Supervisor Howard Phillips said the developer had recently sent letters to prospective homebuyers, notifying them of the company's decision to postpone the project until the fall of 2008.
Phillips said the declining real estate market had prompted the developer's decision and that he expected to hold a meeting with the developer next week to discuss the company's plans.
Gabe Pasquale, vice president and chief marketing officer for WCI Communities Northeast U.S. division, did not return messages left on his answering machine yesterday.
Town meetings to discuss the 55-and-older housing plan had attracted hundreds of people who wanted to downsize from their single-family homes to townhouses or condominiums.
Maureen Corallo, a longtime resident and senior coordinator of the town, said that although she and her husband did not plan to buy a unit at the complex, she knew neighbors who wanted to buy units, after selling their current houses. But because of the weak real estate market, they would have to rethink their plan.
"It's a very tough market out there," Corallo said. "It's a terrible situation. I feel sorry for the people that really counted on it."
The town owns the 163-acre parcel and has been expecting to sell it to the developer, but the deal hasn't been closed yet.
Phillips said that upon closing the deal, the town would receive $35 million from WCI. He said the money would be used to offset payments to Mirant Corp.
The energy company successfully sued taxing jurisdictions in north Rockland and received refunds for overpaid taxes on its Bowline plant in Haverstraw and Lovett generating station in Stony Point. This year, the town issued bonds to pay about $26.9 million to Mirant and the county, which had paid Mirant's portion of the taxes to the town, as required by state law, for the years the company refused to pay taxes during the litigation.
Phillips said the bond payment for 2008 would be about $2 million. He said the town had built up a $6 million tax stabilization fund and a $2 million reserve, so the 2008 bond payment would be made from the reserve fund.
"We prepared. We were not going to allow this to happen without being covered," Phillips said. "We're covered for 2008. We'll have to see what happens in 2009."
Phillips said he had expected the deal to be closed in early November, but because the developer was still waiting for all the necessary information from the state and the county, the plat - a map showing actual features of the development, including roads and easements - was not filed.
Steven Silverberg, an attorney for the town's planning and zoning boards, said the developer would be required to close the deal within 30 days from its filing of the plat with the county.
The developer announced in the summer that it expected to break ground "later this year." The announcement was followed by the opening of its sales office off Willow Grove Road. The office gave prospective buyers opportunities to see site models and to communicate with the company representatives.
Eric Rounds, director of sales at the Willow Grove Road office, said yesterday that he was the only one left because the company had already reassigned the office's employees to other locations. He said he was expecting the sales office to be closed at the end of this week.
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