by ERIN DUGGAN, Staff writer First published: Sunday, June 23, 2002

A new blueprint for restoration

As more buildings are boarded up, cities try working more closely with buyers of vacant properties

On one three-block stretch of Ten Broeck Street in Albany, more than one in five buildings are empty. Seven are boarded up, several are gutted and the worst, 41 Ten Broeck, has no back wall and appears ready to collapse.

Ten Broeck Street is a stark example of a problem that plagues Albany and, to varying degrees, the region's other cities. In the past, the best governments could seem to do was seize these eyesores for back taxes, auction them off and hope the buyers would fix them up. 

But the traditional approach didn't always work. So, faced with a growing number of vacant buildings, cities are trying new approaches, such as selling buildings at discounted prices to well-screened buyers who agree to renovate them.

More than unsightly, vacant buildings are dangerous, drag property values down and, if they're foreclosed upon, they go off the the tax rolls. Perhaps worst of all, vacant buildings breed vacant buildings.

"It relates back to broken-window philosophy that a broken window unattended implies that the community doesn't care,'' said Albany Public Safety Commissioner John C. Nielsen. "By virtue of that, vacant buildings invite more of the same.''

At least two Capital Region cities have created programs to put new owners into vacant buildings, and more municipalities are trying to follow suit.

The Schenectady Neighborhood Assistance Program offers houses before they go to auction to potential buyers with solid rehabilitation and occupancy plans. Schenectady Commissioner of Neighborhood Revitalization Carl Olsen said some buildings sold at auctions went to people who couldn't or wouldn't rehabilitate them.

In the pre-auction sales, which brought life into at least 60 formerly vacant houses in Schenectady last year, the city demands that buyers provide rehabilitation plans before selling. The result: Buildings are sold to the best buyers, though not always for the most money, Olsen said.

The city of Troy teamed up with the Troy Architectural Program Inc. (TAP) two years ago for a similar home-buying program. About 100 buildings -- nearly a quarter of the vacant buildings identified by the city two years ago -- have already been turned around through the program, said Michael Lopez, program coordinator for TAP: Homes, a division of TAP.

"Rather than having an open auction where the fate of the building and community is cast to the wind, we reconfigured the process so people who are interested in vacant buildings have to submit to the city a definitive proposal of how they would treat the property, what their intentions were by buying the property,'' Lopez said.

"Just because you have an open auction doesn't necessarily mean the building is going to fall into better hands,'' he said.

In Albany, the region's largest city, the problem is somewhat more complex. The county handles foreclosures for the city, and in the past the city has expressed concern about their pace.

It's a difficult, costly process the county would rather not have responsibility for, said county Budget Director Joseph Pennisi. The county expects to spend more than $1.3 million on the foreclosure process this year, with the bulk of the work done on Albany properties.

"Albany County is probably the only county in the state that has the responsibility for the cities,'' Pennisi said.

Troy and Schenectady perform their own foreclosures, which gives them more control over the fate of their vacant buildings.

For example, when a city-owned vacant building was razed on a State Street corner in Schenectady, the city held off on selling the land because it knew an adjacent property would be up for demolition soon.

The two now-empty lots are in a prime commercial spot, and the city is looking for a business to move in.

In Albany, the challenge is to bring two governments together in a coordinated solution. Historic Albany Foundation, which is working on a database of all the vacant buildings in the city, is trying to help the city and county match potential homeowners with vacant houses before they're auctioned off.

That way, said foundation director Elizabeth Griffin, the city and its residents will know that the properties are going into the hands of people committed to them.

In the meantime, however, Albany County still relies on a largely traditional approach. If property owners give up on their buildings completely and stop paying taxes, the county can foreclose on the properties.

Albany County has begun paring down its roster of vacant houses through auctions. At a May 18 auction, for example, all but five of the 93 properties sold.

That brought the county's stock of city buildings down to about 20, Pennisi said. The county is selling far more than it's taking in -- 199 properties countywide were foreclosed on between December 2000 and November 2001, and the county sold 605.

But, Pennisi said, there are hundreds more properties awaiting foreclosure. The county's backlog is so deep that houses which became eligible for foreclosure in the last few years haven't even made it onto the list yet.

"We've got to take this in manageable bites,'' he said. "Otherwise we'd be the bad neighbor not maintaining the properties.''

To gain a little more oversight of the privately owned vacant buildings, the city of Albany created a vacant-building registry. It requires property owners to register vacant buildings within 30 days and pay a $200 fee.

The buildings have to be secured and boarded, with boards painted to match the building, said Valerie Scott, who oversees the Buildings and Codes Department. So far 154 buildings are registered, and Scott said about 150 more are being pursued.

"Initially, I think these are properties that have been deserted by their owners,'' Scott said. "Previous to the ordinance (that created the registry), there was no uniform responsibility on the owners, and now there is. It brings a minimum standard that they have to do.''

One of those buildings is 12 Ten Broeck St., a four-story row house in need of rehabilitation. It was registered two weeks ago.

Since Linbert Johnson bought the house about six years ago, it has sat vacant. Now he's trying to sell it.

"I'm doing something someplace else, so I don't have the time to do it,'' Johnson said. He is current on his taxes (which are $64.70) and said he hasn't sold the building yet because he hasn't found a buyer willing to pay his $35,000 asking price. The city assessed the property at $5,000.

"I've had many offers, but none of them were high enough,'' Johnson said.

One of the hottest sellers at Albany County's May auction was 174-176 Jay St., a pair of run-down, light-blue brownstones. They sold to James and Sophie Lee for $49,000, less than a third of the assessed value but 85 percent of the taxes owed. Lee, a builder, said he wants to renovate and sell the buildings.

"I have experience renovating buildings, but this is my first time doing it myself,'' he said. Lee bid on the buildings without seeing them first. After he won, two Center Square residents warned him that the backs of the houses are falling down.

Griffin said buildings like 174-176 Jay St. wouldn't end up in such bad condition if the county foreclosed and resold them faster. Programs like those in Schenectady and Troy that hook up a potential owner with the county before the house goes to auction could be the answer, she said.

"The ones that were here five years ago are still here,'' Griffin said, "and they're in much worse condition. Every year we wait adds to the cost of making that neighborhood whole again.'' 
 

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