Once again, the owner of the Gulf Station downtown is denying First Selectman Kevin Moynihan’s claims that there’s movement on plans for the town to acquire the property.
During Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, Selectman Kathleen Corbet asked Moynihan for an update on the Gulf Station.
In response, Moynihan said, “I don’t want to talk about that in public, that’s a real estate transaction.”
When Corbet asked for an update in two weeks’ time, Moynihan said, “Yes, there will be developments by then.”
Yet when asked about it, Lenny Fugaro, co-owner of the gas station and repair shop at 36 South Ave., said he has no idea what Moynihan is talking about.
“I don’t know what he’s doing because I haven’t heard from anybody, so there’s nothing going on on my end,” Fugaro told NewCanaanite.com. “I just can’t explain what’s going on. I know they want to buy the property. I haven’t agreed to anything on the property. And I haven’t talked to this guy in months.”
Moynihan had claimed in the past—during a debate in the run-up to the GOP Caucus, where he lost—that the town had “reached a deal” to buy the property. Fugaro flatly denied the assertion.
Fugaro and his co-owner purchased the .31-acre parcel three years ago for $4.7 million. The prospect of the town buying the Gulf station first publicly emerged as a Board of Selectmen meeting in April. There, during a discussion about financing, Selectman Kathleen Corbet asked whether—should the town acquire the Gulf station property—the 1913 building still would need to be moved (yes, and it has been relocated).
Moynihan was trounced by Republican First Selectman candidate Dionna Carlson at the party’s July 25 Caucus. He will not force a primary.
It was clear that when the Gulf station was purchased for $4.7 Million the goal of the new owners was to make a quick profit by flipping the property to the town as part of the library reconstruction. There is no way that selling gas (even at some of the highest prices in CT) or repairing cars would justify that valuation. Luckily, the town hasn’t fallen for the trick and with Mr Moynihan leaving office soon, hopefully they won’t. My opinion is to let Mr Fugaro recoup his investment running the property as a service station and when that doesn’t work out for him the town can purchase the property at a distress sale price.