By
Oleg Khaghani (as published in the August 25 issue of the Rockland County Times)
In 1986, after Bob Congel’s Pyramid Enterprises Company failed to get the necessary permits needed for constructing a massive shopping mall in the small state of Vermont, it turned its ambitious eyes towards building the same behemoth shopping center in Rockland County. However, when completed this Rockland superstore, now known as the Palisades Center Mall, would become the nation’s second largest shopping center, even though at its inception it was not meant to be such a large structure. This up-scaling, was slipped in gradually and in 4 different steps during the many arguments and negotiations that took place between the county’s residents and Pyramid’s lawyers and officers, which took place over a ten year period between the first proposal for the mall’s construction in 1986 and its groundbreaking in April of 1996. And this bit of dishonesty was only a small piece of the many different not so orthodox tactics, some of which extended to outright crimes such as forgery, tax evasion, and fraud, that pyramid committed along with a few of Rockland’s lawmakers during the course of all these legal proceedings. In short, the history of how the Palisades Center Mall was constructed from its first thought by Mr. Congel and his Pyramid Enterprises in 1986, to the day when its first store, B.J. ‘s first opened its doors on March 4 1998 and beyond is a story filled with political corruption and bribe-taking, fraud, threats of violence and law suits, and lies and hypocrisy among numerous other criminal and unethical behaviors by the builders and a few of the local politicians.
The biggest criminal in these proceedings was Mr. Paul Adler, the powerful Rockland County Real Estate Magnate and the then head of the county’s Democratic Party, who was accused and convicted of tax evasion in the amount of more than $100 Thousand for which he served 19 months in a federal penitentiary. Coincidentally, the amount which he was convicted of tax evasion for was the same amount which he had received in political payoffs from Pyramid Companies over several years. A later investigation into the matter revealed that these monies had gone to pay the rent on the office space that was used as the headquarters of the Rockland Democratic Party for which he held the highest office. Further investigations into the matter also revealed that Pyramid Enterprises had made campaign contributions to many of Clarkstown’s Town Board members including that of Ralph Mandia, the late John Maloney, as well as Thomas Bastile and that of Councilmen Kunis and Lettre.
Thus, it came as no surprise to Ms. Shirley Lakser, the kindly and reserved school teacher who was the original organizer of the first opposition group against the building of the mall at West Nyack, when she lost her first run for councilwoman in Clarkstown. Her loss was engineered by the incumbent councilmen mentioned above, who being on the payroll of Congel and his company, did not want to see an anti-mall activist on the Town Board.
A further proof of the low depths to which the local politics in Clarkstown had stooped down to came on the day when after having had their proposal for yet another expansion rejected Congel had flown to Rockland in his own private jet to demand an executive meeting of Clarkstown’s Town Board during which he threatened them with a $150 million lawsuit. The Board did capitulate to his demands, and in the Public Board meeting that followed immediately made the citizens Aware of their move. And when the town’s council, Mr. Jacobson, was asked by Shirley Lasker, the soon to become councilwoman, why they had given in, after they had previously promised the citizens of Clarkstown an open vote on this new round of expansions to the mall—a vote which everyone was certain of it stopping Pyramid in its tracks—he [Jacobson] had no reasonable answer. His three words in response to Lasker’s inquisition were “I don’t know.”
In the finality of this historical event, those who were responsible for the creation of the mall, which are mainly Bob Congel and his subordinates not only realized their goal, but walked away many millions richer. And, after having done so, got into their private jets and went back to their own small little towns, where the building of large infrastructures that are not even close to the monstrosity which they created in Rockland for profit, is forbidden. And, in their little quiet existence started plans for yet many more such huge malls. In the latest report, a very large “Green” mall is scheduled to be built in Syracuse, NY, which is Congel’s hometown. He and his company have already secured over a Billion dollars toward this project. And as for Mr. Valenti—the young ambitious Born-Again Christian lawyer, who very quickly learned the ways of Bob Congel—he moved back to his own quiet little-town USA. At the latest investigation of Pyramid Enterprises’ Web-Site, one does not find any mention of Valenti’s current involvement with them.
In the aftermath, Rockland County has inherited a Mall, whose top floor remains unoccupied, and whose many merchants are having problems paying their bills much less their taxes during this Great Recession which has engulfed all the nation. Moreover, because of the enormous capacity of the Palisades Center, many other shopping centers around the area have been shutdown, with all their merchants having relocated to the new Mall. Thus, unlike what Valenti and his cohort said during the proposal stages of the Palisades Center’s construction, no new jobs have been created. All that has happened is that the same workers have moved their location of employment. And if there are a few extra jobs created they are jobs that pay not much more than minimum wage. Then there is the question of the increases in tax revenues that the county believed it would get from these extra jobs, which never came through in the same manner that the jobs never materialized. And finally, what about all the tax revenues that the county lost because tax paying businesses like the Nanuet Mall have very little left with which to pay them due to the effects of the new colossus?
Looking at the new mall from a law enforcement viewpoint, one realizes that this new structure has a large potential for increasing those crimes which are known to the police and the courts as “Crimes against Property.” And increased it has, especially the acts of shoplifting, and all other crimes involving theft, shoplifting, and credit card forgeries, according to statistics kept by the Clarkstown Police Department’s Retired Chief of Police Chief Kevin Kilduff (1997 – 2003); a statement which was verified by Clarkstown’s present Chief, Michael Sullivan. According to Sullivan, non-Rocklanders view us as an affluent society, and as such those who engage in criminal behavior look at Rockland, and especially the Palisades Mall as a place where they can conduct their illegal activities in the robbery and theft crimes. As such, the cost of policing Rockland—specifically Clarkstown—has increased, and this increase has become much more pertinent since 9/11, because a large structure as the Mall, can be a very likely target for terrorists.
This Story was previously published in the August 25 issue of the Rockland County Times.
