Thomas Breen photo
Welcome to the Monterey? The current condition of the historic former jazz club, five years after Ocean Management bought it.
More than $260,000 in unpaid liens and blight fines appear to be holding up the city’s planned purchase of the long-derelict former Monterey Jazz Club and surrounding Dixwell properties.
That’s the latest with the Elicker administration’s planned purchase of 262, 263, 265 and 269 Dixwell Ave. from affiliate companies of the local megalandlord Ocean Management.
Those properties include two two-family houses — which the city has already won aldermanic approval to promptly sell to the Dixwell faith-based affordable housing nonprofit Beulah Land Development Corporation — as well as two retail-and-residential buildings, including a vacant former deli storefront and the historic long-empty former jazz club.
Former jazz club at 265 Dixwell (right) and former deli at 269 Dixwell.
On Feb. 6, the Board of Alders unanimously approved the city’s proposal to purchase those four properties for a combined sum of $1.3 million, siding with arguments made by the mayor, top Livable City Initiative (LCI) officials, and Dixwell music-lovers and cultural leaders about the importance of publicly acquiring the former Monterey club. That approved plan received pushback from some, including LCI Board of Directors member Nadine Horton, who expressed concerns that paying above appraisal to a megalandlord with a track record of delayed fixes for substandard living conditions and sitting on blighted properties for a profit could be akin to “rewarding bad behavior.”
These nearly four months later, however, the city has yet to close on its alder-approved purchase of the four Ocean-owned properties on Dixwell.
What’s going on?
Inside the empty ex-deli at 269 Dixwell.
One hurdle apparently standing in the way of this Dixwell deal is a mounting pile of cash that Ocean owes the city for leaving the ex-deli and ex-jazz club buildings in disarray for five years.
Through a Connecticut Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the Independent obtained documents detailing $131,000 in anti-blight liens that LCI has levied on 265 Dixwell and another $131,000 in anti-blight liens that LCI has levied on 269 Dixwell.
LCI started fining Ocean for each of these properties on May 1, 2019. The so-called “anti-blight liens tally sheets” for each property show that the fines have added up at a rate of $100 per day since then. They now total $131,000 for each of the two properties — and that’s just through Nov. 1, 2022, which is the last date these fines were added up, according to the documents received by the Independent.
The ex-Monterey at 265 Dixwell.
On the back porch of the ex-deli at 269 Dixwell.
The reasons behind these anti-blight liens are detailed in two different sets of violation notices and civil citations that LCI sent to Ocean in April and June of 2019.
On April 12 and June 10, 2019, LCI sent to Ocean anti-blight notices for 269 Dixwell stating that a city inspector found that broken windows needed to be replaced, the property needed to be cleaned, the storefront’s windows and doors needed to be replaced and secured, and a rodent infestation needed to be treated.
And on April 12 and June 26, 2019, LCI sent to Ocean a separate set of anti-blight notices for 265 Dixwell stating that a city inspector found that broken windows needed to be replaced, the property needed to be cleaned of trash and debris, the store front and building at large needed to be secured from outsider access, and a rodent infestation needed to be treated.
Thomas Breen file photo
City development director Mike Piscitelli (right): "The closing process is ongoing and the liens placed by LCI are indicative of the longstanding challenges associated with this property."
In a May 23 email thread related to the Independent’s recent FOIA request, LCI Deputy Director Frank D’Amore wrote that the city is still discussing these fines with the landlord. “Both properties have been in the same blighted condition since they were purchased by the current owners in Jan of 2018,” he wrote. “The fines have not been suspended and continue to accrue on a daily basis.”
The Independent asked city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli for a comment for this article about how these ever-growing liens have impacted the city-sanctioned public purchase of these Ocean-owned Dixwell properties.
“The closing process is ongoing and the liens placed by LCI are indicative of the longstanding challenges associated with this property,” Piscitelli replied. “What has compounded the process is time; some of the blight liens date back to 2019. We will have a more complete update on status on or before next LCI Board meeting.”
Shmuel Aizenberg, the head of Ocean Management, did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article.
LCI data
The special protections that LLCs get in this state (which, sadly, are also pretty common around the country) are just get-out-of-jail-free cards for white-collar criminals. It's particularly egregious in rental real estate, where the returns on your successful investments are unlimited and the losses on your failed investments will never be particularly high.
I see these cases constantly reported on and in court records. Through an LLC, you can stop taking care of a property once it's no longer making the level of return that you want... then maybe take out a loan you don't intend to repay, maybe hire some contractors but don't pay them... let the place fester & deteriorate & accrue back taxes for years and years... then just declare bankruptcy on the LLC, let the bank or city foreclose on the place, and bam! it's magic! you don't owe anything!
Meanwhile, you may be getting filthy rich from OTHER properties you own, managed by the same management company that managed the failing LLC, which is of course a company that you also own... but, ya know, different entities, totally unrelated, so you can't possibly be held responsible for debts incurred & promises made.
What a beautiful land of opportunity.