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HANOVER TWP. — A company wants to buy the sprawling, vacant former Penn Refrigeration property if taxing bodies forgive half of the current owner’s $304,853 in delinquent real estate taxes dating back to 2012, officials said.
By agreeing to this deal, taxing bodies would lock in their receipt of half the taxes owed.
Without the arrangement, the property likely will advance to a back-tax auction and be sold for the highest bid, posing the risk that taxing bodies would recoup less of the debt and place the property in the hands of an unknown buyer. However, it’s also possible a viable bidder would surface and offer more at auction.
The three-parcel property on Woodbury Street was kept out of auctions despite a mounting tax debt because Penn Refrigeration Service Corp. filed a still-open bankruptcy in October 2013, according to Luzerne County tax-claim operator Northeast Revenue Service LLC.
Luzerne County Council is scheduled to discuss the matter at this evening’s work session, with a vote to follow at a future meeting.
Township Commissioners approved the 50 percent forgiveness at their March meeting.
The Hanover Area School Board is expected to vote on the request in May, said district solicitor Jack Dean.
A proposed county council resolution says Teos, LLC, wants to purchase and rehabilitate the structure to “operate the property as a warehouse facility again,” but the years of delinquent property taxes negatively impact the site’s “marketability.”
Council’s agenda does not provide further detail on Teos. An entity with that name based in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, owns another commercial property on Hanover Street in the township that currently carries $64,857 in unpaid taxes from 2018, county tax claim records show.
The portion of the Penn Refrigeration property back taxes owed to the county, with interest and penalties, is $50,412, which means $25,206 would be forgiven if the proposal is approved, council’s resolution said.
Teos would have to pay the county $25,206 when it closes on the purchase, according to the resolution that would be revoked if a sale does not occur.
Hanover Township Manager Sam Guesto said the property had been in limbo and unoccupied for years because it did not sell through the bankruptcy process or efforts of Penn Refrigeration.
Municipal officials are eager to return the property to productive use and generating tax revenue, Guesto said, noting the site has become rundown with high weeds and a magnet for illegal dumping.
“It is in desperate need of repairs, and a new owner would bring it up to today’s code standards,” Guesto said. “It’s a safety concern.”
Penn Refrigeration had announced it was closing its commercial refrigerator manufacturing and installation facility in November 2012, impacting 30 to 40 employees.
The company had been in business 68 years and once employed as many as 60 workers, manufacturing and delivering insulated panels and refrigeration equipment across the United States, past published reports said.
Co-owner Al Finarelli Jr. had blamed the company’s economic struggles on a decline in sales, a past report said.
Totaling 7.20 acres, the three parcels include a 78,517-square-foot plant, parking area and large grassy lot that once housed a community athletic field, county assessment records show.
Originally valued at a combined total $1.79 million after the 2009 countywide reassessment, the assessment was lowered to $270,000 in 2016 following an appeal, records show.
County council’s work session follows a 6 p.m. voting meeting at the courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.