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Vacant 44 Brewster St. lot: Will city acquisition be "friendly"?
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Poitier: Eminent domain "is not going to kick it."
The Elicker Administration is looking to pay a Hamden-based landlord $150,000 to acquire two vacant and overgrown Newhallville lots — both of which are currently wrapped up in a tax foreclosure lawsuit, and both of which could be taken by eminent domain if the city and the property owner can’t reach a deal.
That’s the thorny legal latest with the lots at 44 Brewster St. and 173 Ivy St.
Which the city wants to buy for $150,000.
Which the city is also currently trying to foreclose on because of over $58,000 in back taxes.
And which the city is considering taking via eminent domain if the properties’ current landlord, Brack Poitier, doesn’t agree to a “friendly acquisition.”
Poitier is none too pleased.
“They need to contact my attorney and sit down and do a logical and reasonable and fair offer,” Poitier told the Independent in a recent phone interview. Eminent domain, he said, “is not going to kick it.”
So. What exactly is going on here?
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The future adult ed home at 188 Bassett St.
The adjacent fenced-in vacant lots at 44 Brewster and 173 Ivy cover a total of nearly 0.7 acres right by the Farmington Canal Trail in Newhallville.
They also sit across the street from the empty former state social services building at 188 Bassett St., which the city and the Board of Education plan to convert into the new home of New Haven’s adult education program.
According to a recent presentation by Livable City Initiative (LCI) Property Acquisition & Disposition Coordinator Evan Trachten to the City Plan Commission, the Elicker Administration would like to buy two nearby lots and convert them into surface parking spaces for the future adult ed center.
The Board of Education is “looking to build an addition” to the publicly owned building on Bassett Street, Trachten said during that Sept. 21 City Plan Commission meeting, “which would gobble up some of that” site’s current surface parking.
Acquiring 44 Brewster and 173 Ivy will allow the city and the school system “to have enough parking to support the activities” at the relocated adult education program, he continued. “This lot is a natural option for us” because it’s right across the street from the Bassett Street building, he said.
Both of those two lots are owned by local landlord and construction contractor Poitier, who lives in Hamden and is the chair of Hamden’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
According to the City Plan Commission staff report for the proposed land deal and according to written minutes from the Aug. 17 meeting of LCI’s Property Acquisition & Disposition (PAD) Committee, the city is looking to pay Poitier $150,000 to purchase those two properties.
That proposed city double-lot purchase for $150,000 has already won votes of support from the City Plan Commission, LCI’s PAD Committee, and, in a separate meeting on Sept. 28, LCI’s Board of Directors. It now advances to the full Board of Alders for review and a final vote.
A closer look at the LCI boards’ meeting minutes and state court records reveals that this is not your typical proposed city land deal.
Nor does it appear to be a particularly harmonious one.
Eminent Domain On The Table
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At Sept. 21's virtual City Plan Commission meeting.
“The City is still negotiating the purchase price with the owner,” the LCI PAD committee meeting minutes from Aug. 17 read.
Later on, those same minutes state: “The properties are in tax foreclosure and all taxes will be paid by the seller at closing. Evan believes the land is worth about $6 per square foot and the lot is 30,000 square feet. Evan said eminent domain was an option, but the City preferred to do a friendly acquisition. We are trying to tee this up, the deal isn’t set as of now. If we had a land bank, we might be able to purchase the property at a foreclosure sale.”
The PAD committee then voted unanimously in support of the city’s proposed $150,000 purchase of 44 Brewster and 173 Ivy.
The Sept. 28 meeting minutes for the LCI Board of Directors, meanwhile, show that negotiations between the city and Poitier have only gotten rockier in the intervening weeks.
“LCI has engaged the owner and sent an offer to the owner for $150,000,” those Sept. 28 meeting minutes read. “Evan received a call from attorney Wendy Clarke who represents the owner for Brack Poitier and informed Evan that the owner is being opportunistic and is asking for $300,000 plus forgiveness of approximately $68,000 of back taxes. The properties are currently in tax foreclosure. LCI would like the Board to authorize the City to acquire this property and give us the ability to utilize all of our tools, up to and including eminent domain.”
