Very reassuring, when asked for details about the "working boatyard".... "I can't tell you how we're going to do it," he said. "But that is our goal."
Another related item of note related to BLT that has failed to get any press is that they forced the repair services that been have operated by the fuel dock on the east fork of Stamford harbor for years by Vinny, to close shop and move out. It was an ongoing battle for the past 14 or 15 months, but in the end BLT managed to win the court case last month on a technicality, and have managed to forcefully evict the lease holder of the fuel dock and marine repair service. As I understand it the technicality was that when the land was originally sold to Antares (SP?), whose assets BLT later bought, there was a clause saying that the lease could be terminated if the original land owner sold the land. This clause was not enacted at the time of sale, or even the time of the next sale when BLT bought the assets, but instead they choose to enact it roughly 5 years later.
BLT and the lessee had been operating under that original (20 year, I think) lease for roughly 5 years, and Antares another year or two before that. The judge ruled that 5-7 years (I'm not exactly certain on the dates) that everyone has been operating in good faith since the original sale does not invalidate the termination clause, and now Vinny who owns the business holding that lease, is effectively thrown on the street. Vinny also owns a small deli next to the fuel dock, but that BLT was not able to terminate that lease, so the Deli is still in business.
They are presumably going to be staffing the fuel dock with their own employees going forward.
The only good news here is that Vinny was offered the opportunity to take over running the fuel dock in Shippan (next to Halloween yacht club) which has been largely non-operational for the past few years, so Shippan will have a fuel dock that is reliably open now. Roger Long will be happy to hear that fact, when he came through Stamford last fall we drove around for a while trying to find a station with a working diesel pump since that fuel dock (less than 250 feet from his boat) had been rarely been open in the past few years.
Another related item of note related to BLT that has failed to get any press is that they forced the repair services that been have operated by the fuel dock on the east fork of Stamford harbor for years by Vinny, to close shop and move out. It was an ongoing battle for the past 14 or 15 months, but in the end BLT managed to win the court case last month on a technicality, and have managed to forcefully evict the lease holder of the fuel dock and marine repair service. As I understand it the technicality was that when the land was originally sold to Antares (SP?), whose assets BLT later bought, there was a clause saying that the lease could be terminated if the original land owner sold the land. This clause was not enacted at the time of sale, or even the time of the next sale when BLT bought the assets, but instead they choose to enact it roughly 5 years later.
BLT and the lessee had been operating under that original (20 year, I think) lease for roughly 5 years, and Antares another year or two before that. The judge ruled that 5-7 years (I'm not exactly certain on the dates) that everyone has been operating in good faith since the original sale does not invalidate the termination clause, and now Vinny who owns the business holding that lease, is effectively thrown on the street. Vinny also owns a small deli next to the fuel dock, but that BLT was not able to terminate that lease, so the Deli is still in business.
They are presumably going to be staffing the fuel dock with their own employees going forward.
The only good news here is that Vinny was offered the opportunity to take over running the fuel dock in Shippan (next to Halloween yacht club) which has been largely non-operational for the past few years, so Shippan will have a fuel dock that is reliably open now. Roger Long will be happy to hear that fact, when he came through Stamford last fall we drove around for a while trying to find a station with a working diesel pump since that fuel dock (less than 250 feet from his boat) had been rarely been open in the past few years.
