The owner of the Jones Court apartment building on Baldwin Street in Elmira is repurchasing the property from Chemung County’s foreclosure list and still plans to move ahead with plans to rehabilitate 84-unit apartment complex.

The county took over the five-unit apartment building in early March. The property stretches between East Fifth Street and East Clinton Street and hasn’t been used as public housing since 1999. Its unpaid taxes reached almost $86,000.

Jones Court was on the verge of being included with other tax delinquent properties listed for sale during the county’s tax foreclosure auction on March 30. But the owner, Brooklyn real estate developer David Brander, redeemed the apartment building when he paid half of the outstanding property tax bill.

The owners of foreclosed properties listed for sale during the auction could repurchase the properties if they agreed to pay the taxes due plus 10 percent, said County Treasurer Joseph Sartori.

For Jones Court, the re-purchase price totaled about $95,430 and Brander paid about $47,715 in late February. The balance is due by June 30, Sartori said.

Meanwhile, Brander has applied for a federal Housing Urban Development loan from a New York City-based lender, which required a feasibility study on the project before considering the loan application, said Diane McCloud, a Geneva resident who manages the properties Brander owns in that city and is also responsible for coordinating the Jones Court project.

The study, completed at a cost of $10,000, determined the project was viable and would meet market demand, McCloud said.

“(Brander) applied for financing in October and they asked for a feasibility study, which has been done,” said McCloud. “Now, it’s a matter of negotiations.”

McCloud said Brander was caught unawares by the unpaid property taxes that accumulated as Jones Court passed from the ownership of Orlando Houses LLC in Florida.

“He was in a quandary about what to do,” she said. “He had financing to start because preliminary plans were drawn up and he got bids.”

The plans stalled, however, when the credit markets tightened and Brander was unable to obtain financing for the project. When he initially acquired the property in 2007, the renovation project’s price tag was about $3.5 million.

But the price has undoubtedly increased, said McCloud. Based on all of the components of the project — which include separate metering and heating for the individual apartments, painting, plumbing and appliances, installing a new playground and repairing the connections to municipal sewage lines — the latest price tag is close to $6 million.

“We’re waiting on the bank to say yes or no before the June deadline and the answer may come next month,” said McCloud.