Dayton makes another mess of “economic development”

Eric Segalewitz isn’t a bad guy. In fact, he’s a good guy, who invested a lot of his money, time and labor buying almost the entire block of houses across from the former DMHA shithole Cliburn Manor. He did this without any assistance from the city, CityWide or anyone else. Most people thought he was crazy- why would you want to invest or live across from a drug infested, crime den public housing project?

He did it- because he had the foresight to know that eventually Miami Valley Hospital and UD would surgically remove the neighborhood cancer- and then his real estate would be valuable.

He’s not the only one who had some vision of profiting from their grand plans. Jimmy Brandeis of Jimmie’s Ladder 11 held out for his sweetheart deal to move Jimmie’s Cornerstone across the street, with a parking lot, a huge patio, and double the space.

Fred Allen, a local slumlord, sold two of his shit-hole houses for $150K each, way above market value.

There are still a few holdouts- the antique store at Oak and Warren, which was at one time owned by South Park Social Capital won’t sell out. Neither will the Krafts who own the last two remaining homes on Warren’s West side.

Some people think Segalewitz is trying to fleece the city for their incompetence. But, if we look at the cast of characters revealed in today’s Dayton Daily news article- it’s the same incompetent crew that’s driven the cart off the road before with impunity:

Aaron Sorrell, Dayton’s director of planning and community development, admitted the city erred but questioned Segalewitz’s legal right to the land.

He said the city has no plan to fork over a big payout for administrative oversight.

“We’re not going to unduly enrich somebody for a mistake,” he said.Segalewitz, 50, who owns the company Upscale Realty, a few years ago applied to purchase a vacant lot next to his home at 32 Alberta St.

Segalewitz applied for the land through Dayton’s Lot Links program, which allows people to buy abandoned, tax-delinquent properties for a relatively small fee.

Segalewitz’s request was approved, and he paid about $650 for the property, which was transferred in March 2012.

The lot belonged to the city of Dayton, which had purchased it from Greater Dayton Premier Management in December 2011, as part of a larger land deal.

The city acquired the side lot and 5 acres across Alberta Street for about $340,000, or its appraised value, city officials said. The two parcels were part of the same deed.

The five acres was the former site of the Cliburn Manor housing projects, which were demolished in 2008. The city wanted the land to support redevelopment efforts near South Park and Miami Valley Hospital.

But when the deed was written to transfer the vacant lot to Upscale Realty, it also unintentionally contained the Cliburn real estate, Sorrell said.“We made a mistake with the deed and inadvertently put both pieces of property on the deed, and not just the one he wanted,” Sorrell said.

The quit claim deed was signed on Feb. 27, 2012, by Assistant City Manager Shelley Dickstein and Assistant City Attorney Jonathan Croft.

Segalewitz said he only learned he owned the deed to the Cliburn property about six weeks ago while preparing to sell his Alberta Street home and the adjoining lot.

Source: City redevelopment tract mistakenly sold

Sorrell was the one who also said “Oops” when Rauch Demolition mistakenly tore down the back part of the historic Cox building at Fourth and Ludlow. He’s also the one who signed off on tearing down the Schwind building for the “Student Suites” deal which isn’t happening due to a deed restriction that was well known.

Shelly Dickstein was the braintrust in charge of the development deal for the Wayne Avenue Kroger where the city jumped through hoops for over 4 years- with no contract in place, which was well documented on this site. The city had no problem paying over $800K for the burned out Ecki building and then demolishing it to make an empty lot, despite the building being an eyesore and owing taxes.

The real question is why does the city insist on buying real estate at all? Why did they spend over $100,000 long ago to buy the lot now known as Garden Station? Why did they buy the building behind it (which I did a FOIA request on – and got no answer). Why did they buy the old Supply One building and 601 E. Third for $450K each?

And the “We’re not going to unduly enrich somebody for a mistake,” line sure is funny. Go back to when a group including the family of the former County Administrator Deb Feldman purchased the Sears building downtown for a mere $200K. When the Riverscape fountain plan was released, the County hadn’t secured the tiny outlot attached to the Sears property. In a battle of testosterone and threats of using eminent domain, the price escalated from the initial offer of $3.2 million to over $8 million for that piece of land. Segalewitz just isn’t related to the right people apparently.

The fact that Segalewitz didn’t get a tax bill for his windfall- is because CityWide and MVH don’t pay taxes- nor does the city. And the city will grant a sweetheart tax break to Oberer/Greater Dayton Construction for building whatever they come up with on the property. Segalewitz is one of the little people- he’s expected to pay taxes unlike the connected few.

It’s time to do a full investigation of city land purchases, real estate investment, and money to CityWide development. A full detailing of the investment in Tech Town and the “Entrepreneurs Center”- and the actual returns might be a good starting point.

While we don’t have money to cut the grass in City parks, but do have the money to buy swath’s of land for our friends is a criminal diversion of tax dollars. Segalewitz is not the bad guy. The bad guys are on our payroll.

 

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