TimesLeader.com

County will get Hazleton property

Luzerne County to collect rent from tenants at Broad Street Business Exchange.

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

HAZLETON – After nearly three years of dealing with red tape, Luzerne County on Thursday finally got the go-ahead to take possession of a landmark downtown Hazleton office building.

City Council voted unanimously to amend repayment terms for two loans the city awarded to the owner of the Broad Street Business Exchange so that the county could take over the property and begin collecting rent from the building tenants.

The building is owned by the nonprofit Alliance to Revitalize Center City Hazleton – ARCCH, which has not paid taxes on it since 2001. A total of $185,099.58 in back taxes is owed to the county, the city and the Hazleton Area School District.

The building was put up for tax sale in 2006, but commissioners pulled it from the sale because the county Office of Community Development is owed nearly $1.9 million in community development loans on the property.

The city is owed $290,000 in community development loans and is co-responsible with ARCCH for an $850,000 loan from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

If the county sold the building at a tax sale, it would go to the highest bidder, and the county and city might not receive enough to cover the loans.

The county worked out a deal with the city in which the county agreed to either maintain control of the building until 2015 or pay the city on a pro-rata basis the amount of the loans if the county sold the building prior to 2015.

County Commissioner Steve Urban, who attended to answer any questions from the county’s perspective, said the commissioners have no intention of selling the building before 2015. The main concern, he said, is not to disrupt the business tenants; recouping the loans is a secondary concern.

He estimated the county might receive about $20,000 per month in rent from building tenants. He said the college alone pays $11,000 in monthly rent.