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De Blasio jumps into Mount Manresa fray
Mayor says he will ask developer Savo Brothers if they would sell the site to the city
From 250-unit townhouse development to public park? Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would look into the possibility of the city buying the site of Mount Manresa in Staten Island from developer Savo Brothers.
The current development site, a century-old former Jesuit retreat, sparked such controversy that Staten Island Borough President James Oddo fought to label streets at the residential project with names symbolic of greed and deceit.
The Savo Brothers purchased the land for $15 million in 2013 and demolished the Jesuit retreat and tore down trees, DNAinfo reported. Oddo rejected the developer’s suggested names for the streets, such as Timber Lane and Lamb Run, and instead went Cupidity Drive, Fourberie Lane (Deception Lane, essentially) and Avidity Place (Greed Place).
De Blasio told Staten Island residents at a town hall meeting Wednesday that if his administration was in office, things would have worked out differently, DNAinfo reported.
“If you got someone who doesn’t want to sell, I don’t know what the options are,” de Blasio said. “If you got someone who does want to sell, that’s a different discussion. So I will pledge you this one thing … we will make that inquiry and report back to you.” [DNAinfo] — Dusica Sue Malesevic