Ansonia officials agreed to let a downtown developer have more time to fence off a blighted Main Street eyesore Thursday (Dec. 18) after he signed an agreement to fix it up by Jan. 31 or face more than $1 million in fines.
The developer, Moustapha Diakhate, bought more than 10 acres of former industrial property downtown formerly owned by the Farrel Corp. early last year for $1.9 million, but hasn’t yet presented plans for redevelopment.
In November the city threatened Diakhate with blight fines of $20,700 per day if he didn’t fix up 501 E. Main St., the Farrel Corp.‘s former Process Lab, an 88,000-square-foot building with more than 200 broken windows, graffiti, overgrown vegetation, and crumbling cement.
Diakhate appealed and submitted a plan to fix up the property by Feb. 1.
At a hearing last week, the city agreed in concept to the plan, as long as Diakhate fenced off the property to keep out squatters, and the matter was continued to Thursday.
But the day of this week’s hearing came and went with no new fence around the property.
Asked by Hearing Officer Keith Murray, a local lawyer, what was going on, Ansonia Corporation Counsel John Marini said the city is satisfied Diakhate’s company, Washington Management, is “working diligently to get the fence put up and secured around the property.”
“My understanding is they’ve gotten estimates for pricing and are taking a look at doing that within the next week,” Marini told Murray.
“The city has absolutely no problem giving a little leeway here as long as we go forward with an agreement tonight where a bulk of the remediation will be completed by the 31st of January,” he went on.
“Sign away,” Murray said. “As long you guys are in agreement, then it makes my job very easy.”
Click the play button on the video above to see Diakhate sign on the line which is solid.
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Remediation Agreement, 501 E. Main St.
Murray reviewed the document briefly and said he would withhold comment except to repeat that it has an enforceable deadline of Jan. 31, continuing the hearing again until Feb. 4 for another status check.
Marini said afterward the city has waited nearly a year for movement on the property, so another month is fine, given Diakhate agreeing in writing to have a blight lien of $1,055,700 put on the property if he can’t meet the deadline.
“If it’s all done by the 31st — the replacement of the windows, the fence, the overgrowth — I think the residents of the city will be very happy,” he said.
Diakhate left quickly to get to another meeting, but replied to an email from the Valley Indy later Thursday again saying his legal team is working on submitting an application to the Planning and Zoning Commission next month to redevelop 501 E. Main St.
After last week’s hearing he said his plans call for about 100 apartments in the building, with commercial space on its bottom two floors.
“Need to really get going with this project and having the proper approvals will surely help,” he wrote Thursday.
Renderings of the project emailed by Diakhate to the Valley Indy Friday (Dec. 19) are below.
