Officials focus on filling plaza

Written by Susan Hunter
Tuesday, 27 October 2009 16:41

SEYMOUR — About 30 people stood in an empty, damp space that used to house Adams Supermarket in Tri-Town Plaza Saturday to attend a rally organized by Paul Roy, Democratic candidate for first selectman.

The Adams building and Ames Department Store buildings represent a total of 100,000 square feet of commercial space that has been vacant for about seven years. Bringing new stores to the mostly vacant plaza has been a priority to economic development officials for the past several years.

Things have been at a standstill in the plaza ever since developer Ron Spector filed a lawsuit against the town over the assessment of the Ames portion of the plaza. Spector believes the assessment is too high, and the town thinks it’s correct.

A series of delays in the court case has some officials and residents wondering why the issue can’t be resolved.

“We should be here shopping, not here talking about economic development,” said Fred Stanek, Paul Roy’s campaign manager.

Those gathered in the empty buildings said economic development could bring more jobs to town.

Steven Kulas, Seymour Democratic Town Committee Chairman, said he took issue with Koskelowski’s comments in the Oct. 14 issue of the Valley Gazette that the town is collecting taxes on the empty Ames building.

Property inside commercial buildings is also taxed, he said, and there’s nothing bringing taxes to the town from the empty buildings in the plaza.

“Look at the emptiness of this building,” he said, and he also mentioned the empty New Haven Copper and Seymour Lumber properties.

Filling the buildings would bring jobs to the area, said state Rep. Theresa Conroy (D-105th). “Teenagers and college students are going out of this area to find jobs,” she said.

Roy said he’s knocked on about 2,000 doors during his campaign, and “people want to know what’s going on the in the Tri-Town Plaza.”

He said he met with Spector a few times recently about the situation.

“This empty building is kind of sad,” he said. “People want to shop here.”

Spector endorses Roy

Spector said this past week that he endorses Roy in his bid for First Selectman.

“I realize this may be hard to imagine, but Mr. Roy has already invested more time and effort in trying to understand the issues than the current first selectman has during the past six years,” Spector wrote in a letter to the residents of Seymour.

“I appreciate Mr. Roy’s desire to work openly and honestly to address the obstacles we face and believe that with this kind of cooperation, which has for so long eluded us, we can finally succeed in redeveloping Tri-Town Plaza to bring more business and investment into the Town of Seymour.”

Regarding the most recent court hearing, Spector said he believes Koskelowski and Town Counsel George Temple “have misrepresented their actions to the press and to the residents of Seymour.”

Koskelowski said that the most recent court delay occurred because the town is conducting a title search to determine who is the legal owner of the plaza property.

It couldn’t be proven that Spector is responsible for paying taxes on the property, Koskelowski said. If he’s not responsible, then he can’t appeal them.

Statements that they don’t know who owns the plaza, that Spector sought the delay and the judge withdrew himself from the case due to a conflict, were untrue, Spector wrote in the letter.

He said he purchased the rights to a 99-year lease on the property. Temple objected to documents Spector’s attorneys submitted as proof of ownership, Spector said, and he claimed one was improperly dated and the other was illegible.

The judge overruled the second objection, Spector said, and Temple forced the case to be continued.

“If the first selectman and town counsel cannot and will not answer why they chose to delay the hearing again, then perhaps a reasonable question would be ‘who is benefiting from it?’ because it is certainly not the taxpayers.”

Spector said he wants to invest in the plaza, but the risks are too high when his efforts are met “with conflict and confrontation rather than discussion and cooperation. Neither Mr. Koskelowski nor Mr. Temple have done anything to assist me in my efforts to upgrade the plaza and attract new business.”

Koskelowski responds

Koskelowski said Tuesday that Spector admitted in and out of court that there was a question of ownership regarding the plaza.

“The question is, does he have the legal authority to appeal the taxes?” Koskelowski said. The most recent delay came about because the documentation Spector’s attorney submitted was illegible, he said..

The issue focuses on why Spector hasn’t put a tenant in the plaza, Koskelowski said. The court case didn’t stop him from leasing space in the Ames building to Walmart for storage purposes.

Koskelowski said that he and Seymour economic development officials have sent businesses Spector’s way that want to move into the plaza. Spector has refused to consider them, he said.

He said he sent Spector a letter six weeks ago asking to meet with him and resolve the issue, and Spector didn’t respond.

Koskelowski said Spector has never applied for a building permit to upgrade the plaza.

“He’s an absentee landlord who doesn’t care about Seymour,” Koskelowski said.

The first selectman said that the tax revenue from the Ames building would be minimal, and that the town received less than $2,000 a year from personal property when the building was filled.

“If there was an occupant in either the Ames or the Adams building, it would generate less than what a homeowner pays in taxes yearly,” he said.

Koskelowski said he plans to continue working on getting the plaza filled with stores.

“I’m not giving up, “ he said.