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Partly Cloudy 1st Precinct controversy continues
Rosen says negotiations with county responsible for store vacancies
Residents are no less confused and suspicious over the 1st Precinct’s future move to the Rosen Shopping Center as a result of meeting with Florence Rosen at a Jan. 19 meeting of the Baldwin Oaks Civic Association.
They went to the meeting believing that Rosen and her son, David, were difficult, uncomprising landlords, as repeatedly stated by County Legislator Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin). But after an hour and a half, residents had been informed that the Rosens are only part owners of the seven-acre property and have no knowledge of Scannell's comments about them, and that a section of the center was left vacant while 1st Precinct negotiations took place over the past two years.
"That is not what we had ever been told," resident Linda Degen, speaking at a Jan. 19 meeting of the Baldwin Oaks Civic Association, told Rosen. "We knew nothing about [Scannell] doing anything for the last year and a half to two years. He has never once said he's negotiating for the 1st Precinct.
"He's consistently told us that nothing is being done at the shopping center," Degen added. "I resent that as our representation, our county legislator is making it look like [David] and your family wouldn't do anything."
Rosen said she was "shocked" that she and her son had such a poor reputation in Baldwin, especially because, to her knowledge, David Rosen and Scannell have had a good working relationship throughout the precinct negotiations. The two even worked together on a streetscaping project in front of the shopping center when Scannell was first elected in 1998, she added.
The situation is all the more confusing to her, Rosen said, because her family is not the sole owner of the shopping center. Rather, Rosen Associates Management Co. serves as a general partner and managing agent for Grand Baldwin Associates, a real estate company with several investors that collectively own the property.
In addition to recent controversy surrounding the Rosens’ involvement in a perceived sweetheart deal with the county for a new 1st Precinct, the Rosens have been accused of pricing out their tenants and allowing the shopping center to fall into disarray in recent years, a claim repeatedly made by Scannell.
