New Haven Independent

When the dust settled less than ten minutes later, the little auto glass garage was sold for $105,500, to a company that already had a claim to a piece of it.

The foreclosure auction was held on Saturday morning for the property located at 135 Grand Ave. The small auto glass operation, with a property value of $112,000, was foreclosed upon by the city due to nonpayment of taxes. There were liens on the property but no mortgage.

The auction was won by a company called Statewide Development, one of several lien-holders on the property. Its winning bid essentially means a discounted property purchase for the company. Representatives of Statewide (pictured above, center and left) would not talk about their purchase after the auction.

Special Offer

Just before 11 a.m., pawn shop owner and boxing promoter Mike Criscio (pictured, at right) was standing off to one side, chatting with a man and a woman in wraparound sunglasses, waiting for the bidding to begin. The couple declined to give their names but later identified themselves as representing a company called Statewide Development.

Statewide Development is registered as an LLC in Connecticut under the name Robert Pesapane. A man at the auction referred to the man from Statewide as “Bobby.”

“The owner owes everybody money,” Criscio said. “He used to own the whole block, he lost everything.”

The Statewide Development man, wearing a yellow shirt and jeans, said that he wanted to buy the property to rent it out. Looking around at the small crowd that was beginning to gather, he said that the bidding was going to be fierce. “People are gonna get crazy.”

He said that he stood to gain from the price going up, but he declined to elaborate. Lee Tiernan, presiding attorney at the auction, later said that the man in the yellow shirt had introduced himself as a lien-holder on the property; the public records show that Statewide Development is a lien-holder.

At 11 a.m., Tiernan (pictured, at left) opened the auction by announcing the city’s starting offer of $18,000. A bidding battle erupted between Criscio and Dennis Chater (pictured, center with members of his family), one of the owners of Mamoun’s Falafel. In $1,000 and then $500 increments, Criscio and Chater quickly ratcheted the price up to $80,000. Passersby stopped to gawk (pictured) at the men shouting ever higher numbers at each other.

Criscio and Chater both dropped out at around $80,000, as other bidders jumped in. The final battle was between the man in the yellow shirt and a man in cargo shorts and black sneakers. Yellow shirt, representing Statewide Development, emerged as the victor, winning the auction with a final bid of $105,500.

“He’s got a distinct advantage over other bidders,” Tiernan said. Since Statewide Development holds a lien on the property, “he’s paying money to himself, essentially.” Tiernan said Statewide’s initial lien was approximately $30,000 years ago, but that with interest it could be worth much more by now.

As the winning bidder, Statewide will be responsible for coming up with $105,500. After lawyer fees are deducted, and the city takes the $18,000 it is owed, the rest of the money will be divided up among the lien-holders. Since Statewide is a lien-holder, it will pay some of that money to themselves, essentially giving itself a discount on the price of the property.

Tanks, But Maybe No Tanks

Contacted later by phone, Tiernan speculated that there were two reasons the bidding had been so fierce. “The main thing is there’s no mortgage,” he said. This is attractive to buyers looking for a bargain. “The city’s not bidding up. They don’t want to own it. So it’s at least worth a try.”

The other reason, Tiernan said, is the location and zoning of the property. “The interesting thing about that corner, there are no vacancies,” he said. “Commercially, it seems viable… You’re gonna get business.”

Also, the property is zoned as a gas station. “It’s not always easy to get zoned as a gas station,” Tiernan said. “There’s a lot of usage there that he [the winning bidder] couldn’t have elsewhere.” Tiernan also mentioned that since there are not many gas stations nearby, a new one would have very little competition.

Tiernan said that there may be fuel tanks already installed underneath the property and that he was told that it used to be a gas station. “I had a guy swearing there were four pumps there,” he said.

For the buyer, the presence of gas tanks could mean an easy conversion to a filling station, or it could mean an expensive environmental clean-up. Tiernan said that if the tanks are over 40 years old, the EPA might require them to be replaced, and if they’ve leaked into the ground then the owner has to clean that up.

Hard Times

For several months, John Perrotti and Jessie (pictured, who didn’t give her last name) have been running a flea market in front of the garage at 135 Grand. On Saturday morning, Jessie was sitting next to several tables of tchotchkes, knick-knacks, and assorted odds and ends (including a talking Darth Vader mask from the ’80s). She said that Dennis Karjanis, the owner of the property, had been by earlier that morning, but had gotten emotional and left just before the auction.

“Of course he’s upset,” Jessie said, “He thought he could save the place.”

“He’d give you the shirt off his back,” Perrotti said. Perottis and Jessie both described Karjanis as a generous guy who had fallen on hard times.

Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:

• A 2nd Chance on Lewis Street
• Foreclosure Attracts New Breed of “Specialist”
• In Foreclosures, Judge’s Hands Tied
• Home Saved From Foreclosure. Cycle, Too
• A House For Precious?
• Deutsche Bank Grabs Dixwell Condo
• Reluctant Bidder Snags F. Haven Bargain
• Well, There’s Always Powerball
• Neighbors Retrieve Home From Bank
• Somebody Has Plans For Bassett Street
• Foreclosed, the Khennavongs Leave the Santanas
• Foreclosure Steal May Be Too Good
• 2nd Foreclosure in 3 Months Dims Bright St.
• After Foreclosure, W’ville Owner Still Hopes To Sell
• He’s Not Buying, Yet
• Quiet Foreclosure on Porter Street
• 3 Minutes Too Late
• Historic Gambardella Property Foreclosed
•2 Homes Lost, 1 Gained
• “Everybody’s Got To Eat”
• More Foreclosures, More Signs
• Foreclosure Sale Benefits Archie Moore’s
• Rescue Squad Swings Into Action
• A Bidder Shows Up
• Bank Beats Tanya’s Bid
• Westville Auction Draws A Crowd
• DeStefano: Foreclosure Plan Ready
• Can They Help?
• “We Should Over-Regulate These Bastards”
• Rosa Hears of Rescues
• WPCA Grilled on Foreclosures
• WPCA’s Targets Struggle To Dig Out
• Sue The Subprimers?
• WPCA Hearing Delayed
• Megna’s “Blood Boils” at WPCA Tactics
• Goldfield Wants WPCA Answers
• 2 Days, 8 Foreclosure Suits
• WPCA Goes On Foreclosure Binge
• A Guru Weighs In
• WPCA Targets Church
• Subprime Mess Targeted
• Renters Caught In Foreclosure King’s Fall
• She’s One Of 1,150 In The Foreclosure Mill
• Foreclosures Threaten Perrotti’s Empire
•“I’m Not Going To Lay Down And Let Them Take My House”
• Struggling Couple Sues Over “Scam”

The following links are to various materials and brochures designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

How to prepare a complaint to the Department of Banking; Department of Banking Online Assistance Form; Connecticut Department of Banking, Avoiding Foreclosure; FDIC Consumer News; Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, Inc; Connecticut Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service.

For lawyer referral services in New Haven, call 562-5750 or visit this website. For the Department of Social Services (DSS) Eviction Foreclosure Prevention Program (EFPP), call 211 to see which community-based organization in the state serves your town.

Click here for information on foreclosure prevention efforts from Empower New Haven.