Letter: Ansonia Land Deals Don't Make Sense

ANSONIA — Recently, the Ansonia properties at 64 Pulaski Highway and 78 Pulaski Highway were sold for $1.15 million in a private transaction to Fortitude Capital, a New York City real estate ownership and management company. 

These properties, totaling about 27 acres, were last appraised at a land value of $461,200, marking a sale price that was almost 250% over the appraised value. This is not surprising considering the steep rise in real estate values we’ve seen the past few years.

Compare this to this year’s sale of the city-owned Olson Drive property to Primrose Companies, to build a private recreation/soccer facility. This 8.4 acres of land on Olson Drive is appraised at $2.83 million, yet the city government and alders sold it for $510,000 — a sale price that was almost just 18% of the appraised value. In addition, the new property owner was given 17 years of tax breaks on top of the steep discount in the price of the property. With the staggeringly deep discount during one of the best real estate markets in decades and 17 years of tax breaks that aren’t even tied to job growth, city officials practically gave this property away.

Why would the City vastly undersell this property? Isn’t it the job of our governmental officials to make the best deal possible for the taxpayers and maximize our investments?

The Request for Proposal (RFP) was so oddly narrow — demanding one indoor and one outdoor recreation field – that only one developer applied. It looks an awful lot like the city tailored the RFP for a specific proposal they had in mind, at a pre-negotiated price. Why didn’t they value this property for all its purposes and put out a broad request for bids? 

In my eyes, and the eyes of many residents, this transaction was baked from the start. The city rushed this transaction through, didn’t get close to full value for the property, and undersold our residents.

–$1.15 million sale price for a property assessed at $461,200
–$510,000 sale price for a property assessed at $2.83 million

Same town, same timeframe. The only difference is that city officials sold off the second property.

Do the math. Something is rotten in the City of Ansonia.

Tommie Howell
Ansonia

Keep local reporting alive. Donate.ValleyIndy.org