The city is giving a Main Street developer more time to clean up his property and has reached a deal with a separate property owner that will see another chunk of the Ansonia Copper and Brass complex on Liberty Street disappear.
Moustapha Diakhate owns 501 E. Main St., once owned by the Farrel Corp. He said he wants to redevelop the property into a mix of retail and apartments. But he hasn’t submitted any plans, and Ansonia officials have been on his back to cover more than 100 broken windows on the building or face up to $1 million in blight fines.
Meanwhile, the city Aldermen approved a new phase of demolition at Ansonia Copper and Brass, where owners eventually want to redevelop the property.
Here is more information on both projects:
501 E. Main St.
On Feb. 10, an Ansonia blight hearing officer gave Diakhate until March 12 to deal with the issues cited by the city’s blight inspector regarding the East Main Street property.
Diakhate purchased the property at 501 E. Main St. — along with former Farrel holdings on West Main Street — in January 2013 for $1.9 million.
Mayor David Cassetti’s administration, frustrated by the lack of development at the site and armed with an aggressive new anti-blight policy, put Diakhate on notice, saying the property was in disrepair and he would be fined $20,000 per day unless he improved the condition of 501 E. Main.
Diakhate appealed the blight designation, and the appeals process started in December.
At the Feb. 10 hearing, the blight hearing officer in the case, Keith Murray, said much of the promised work was not completed.
He gave Diakhate another 30 days to deal with the issues.
Diakhate said his redevelopment plan for the building involves a complete replacement of all the windows, so a temporary fix wouldn’t make sense.
Click the play button on the video above to see part of the Feb. 10 hearing.
“This is not a typical house,” Diakhate said. “This is more a construction site.”
Diakhate said he would submit a plan for the redevelopment of the building to the city within 30 days.
When the hearing reconvenes next month — for a fourth time — Murray will have a number of options, according to Corporation Counsel John Marini, the architect of the city’s blight law.
If Diakhate has done all the work needed, Murray could declare the case over and done with. If some progress has been made, he could extend the “corrective action period” yet again.
Or he could decide to have a lien placed on the property representing the blight fine — a little more than $1 million.
“Everyone wants to see remediation. It’s not like you’re going to be looking for a reason to start fining someone,” Marini said. “But that penalty is there in the background. If things aren’t on track, the lien could enter.”
The building on East Main Street is 88,000 square feet.
Copper And Brass
Hours after the blight hearing on Diakhate’s property Feb. 10, the city’s Aldermen discussed the Ansonia Copper & Brass site, another downtown property that was once a bustling industrial property but is now a deteriorating eyesore.
The mayor last year sent the city’s anti-blight officer, David Blackwell Sr., to document “blight conditions” at that property — more than 40 acres of factory and office space between the Naugatuck River and Liberty Street.
But the company avoided a blight citation by agreeing to a deal with the city last August to start demolishing buildings there in exchange for the city forgiving up to half of a tax debt totaling around $800,000.
Demolition began in December with about 30,000 square feet of old storage buildings near Liberty Street turned to rubble.
At the Feb. 10 meeting, Cassetti told Aldermen that the December demolition was “just the beginning of a renewed hope for the potential of redevelopment for that site.”
He announced that the city and the company had agreed to extend their deal to cover the demolition of a 300,000-square-foot rod and wire mill building at the property, and asked the Aldermen to approve the agreement.
The agreement is posted below.
“Each building that falls represents opportunity,” Cassetti said. “I ask that you support this effort to open up a blank canvas of future economic development in Ansonia’s downtown area.”
Aldermen later approved the deal unanimously, without discussion.
Marini, the city’s corporation counsel, said Feb. 20 that the first phase of the demolition cost the company about $170,000 of the $400,000 the city had promised to forgive.
The company will add its demo costs for the rod and wire mill building to that total.
“They’re entitled to continue on towards the $400,000,” Marini said.
He said the building should meet the wrecking ball within three months or so.
