VILLAGE OF SOUTH BLOOMING GROVE – In response to a request from State Senator James Skoufis to State Attorney General Letitia James seeking an investigation into real estate dealings by Mayor George Kalaj, the mayor has responded to Mid-Hudson News. He claims that he is unaware of the investigation request but has answered portions of a Mid-Hudson News inquiry.
According to Skoufis, Mayor Kalaj sold his personal residence for more than 890% more than the property’s assessed full market value. The March 7, 2022 sale occurred a week before Mayor George Kalaj ran unopposed for another four-year term as mayor.
The property located at 58 Fort Worth Place was sold to Fort Worth Place Holdings LLC for $4.6 million. The house, Skoufis says, is “a modest 2,026-square-foot- raised ranch situated on 21 acres.” The senator also says that local donors may have supplied an additional $7.5 million at the closing “suggesting either that the property was immediately resold to another buyer, or that an additional $2.9 million went unaccounted for during the transfer.”
The senator also noted that Kalaj has failed to disclose his new address despite repeated requests to do so and he has been “largely unavailable for meetings with the public in recent months.” The senator implied that the absence of the mayor at meetings suggests that he no longer resides in the village, which is against the law. He has asked the attorney general to investigate that as well. Skoufis said he is asking for the investigation for the purposes of transparency and that clarification of the mayor’s actual address is “long past due”.
Mayor Kalaj told Mid-Hudson News that he still resides in the house he owned at 58 Fort Worth Place and is under a long-term lease agreement to reside there.
When asked about the inflated sale price of the home, he deflected, rather than providing a direct answer. Kalaj said ” The Previous Village Mayor James Lofranco sold his house this past November ’22 for $880,000, see link: https://propertydata.orangecountygov.com/propdetail.aspx?printkey=20900000050010000000&swis=332003. When you compare both transactions which has my property at 21 acres vs. Mr. LoFranco at only half of an acre, I should’ve sold mine for $36,960,500!!! Taking this into consideration I actually sold my property for 807% less than market value.”
The mayor indicated that the new owners of 58 Fort Worth Place intend to use the parcel for the purpose of a school but he did not provide additional information.
