Two years after an announcement of grand plans for the historic former Altamont Hotel in downtown Hazleton, the property is headed for a Luzerne County back-tax auction.
Assessed at $2.5 million, the property is listed in Thursday’s free-and-clear sale, with bids starting at $13,092.
The owner, Conshohocken-based Hazleton Partners LP, owes $271,585 in real estate taxes from 2014 through 2017.
Under state law, the back taxes and liens will be forgiven because nobody bid at a prior first-stage auction when these debts were attached. However, taxing bodies will each receive a cut if competition drives the purchase price beyond the starting bid.
Properties must be auctioned if taxes have gone unpaid for two years unless the owner is complying with a repayment plan, is involved in an active bankruptcy proceeding or obtains a court order.
As of Monday, tax-claim operator Northeast Revenue Service LLC had not received any indication Hazleton Partners would be attempting to get out of the sale. Depending on the outstanding mortgage, Hazleton Partners’ lender may opt to bid or pay the taxes to protect its interest.
Attempts to reach Hazleton Partners were unsuccessful. Also included in the auction is the company’s adjacent parcel housing a parking lot, with bids starting at $1,889.
Hazleton Mayor Jeff Cusat said he and other city officials have been unable to reach Hazleton Partners and have received no updates on the project.
In November 2016, state officials announced Hazleton Partners was awarded $2.5 million through the state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to help renovate the structure at the corner of Broad and Church streets for retail space on the ground floor, offices on the second and third floors and 62 housing units for senior citizens on the top five floors.
The project was estimated at $10 million and predicted to result in 30 jobs, not including construction work.
State Sen. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, stressed Monday that none of the state funding was released.
“When the project was awarded, it was based on the application and prospect of job creation and new development. When that did not materialize, no funding went out the door,” Yudichak said. “The taxpayers are protected. None of that money was lost.”
Yudichak said he wants to work with state Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-Butler Township, and city officials to reallocate the $2.5 million for another project in the Hazleton area, although he said there are “no guarantees.” Several other downtown revitalization projects are in the works, he said.
He has visited the Altamont and said it is an impressive structure in an ideal location for a mixed commercial/residential project. The building also was the setting of “a lot of memories and history of the greater Hazleton area,” he said.
“The project we went to bat for was a great proposal. Unfortunately, I think there were financial issues beyond Hazleton for this particular developer that stalled this project,” he said.
Yudichak said he believes the site will attract another developer.
Cusat said he’s heard informal discussion about possibilities.
“I hope a responsible developer acquires the property and develops it in a timely manner,” he said, emphasizing city officials will be closely monitoring plans of any buyer.
The old hotel also has been utilized as a nursing home, commercial space and, most recently, as a pre-release corrections facility, which was closed in 2012, officials said.
Other properties
Thursday’s auction starts at 10 a.m. in the auxiliary gym at the King’s College Scandlon Physical Education Center, 150 N. Main St., in Wilkes-Barre, with information posted at www.luzernecountytaxclaim.com. It also includes a smaller, first-stage upset sale.
Among the free-and-clear properties on the auction roster as of Monday, according to county records:
• A manufacturing building at 55 W. Seventh St. in Wyoming owned by JPM Realty, which has accrued $188,342 in unpaid taxes dating back to 1996. Bids start at $3,020.
Assessed at $248,400, the 2.33-acre property most recently housed a cabinet/counter business and had escaped taxation due to two bankruptcies filed in 1997 and 2010, according to officials and court records.
• A 56,000-square-foot former manufacturing building on Oregon Street in Wilkes-Barre owned by members of the Rockman family that carries a $312,915 delinquency dating back to 2005.
The 2.4-acre property, which is assessed at $507,900, was removed from prior sales due to two bankruptcies, two court actions and two repayment plans that were not honored, according to county officials. Bids start at $8,158.
• An abandoned Kingston commercial warehouse at 130 Cuba St. owned by Target Table Industries Inc. assessed at $80,000 with a starting bid of $1,568. Municipal officials filed a lawsuit against the owner earlier this year, saying the property has been left in a state of disrepair and is causing a public health risk.
• An 11,403-square-foot building at 111-113 E. Main St. in Plymouth owned by Sustainable Wyoming Valley Inc., which has a starting bid at $1,091.
The property has housed a variety of retail businesses in past decades, records show. The assessment was reduced to $1,000 because the current owner purchased it for $500 in 2015 from the repository, a pool of parcels that did not sell in prior auctions.
Interested bidders must sign up by the close of business Wednesday.
