SOUTH BLOOMING GROVE – State Senator James Skoufis is questioning the sale of the Village of South Blooming Grove mayor’s home for more than 890% more than the property’s assessed full market value and is asking the State Attorney General to investigate the transaction. The March 7, 2022 sale occurred a week before Mayor George Kalaj ran unopposed for another four-year term as mayor.
According to Skoufis, the home, located at 58 Fort Worth Place, is “a modest 2,026-square-foot raised ranch situated on 21 acres” and was sold to a newly-formed LLC known as Fort Worth Holdings for $4.6 million. Skoufis indicated that local donors supplied $7.5 million at the time of 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.”
Mayor Kalaj told Mid-Hudson News that the sale of his house was actually below market value. ”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.”
Skoufis doesn’t believe the logic used by Mayor Kalaj. Asked about it, Senator Skoufis said “My reaction is the same that any person with two brain cells in their head would have…it’s laughable!” Armed with home sale data for the area, Senator Skoufis added “There’s no other property in South Blooming Grove that anywhere approaches the transaction cost that we saw with his property.”
Mayor Kalaj told Mid-Hudson News that, despite selling the home, he still resides there under a long-term lease agreement. Skoufis doesn’t believe that claim either, noting that Mr. Kalaj has not attended village board meetings and posts travel pictures of himself in Eastern Europe on social media.
Video of the interview with Senator James Skoufis:
