Jeff Lewis

Meanwhile, the wheels are in motion for another potential housing community in the town of Orangetown, this one in the hamlet of Palisades. The sale of the HNA Conference Center, formerly the IBM Conference Center, has officially been formalized, paving the way for new development to take shape on the 106-acre campus off Route 9W. A deal to sell the property years ago fell through, causing it to be shuttered during the pandemic, and it’s been rotting away ever since.But now, as Orangetown Supervisor Teresa Kenny told “The Morning Show” Wednesday, the first step towards a new development can take shape…

Kenny says the land was sold to the developer, REVEIL, by the owner, SL Green, for likely over $26 million. Original plans called for an updated hotel and conference center, event space, a farm, and between 30 and 40 townhouses, but that is subject to change, possibly to include more housing units.

Three brothers from Monsey will spend time behind bars after they were sentenced in federal court yesterday to more than a decade each in prison. That’s according to The Journal News. Yoil Weingarten got twelve years while his brothers Yakov and Shmiel, each got 14 years, after they were found guilty back in March of the 2018 kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said they took the girl outside the United States to continue a sexual relationship with her adult ‘husband.’ Williams said the brothers were part of a fringe sect of ultra-Orthodox Judaism called Lev Tahor, which forced child marriages, physical beatings, and family separations, causing “irreparable harm to children in their formative years.” The Weingartens had said they were following their Jewish faith by “rescuing” the children. One of the victims had read a statement in court supporting the brothers and urging leniency.

Two local malls are getting big bucks back from local governments and school districts as part of a settlement to tax challenges. That’s according to The Journal News. Palisades Center in West Nyack will get $27.5 million on property taxes paid to the town, the Clarkstown school district and Rockland County, while the Shops of Nanuet will reportedly get an estimated two million dollars, the bulk of the money coming from the Nanuet and Clarkstown school districts. Palisades Center has been in court for years with the town challenging their taxes. Palisades Center claimed they were valued at $160 million while the town put it at $392 million. The settlement pegs it at $300 million, for at least the next three years. Both settlements were reportedly approved by the town board at a special meeting Tuesday morning with a 4-0 vote. They also voted to bond up to $8.7 million to cover tax settlement costs.

The two Nanuet residents arrested last week on gun charges were allegedly using a 3D-printer to manufacture un-serialized and untraceable so-called “ghost guns” right in their home. Clarkstown supervisor George Hoehmann told “The Morning Show” Monday that these days, some things just don’t surprise him any more…

Hoehmann puts some of the blame for upticks in certain crimes on people coming north from New York City. Rockland County District Attorney Tom Walsh says an ongoing investigation into illegal firearms nabbed 35 year-old Vivian Wu and 35 year-old Tao Zhang after it was learned that a shipment of a firearms component was heading to their Nanuet home. Officials from numerous law enforcement agencies executed a search warrant at their home and found two loaded and un-serialized semi-automatic handguns, three high-capacity magazines, five major components of a firearm, and a large number of un-serialized ghost-gun parts. Both suspects face several gun-related charges and were sent to the Rockland County Jail on $50,000 cash bail.