A deteriorating apartment building that has been stuck in back-tax limbo may soon be acquired by Conyngham Township and torn down.
It’s among 30 proposed purchases of real estate throughout Luzerne County from the repository, a pool of tax-delinquent properties that did not sell at past public auctions. County council members are expected to vote on the repository sales at their Sept. 12 meeting.
Neighbors have complained for years about the apartment building at 145 Main St., which now has a collapsing roof, said township Supervisor Ed Whitebread.
“It’s a total disaster,” he said.
State law allows repository sales at any time. The county tries to sell them for at least $500, but the charge is typically $1 for municipalities.
Township officials plan to tear down the structure using county community development funding.
Boroughs and townships receive community development funding every three years for public improvement projects such as street repairs, playground renovations and blight elimination, said office Director Andrew Reilly. Additional funding to target blight may be available from the office depending on the project and demand, he said.
Currently owned by Wilmington, Delaware-based LIW Investments Inc., the apartment building is on 0.14 acre and assessed at $66,600.
The property carries unpaid real estate taxes dating back to 2011 and has changed hands five times in the last decade, county records show.
According to records: MTGLQ Investors L.P. bought the property for $4,127 in 2007 and sold it to RES Distressed Asset Fund XVII LLC for $2,900 two years later. That entity sold it for $3,800 in May 2010 to Home Solutions Partners III REO LL, which sold it to Allstate Asset for $6,500 in November 2010. LIW acquired the property for $5,000 in June 2012.
Two other municipalities submitted proposed repository purchases, also for $1 each, according to county records:
• Sugar Notch — a shed on 0.06 acre at 231 Freed St. and a vacant 0.05-acre residential lot at 338 Broadhead Ave.
• Larksville — a house on 0.09 acre at 128 Howard St.
Private offers
Cheap Home Finders LLC submitted offers of $501 each to buy three repository properties — a 3.44-acre commercial lot on Rear Broad Street in Nanticoke assessed at $22,400; a vacant 5.77-acre residential tract in Ross Township assessed at $39,700; and 26 acres on a mountain assessed at $1,000.
The assessment of the mountain parcel was reduced from $52,000 in 2014 after the current owner — Land Tycoon Inc. — bought it from the repository for $764, records show.
The reduction to $1,000 stems from the state assessment law, which includes special provisions for repository properties to prevent them from lingering in the pool with no taxes paid.
The law says the sale price of a repository property “shall be deemed to be the fair market value of the property for tax assessment purposes.” That assessment can’t change until the property is sold, improved or revalued as part of a new countywide reassessment, the law says.
County officials have required repository buyers to file assessment appeals to qualify for this reduction and established $1,000 as the lowest permissible assessment. Some lawyers have argued the reduction should be automatic for repository buyers.
Land Tycoon owes back taxes dating back to its 2013 purchase from the repository, which is why the property landed back in tax sales and ultimately the repository.
GBLDNC LLC has submitted offers of $500 each to buy four properties: a half-duplex at 48 Pierce St., Plymouth, assessed at $20,800; a house on 0.05 acre at 319 Shonk St., Plymouth, assessed at $48,000; both halves of a double-block house on 0.11 acre at 127 Newport St., Newport Township, assessed at $63,600; and a double-block house with a separate apartment structure on 0.2 acres at 427-429 S. River St. in Wilkes-Barre assessed at $135,900.
All other purchase offers were for $500 each.
Mill Creek Holding LLC wants to buy two repository properties — a 48.82-acre commercial tract on Route 446 in Huntington Township assessed at $68,300 and a 3.38-acre commercial parcel at a location described in property records as “Mill Creek” in Duryea, assessed at $35,400.
Nicholas Solinsky submitted offers for two Hazle Township parcels — a shed on 0.14 acre on Rear Lower Road assessed at $14,400 and a 0.08-acre vacant lot on Pardeesville Road assessed at $12,500.
The other offers along with the assessed values of their proposed purchases:
• Francis V. Sencion, half-double at 785 Lattimer Rd., Hazle Township, $48,300
• Patricia Dallao, 1.22-acre residential parcel on East Broad Street, Hazleton, $43,300
• Michael Vaccaro, 1.53-acre residential lot on Searfoss Road, Exeter Township, $36,800
• Marek Tchorzewski, house on 0.06 acre at 275 E. Main St., Nanticoke, $76,200
• Maleek Smith, house on 0.03 acre at 620 R. Main St., Sugar Notch, $47,600
• Lisa and Lou Amorin, 0.05-acre residential lot at 116½ Oak St., Sugar Notch, $10,100
• Alex Bash, 0.42-acre residential lot on White Birch Lane, Hunlock Township, $18,200
• Pamela Remphrey, mobile home on 0.12 acre at 1027 R. Spruce St., Wilkes-Barre Township, $20,400
• Nicole Houston, half-duplex at 72 S. Grant St., Wilkes-Barre, $31,500
• Kellen L. Rivera, house on 0.02 acre at 71 Puritan Lane, Wilkes-Barre, $63,600
• Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance Inc., mobile home without land in Riverview Village, Exeter Township, $32,500
• Karen and John Mensinger, 0.26-acre residential lot on Debbie Drive, Butler Township, $13,900
• David Tchorzewski, half-duplex at 164 E. Main St., Newport Township, $40,500
• Alba Perez, half-duplex on Route 940, Hazle Township, $53,200
• Shaskya Nunez, 0.12-acre residential lot on Fishers Avenue, Hazle Township, $16,700
If county council rejects the purchases, the properties will stay in the repository without ownership, the administration said.
The surplus is a concern because the county is the legal trustee for these properties while the owners of record have abandoned them and stopped paying real estate taxes, which leads to continued county expense and liability exposure, officials have said.
Latest figures indicate there are 987 properties in the repository.
