Attorney for Developer Seeking to Demolish Historic Dunkerhook House: "Make an Offer"

The developers trying to purchase a property on Dunkerhook Road and demolish a historic house there are courting competing offers, their attorney announced at Thursday's Planning Board meeting.

Though Mark Sokolich, the attorney representing Quattro 4, wouldn't divulge the price the developer agreed to pay for the Zabriskie-Wessels-Board slave house, he said anyone looking to preserve the house could make an offer before the Planning Board or to the house's owner, Margaret Horton.

"If that offer exceeds our contract price, my client may even consider surrendering the contract," Sokolich said. "I said consider."

The offer was the latest turn in the 200-year-old story of the house at 273 Dunkerhook Road, which could meet its end if the Planning Board approves plans to demolish the historic house to make way for two modern homes. An eclectic cast of characters opposes the destruction of the house.

They include members of various historical groups, a descendant of the freed slaves who originally occupied the house and a real estate agent from Paterson. They asked the Planning Board to deny the Quattro 4 application, and to force Sokolich to say how much Quattro 4 has agreed to pay for the house.

Sokolich managed to stave off Board attorney John Tenhoeve's requests for him to reveal the contract price of the house, but those opposed to his client's application now have three weeks to find a willing buyer for the former slave house. That is partly thanks to what Sokolich called a "filibuster" comprising seven opponents to the plan, whose testimony took up the better part of three hours. 

To accommodate all the testimony, deliberation and a possible final decision, the Planning Board had to schedule another meeting on April 28. 

At least one person interested in preserving the house said he'd be willing to pay the price. Peter Evans, a Mahwah resident, said he was interested in buying the house, but never made a written offer because of the contract agreement between Horton and Quattro 4.

"I just heard about it and I figured that it might be nice place to live since I grew up in Paramus," he said.

Members of the Planning Board had to defend themselves against criticism that they hadn't done enough to save the house. 

The Borough's ordinances require the board to discourage the demolition of historical sites and reach out to public and civic groups to try to save them. The Zabriskie-Wessels-Board slave house is one of only 22 recognized historic sites in Paramus.

Tenhoeve said inquiries had been made to the Mayor and Council, the Bergen County Historical Society and after every Planning Board meeting on the application about saving the house, but they all came up empty over the past year. Regardless, Dan Schiver, a Paterson real estate agent interested in saving the house, was unimpressed.

"I'm not sure that any homeowner would hire you to sell their property if you told them you're going to make a couple of announcements here and that you're going to send a couple of letters out," he said.

In turn, Gary Pucci, a member of the Planning Board, blamed those interested in saving the house for not doing enough to that end.

"You people should have taken the initiative to try and market this house and come up with people willing to buy or preserve it," he said. "We did our job, you didn't do yours. Now you're trying to put the onus on us. That's not fair."

But unless someone beats the Quattro 4 offer over the next three weeks, the onus will be on the Planning Board, to vote on the fate of the Zabriskie-Wessels-Board slave house.

The Planning Board will continue the Quattro 4 hearing April 28 at 7 p.m.