Dispute holds up sale of former Saratoga Springs car lot site

PHOTOGRAPHER: Tatiana Zarnowski

The details are in dispute, but local businessman Frank Parillo is interested in buying the former Champion Buick Pontiac GMC property on South Broadway.

Parillo’s business, Saratoga Prime Properties, offered in a Dec. 13 sales agreement to pay $2.3 million for the 3.22-acre property.

However, the seller disputed some details in the agreement last month, causing Saratoga Prime to file a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court in Saratoga County, putting the normally private sales agreement out in the public domain.

The property and 30,000-square-foot showroom and service shop has been vacant since June 2009 after the dealership, which leased the premises, in 2008 sold the business back to General Motors, which looked for a new franchise operator but was unable to find one with the economic downturn and decline in car sales.

GM then vacated the lease and closed the business.

The property owner put the property up for sale for $2.6 million, listed by Vaughn Woodworth of Realty USA.

The building lies at the city’s southern gateway in the vicinity of at least three other auto service centers.

The estate of Raymond Milligi III owns the property. Milligi died in July 2008, and his estate’s trustees are Carmen Milligi and Christina Tangredi Seagroatt.

In the disagreement between the buyer and seller detailed in court documents, Saratoga Prime offered to make a $50,000 down payment, pay $2.3 million total for the property and, pending city approvals and other contingencies, settle on the property on Dec. 31, 2012.

The seller had six days to have an attorney review the contract and cancel it if the terms weren’t OK. The day after that period expired, Seagroatt, the estate’s attorney, asked to cancel the contract, saying her client wanted the buyer to increase the down payment by $50,000 and bump up the purchase price by $200,000.

The seller also was concerned about having to maintain the property for an entire year and keep it off the market while the buyer went through the approval process, she wrote in papers in the court file.

But Saratoga Prime’s attorney, Robert Sweeney, said her concerns came a day too late, and that according to the sales agreement, the offered amounts remained in effect.

The buyer then filed the lawsuit Dec. 29 asking the court to enforce the original terms of the contract.

But on Thursday, Seagroatt said the lawsuit is going to be withdrawn “sooner rather than later.” She declined comment on the negotiations.

The attorney for Saratoga Prime did not return a call for comment.

Neither did Parillo, so it’s not known what he would do with the property if he does buy it.

The investor and businessman is involved in varied projects in the area, including president of the Wilton Travel Plaza on Ballard Road, partner in the 38 High Rock condominium and hotel development in Saratoga Springs and owner of the Saratoga Strike Zone bowling alley property.