National Grid Okays 60-Day Extension of Village Gas Ball Parking Lot Lease

National Grid apparently has agreed to extend Sag Harbor Village’s lease for the gas ball parking lot for 60 days, delaying the transfer of the property to developer Adam Potter’s 11 Bridge Street LLC, whose lease would have gone into effect on Friday, September 15.

A village official, speaking anonymously, said that Potter had informed Mayor Tom Gardella on Thursday night, September 14, that National Grid had agreed to the extension.

On Friday, though, Gardella said he would not comment on the deal, pending confirmation directly from National Grid.

Potter, citing a village prohibition against the operation of a private, stand-alone parking lot unaffiliated with any other use, had threatened to close the gravel lot, which holds about 90 spaces, on Saturday, September 16, just as the village was expected to be crowded with people attending HarborFest.

Potter could not be reached for comment for this article, but he has said repeatedly that he wants to see the lot remain open to the public. However, an application he has filed to develop neighboring properties with 39 apartments, about 11,000 square feet of retail space, and a community center and public performance space calculates that the lot could be used to provide 93 of the 235 parking spaces required for that development. It is unclear how those spaces, if they were set aside for the new development, would still be available for public use. In addition, a variance for a shortage of 102 other spaces would still be required.

Potter and Gardella have sought to negotiate an arrangement that would allow the village to continue to use the lot, but until this 60-day extension, they have been unable to reach a deal.

In the meantime, the village has asked the Public Service Commission to reconsider its approval of the 99-year lease it awarded to Potter over the village’s objections in July. It is still awaiting word on its request for a second hearing in the matter.

Potter agreed to pay National Grid $400,000 up front to cover the first 10 years of the 99-year lease, with increases coming each decade thereafter. The deal, in total, was valued at more than $5 million.

In a widely distributed email on September 8, Potter said he had offered Gardella three options, “at cost,” that would allow the village to retain control of the lot: a month-to-month lease, a one-year lease, or a deal to assign the entire lease to the village.

However, a copy of the offer that was presented to the village tells a different story. The monthly lease would have come with a 60-day termination notice and cost the village $6,000 per month, or $72,000 for a full year, and the annual lease would have cost the village $60,000 — both of which are well above Potter’s annual cost of $40,000.

The offer to assign the lease to the village also comes at a steep cost, as it would require the village to grant Potter credit for three parking spaces for his development for each physical space in the lot. If the lot has 93 spaces, as Potter has calculated, it would provide him with a credit of 279 spaces, eliminating his need to provide any new parking for what has been the village’s largest development project proposal in decades.

In a separate effort to keep the lot open to the public, the Village Board on Tuesday, September 12, scheduled a public hearing for October, amending the code to allow a private owner to operate a public parking lot, unattached to any other use, provided there were no fees charged for parking in the lot.