The Village is expecting the draft Environmental Impact Statement on St. Paul’s “any day now,” announced Mayor Robert J. Rothschild at the Feb. 16th meeting of the Garden City Board of Trustees. The Mayor had said the eagerly-awaited document would be ready by December, 2009.

“I think it’s getting close,” the Mayor said. “I can’t give you a date.” He said the Board is being very cautious on how it proceeds.

In other St. Paul’s news, Garden City resident William Bellmer wanted to know what had transpired between the Village and architect Bernard Marson, who recently wrote a letter to The Garden City News asking for residents to support his client Eskar International’s proposal for the St. Paul’s Main Building. He had originally submitted a proposal to convert the building into 46 residential luxury apartments on Jan. 26, 2007.

Mayor Rothschild said Marson was told that his proposal would be considered by the Village’s consultant Karen Backus if he submitted a check for an undisclosed amount. He said Marson never responded.

Trustee John Mauk, who at one point served as chairman of the Mayor’s Committee on St. Paul’s, said Marson’s proposal did not withstand the rigorous analysis initially performed by Backus and the committee in 2007. At that time it was determined that the proposal did not adequately meet the standards set forth in the RFP with respect to project feasibility and developer experience and track record.

In August of 2008, Thomas Lamberti, who was a trustee and chairman of the Mayor’s Committee during that period, wrote a letter to Walter McKenna, who was a director of the Eastern Property Owners’ Association at the time and now serves as the group’s president, in which he answered several questions, including why Marson’s client was not selected.

It was noted in the letter that the developer, Eskar International, was a UK-based firm that had not completed any projects in the United States. The local investor partner, Litas Investing Co., Inc., also lacked recent experience; the proposal cited three Litas projects which were commenced in the 1970s and 1980s. No construction manager had been selected.

The architect, Bernard Marson, had completed some relevant projects; however, the development team as a whole lacked relevant experience and had never worked together before. Further, the management consortium, which would consist of Eskar and Litas, had no experience managing upscale residential properties.

The Mayor emphasized that the Board is willing to work with any group or person with a viable project idea. He said the trustees were recently approached by someone who wanted to convert the building into a hotel. The Mayor said both he and the Board did not believe it was a viable proposal because if residents did not want St. Paul’s converted into apartments, as AvalonBay had proposed, they would likely not support a hotel at the site.