MTA sells Sag Harbor parcel to developer

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has approved the $201,000 sale of a strip of property in Sag Harbor just off Route 114.

The parcel's sale will allow a condo developer to proceed with its stalled West Water Street 19-unit condo project near Sag Harbor Cove, The Sag Harbor Express reports.

The 16,400-square-foot parcel, measuring about 40 feet wide by 350 feet long, had been owned by the Long Island Rail Road since 1869. It was of no use to the MTA since the LIRR ended service to Sag Harbor in 1939.

The buyer is Nalex International Development Corp. The Sag Harbor Express described the company's principal executive, Emil Talel, as "a developer who has long sought, unsuccessfully, to construct condominiums on a neighboring parcel."

An MTA board document gave more details on the buyer's background, saying Nalex is "controlled by the same principals as East End Ventures."

East End Ventures Llc, which owns the neighboring parcel, filed an adverse possession lawsuit in Suffolk County Court in 2008 against the MTA and LIRR. In the suit, East End Ventures claimed ownership of the parcel "by virtue of the open and notorious use of the parcel by a predecessor-in-title" of the neighboring land.

To settle the suit, the MTA agreed to sell the strip of land to East End for $82,025 - but that sale was halted when the Village of Sag Harbor intervened and said it wanted to buy it and make it a waterfront public park.

The MTA then sought bids for the property, with the stipulation that any buyer must be willing to take responsibility for defending the adverse action lawsuit. Nalex bid $201,000 and the village bid $90,101.

Sag Harbor Mayor Brian Gilbride said the village's bid was the maximum amount it could offer. By law, he said, it was limited to offering no more than 10 percent over the minimum $82,500 the MTA sought for the property.

The MTA in its December meeting approved selling to the highest bidder.