City demolishes blighted Revere Street property

March 17, 2016 | Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.com

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Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno watches the demolition of 60-62 Revere St.
Reminder Publications photo by Chris Maza

SPRINGFIELD – The city of Springfield continued its efforts to reduce the number of blighted properties with the demolition of 60-62 Revere St. on March 15.

Mayor Domenic Sarno explained the property is privately owned and three-story multi-family building had been in disrepair for several years.

“You can see there are some good homes and good families here and they’ve had to deal with this for a number of years,” he said. “We had to take this to court to take control of the property.”

He also credited the work of Building Commissioner Steve Desilets and Tina-Marie Quagliato, director of the Office of Disaster Recovery and Compliance, for their work in gaining control of the property for the city.

“We’ve been fighting in court for a little bit of time,” Quagliato said. “It’s been blighted, it’s been a mess and we’re happy to finally be able to clean it up.”

She added,” I think the neighborhood has been anxious to get this property down and we’re happy to be able to finally help them with that.”

Desilets explained the city attempted to work with the owner of the property, who “walked away,” forcing the city to pursue a court order to operate on the property. He added to get to court requires a long process.

“We have to go through code enforcement where we cite the owner and the owners need to show up in court,” he said. “If they don’t show up in court, it’s a whole length of time and legal process we go through. If at some point in time the owners default to follow through with what the court order is, the city can go back to court to get a court order so we can go on the property, have access and demolish the property.”

Sarno added, “Sometimes I wish I could just snap my fingers and have [blighted properties] gone or rehabbed immediately, but we have to follow legal and court procedures.”

The demolition cost the city $67,000, but Sarno stressed the importance of the expenditure to the health of the city.

“These derelict areas at times become a haven for negative activity and we don’t want that,” he said, adding new construction would put the property back on the tax rolls.

Desilets concurred that blight properties are “a real drag on a neighborhood” as well as “a grind on city services” such as Code Enforcement and the Police and Fire departments.

Quagliato said the project was not within the city’s disaster recovery area and was funded through city bond. She indicated the city would place a lien on the property in order to recoup the monies spent.

Sarno added if all goes according to plan, land would be repurposed with the intent of building new housing that “fits right into this neighborhood.” Quagliato noted a specific plan could not be guaranteed because the city does not yet own the property.

“Eventually what would most likely happen is we would foreclose on our lien and then sell the lot,” she said.

According to city records, the property, assessed at $121,700, is currently owned by Fannie Mae, who acquired it from GreenPoint Mortgage Funding Inc. in April 2008. GreenPoint obtained the property in February 2008 from Lydia Ortiz, who had owned it since 1998.

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