Nora Grace-Flood photo
263 Dixwell Ave.: One of 2 Ocean-owned properties the city plans to sell to Beulah.
The Elicker Administration is one step closer to buying and selling two two-family homes on Dixwell Avenue — so that a nonprofit can maintain the currently megalandlord-held properties as rentals.
The City Plan Commission offered a favorable recommendation on the latest step in that plan during its most recent monthly online meeting Wednesday night.
The commissioners voted in support of the city’s proposal to sell the two-family houses at 262 and 263 Dixwell Ave. to the local faith-based affordable housing nonprofit, the Beulah Land Development Corporation.
According to so-called “disposition summary sheets” included in a packet of documents recently reviewed by the Livable City Initiative’s Property Acquisition & Disposition Committee (PAD), the city plans to sell 262 Dixwell Ave. for $245,000 and 263 Dixwell Ave. for $250,000. Those prices are the same as the respective properties’ latest appraised values.
Even though the city won the City Plan Commission’s endorsement of the proposed city-to-Beulah sales, the city does not yet officially own 262 and 263 Dixwell.
Rather, those properties remain under the ownership of affiliates of the oft-cited megalandlord Ocean Management. These two properties should, however, soon be transfered to city ownership — before making their way over to Beulah — thanks to a four-property, $1.3 million package deal that the Board of Alders recently approved between the city and Ocean. That deal, which should close next month, will also see the city take ownership of the derelict site of the former Monterey jazz club.
262 Dixwell Ave.
For commissioners confused about why the city would negotiate a deal between one private entity and another organization, LCI Acquisition and Disposition Coordinator Evan Trachten said on Wednesday night, “It’s because LCI negotiated a package deal with Ocean Management. The reason we were able to get the final number is because we were purchasing in bulk on this — I don’t know if Beulah would have been able to get the same deal if they approached Ocean about just buying these two houses.
“I think we’re getting a pretty decent deal, all things considered.”
Read more about the broader deal in detail here. It sparked controversy among LCI’s Board of Directors, some of whom worried that paying a megalandlord above the appraised values of the collective rundown properties could serve to “reward bad behavior.”
LCI's Evan Trachten at Wednesday's City Plan Commission meeting on Zoom.
The two houses at 262 and 263 Dixwell, which currently serve as rentals owned by Ocean, will be sold immediately upon acquisition by the city to the nonprofit Beulah.
Trachten said deed restrictions will be placed on the homes to ensure they remain income-restricted for the next 20 years, a time period which could be lengthened up to 40 years depending on funding for the project. He said the affordability of the expected units is uncertain, but will be between 50 and 80 percent of the area median income. “By the end, we’ll have four deeply affordable units on Dixwell Avenue,” Trachten stated.
Trachten said that while the properties will be taxable, Beulah may file for partial tax exemption given that they’ll be renting out the deed restricted units below market value.
Asked by the Independent how much tenants in the two homes are currently paying for monthly rent, Trachten said he did not know. Ocean Management Principal Shmuel Aizenberg did not respond to a request for comment.
Trachten said the city is expecting to close on all four properties in the middle of March, at which point the city will immediately dispose of the two homes to Beulah.
The tenants currently living in the Dixwell homes will have the opportunity to relocate to some of the 69 apartments Beulah is currently building at 340 Dixwell Ave. while the two houses are rehabilitated. Trachten said that those families will be offered an opportunity to move back into 262 and 263 Dixwell if they so desire once the renovations are completed.
In an appraisal of all four properties ahead of the LCI-Ocean deal’s finalization, 262 Dixwell’s appraised value was set at $245,000 while 263 Dixwell Ave. was appraised at $250,000. According to Trachten, Beulah will buy the properties at their same appraised values.
“What is wrong with this application?” was the only question Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe inquired of Trachten. “Sorry, that was just a joke!” she followed up, just as Trachten simultaneously exclaimed, “Nothing!”
We all knew the fix was in. The city does another insider deal that will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands in real losses on the purchase price and an unknown amount of property tax losses on the two rental properties and tens of thousands more losses on the remaining property in the package - and that's just on the tax roll portion. Is there not one person in any of these review boards that has fidelity to taxpayers. No.