Back-tax sale Parcel is located in W-B Twp. Commons shopping center
Catch basin is on county’s list
By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
A giant, 5-acre catch basin in the Wilkes-Barre Township Commons shopping center anchored by Target is listed in Luzerne County’s Sept. 22 back-tax sale.
The giant drainage basin in the Wilkes-Barre Township Commons shopping area is listed in the Sept. 22 back-tax sale.
BILL TARUTIS/For The Times Leader
Properties that don’t sell at back-tax sales go into limbo status in a pool known as the repository, where they remain, generating no taxes, unless somebody buys them.
It’s a concern because the basin was required to allow construction of retail properties in the land around it. Lower-elevation structures in Wilkes-Barre could flood during heavy rain or melting snow if the basin isn’t maintained or malfunctions.
As of Friday afternoon, the owner – RB Wilkes-Barre, LLC – owed $138,933 in taxes for 2009 and 2010.
Richard Birdoff, president of RD Management Corp. in New York City, is identified as the managing member of RB Wilkes-Barre in documents filed in the county Recorder of Deeds office. RD Management is one of the nation’s largest private real estate development and management organizations, according to the company’s website.
Company representatives directed inquires to Barbara Ensign, the company’s vice president of operations, who could not be reached for comment on several attempts.
John Rodgers, owner of Northeast Revenue Service LLC, the county’s tax-claim operator, said he will monitor the property because some other developers have stopped paying taxes on unwanted catch basins, roads and land slivers in an attempt to unload them after they’ve sold desirable properties and wrapped up their construction projects.
Rogers doesn’t want unsuspecting tax sale bidders or the county to get stuck with these parcels. Properties that don’t sell at back-tax sales go into limbo status in a pool known as the repository, where they remain, generating no taxes, unless somebody buys them.
He recently alerted county commissioners to a water run-off system in a residential development, prompting commissioners to pull it from a back-tax sale so it wouldn’t land in the repository. Properties that are pulled remain the responsibility of the owner, he said.
“If it goes in the repository, the county would be liable if it overflows and floods someone’s property. The county would be responsible for maintaining it,” Rogers said.
RB Wilkes-Barre has the ability to keep the property out of the Sept. 22 sale by paying the taxes, filing for bankruptcy or convincing a judge to grant more time to pay.
County property and deed records show RB Wilkes-Barre purchased the site where the basin now stands as part of a larger parcel for $2.5 million in November 2002.
The Wilkes-Barre Township Planning Commission approved a subdivision plan in 2002 that allowed the parcel to be separated into several pieces, including one that now holds the catch basin, records show.
Four of the parcels were then sold to other companies linked to RD Management before they were sold as a package for $32.9 million in December 2007 to VNO Mundy Street LLC, care of Vornado Realty Trust, in Paramus, N.J., records show.
The parcels owned by VNO are occupied by several national chain stores and restaurants in the Wilkes-Barre Township Commons, county records show.
County Flood Protection Authority Executive Director Jim Brozena said he believes agreements were put in place requiring the property owner to continue maintaining the catch basin, but the county was not directly involved in the project. Wilkes-Barre Township Mayor Carl Kuren could not immediately be reached for comment .
A proposed realignment of Coal Brook Creek, which runs along Mundy Street, would channel runoff that now goes into the basin into Mill Creek and then the Susquehanna River, Brozena said.
The project could allow most of the basin to be filled and possibly used for other development, Brozena said.
However, county officials have been unable to secure the estimated $8 million needed to complete that project, Brozena said.
Brozena said he plans to meet with officials from Wilkes-Barre, Plains Township and Wilkes-Barre Township to ask them to submit a joint application for gaming funds for Coal Brook.
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