Battle over 411 Columbia Street
UTICA, N.Y.Y — In the midst of the brand-new downtown Utica Wynn Hospital and brand-new medical office building across the street, is an anachronism: the empty, decades-old O’Brien Plumbing building, at 411 Columbia Street. The building has been at the center of a costly, legal tug-of-war, between Central Utica Builders, and Bowers Development. Bowers Development wants to put a medical office building on the property; Central Utica Builders wants the property for parking, for a new medical office building they built across from the hospital. According to Dr. Michael Kelberman, of CNY Cardiology and Central Utica Builders, the legal battle is over.
“There are no more court cases. The Supreme Court has decided. It will not go back to any other court. That case is over. There are some logistical, if you wan tto say, bureaucratic, hurdles that have to be accomplished. Those will happen over the next month or two, but there is no more jurisdiction. There’s no additional court cases. There’s no additional decisions to be made,” says Dr. Kelberman.
Kelberman says he fully expects, based on the outcome of most recent court case, that the Oneida County Industrial Development Agency will acquire the Columbia Street property from Bowers Development through eminent domain, and that, ultimately, it will be used for parking for the new medical office building.
“I don’t want to use the word confident,” says Dr. Kelberman. It’s over.”
Bowers Development says the legal battle isn’t over.
“We find Dr. Kelberman’s statement to be extremely disturbing, as the NYS Appellate Court still has not issued a formal ruling (the next decision date is scheduled for Friday, February 2nd). Hopefully, this isn’t indicative that CUB / MHVS used political connections to unjustly influence the court and outcome. Until we hear otherwise in the form of an actual court ruling, we continue our plans to develop the site. This includes the recent submission of an application to enter the site into the NYS Brownfield Cleanup Program in order to remediate contaminated soil and groundwater prior to redevelopment activities,” says Bryan Bowers.
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