The First Arena has a new owner and it is a win-win for county taxpayers and Chemung County government officials.
Since learning in early 2012 that First Arena failed to pay it’s back taxes, Chemung county officials have been working hard to find a new owner for the facility. In February, the county began foreclosure proceedings when the owners failed to pay back taxes on time. Mostafa and his son Tamer, have operated the facility for the past 12 years. The County Legislature tabled the repayment of back taxes in March and voted to allow County Exectutive Tom Santulli to seek new owners for the facility.
Today’s announcement that local business owner Tom Freeman and his partner Nathan Cook will take over ownership of the facility is a much welcomed outcome. During the foreclosure process, the county learned of many disturbing and outright dangerous situations that have occured at First Arena over the past several years. Non-working fire alarms and sprinkler systems put the lives of thousands of visitors to First Arena in danger. The county made sure that these issues where corrected once they learned of them.
County Executive Tom Santulli said at the announcement, “the county wants a properly managed facility for the public and a first class operator. This is one of the best things that could have happened for downtown.” Another huge victory in this agreement is that First Arena will be on the property tax rolls for the first time in it’s history. The facility will pay $1 million in taxes the first four years and then $2 million per year after that.
Chemung County Legislator Rodney J. Strange could not be happier with the annoucement. “Tom Freeman will be an outstanding owner/operator of First Arena and will bring his stellar business background and experience in making First Arena a better and more attractive facility for years to come,” Strange said. “I cannot thank the County Executive enough for the effort he and his staff put forward to making this agreement become reality.” Strange was a chief critic of the Afrs when he voted to table the repayment of taxes. He said back then that he would never vote to allow the Afrs to remain operators of First Arena ever again.