Nevertheless, those meeting minutes state, “LCI will continue to engage the owner to acquire this land as a friendly acquisition. The Board of Education will cover the cost of the acquisition.”
According to those same meeting minutes, LCI Board member Nadine Horton then asked city staff if the owner’s refusal to sell these two lots to the city would hold up the adult education program move to Bassett Street.
“Evan told the Board the City can utilize eminent domain and take the property as a last resort,” the minutes read. “A judge will decide the fair market value if it ends up as a taking (just compensation). City staff believe our offer of $150,000 is a fair number given the court appraisals. The city hired appraisers but this project is time sensitive, so we are moving this forward while our appraisals are pending. The City does not have the ability to purchase this property at a foreclosure sale if an auction were to occur.”
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173 Ivy St.
How long has Poitier been behind on his local property taxes for these two lots? LCI Board Chair Seth Poole then asked.
“The years of non-payment are from 2013 forward,” the meeting minutes state. “The lot is currently overgrown and has several vehicles on-site. The site is an odd shape and the parcels do not have the typical shape of adjacent parcels which would make residential development more challenging. The shape also impacts the value. The site is currently blighted with overgrown vegetation and junked vehicles.”
The LCI board then voted unanimously in support of the land deal. The meeting minutes state that that vote covered more ground than just the proposed $150,000 purchase price.
Here’s how that vote is described in the meeting minutes: “A motion was made by Alder [Ernie] Santiago to acquire the property in an amount not to exceed $150,000 as a friendly acquisition, and also authorize the acquisition to take the property for school purposes and to utilize any and all tools available to the City of New Haven including and up to eminent domain at fair market value as determined by the judge, seconded by Nadine Horton, roll call as taken, approved unanimously.”
And state court records show that the city first filed a tax foreclosure lawsuit against Poitier for these two properties back in May 2019. On Wednesday, the city filed a foreclosure worksheet in this ongoing state court cases that lists the properties’ updated debt as $58,860.11.
Poitier’s most recent filing in the foreclosure case was a motion for continuance from Sept. 30. “The defendant’s internet connection (speed) is insufficient to participate in the virtual courtroom proceeding,” that continuance request reads in part. On Aug. 12 of this year, Poitier filed an affidavit with the court claiming that, up until that point, he had “not received any copies of pleadings and or filings since the inception of this case except for the SUMMONS & COMPLAINT from the marshal.”
What does Poitier have to say about all of this — including the city’s proposed $150,000 land deal and the threat of eminent domain and the ongoing foreclosure lawsuit — now?
Poitier: Still Negotiating; "The Taxes Will Get Paid"
In a Thursday afternoon phone interview, Poitier stressed to the Independent that he and his lawyer are still in active negotiations with the city about these two vacant-lot properties.
“I have nothing to say” about the city’s initial $150,000 proposed purchase price, Poitier said. Because this matter is still being negotiated.
He said that the city’s approach to dealing with him on these matters, even to go as far as threatening eminent domain, has been “hypocritical” because “I’ve been in New Haven for a long time and have done a lot of quality work.”
“I can do just as well to build some houses over there,” he said about the 44 Brewster and 173 Ivy lots. Earlier this week, he said, he swung by the lots to repair the fences. He said he also noticed that the lots have been occupied by homeless people.
What about the tax foreclosure lawsuit? Does he agree with the city that he’s well behind on his property taxes for these two sites? If so, why didn’t he pay his taxes?
“We got into some trouble during Covid,” he said. “It cost me a lot of money.”
Furthermore, he said, these “empty lots, vacant lots, they’re not going anywhere. They were being taken care of. They were fenced in.” He said he’s repaired the fencing “two or three times already.”
“The taxes will get paid,” he promised. “I need time to get them paid.”
He concluded by calling on the city to keep negotiating with him around these two properties.
Eminent domain seems eminently reasonable here . Even better would be if the city could put the property into foreclosure and bid on it. I don't understand that issue, but that's just my lack of knowledge.