, and then getting an assessment, and I think it actually had to get signed off by the Secretary of State in Albany because it was a road designation at one time. So, it looks like we're in the last lap here.”
Dougherty says with the exception of some minor clean-up, development should move forward. The city has been working with the developer to design an appealing site adding sidewalks and making ingress and egress as safe a possible at the busy intersection.
