Montville hits roadblock to sell foreclosed property
Montville — Town officials are working to find a buyer for a foreclosed property that has belonged to the town since 2011.
The Town Council is scheduled to vote Monday on an ordinance that would let the mayor sell a foreclosed property at 14 Bridge St., but Council Chairman Joseph Jaskiewicz said Thursday the ordinance was proposed when the current tenant had an offer on the table to buy the property.
But since then, the tenant — Rayvel founder and President Joe Ciaudelli, who makes three-dimensional holographic image products in the building — has decided not to buy the property, Mayor Ronald McDaniel said.
Ciaudelli subleases the building from the previous tenant, who used to own a sign-making company there.
Jaskiewicz said he won't vote for the ordinance without a potential buyer.
"There's usually a deal already in place that we would look at," he said. "We're better off having the building utilized than just sitting there," he added, but said he doesn't want to leave the ordinance allowing the mayor to sell the property on behalf of the town "open-ended."
A public hearing on the ordinance is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. Monday just before the 7 p.m. Town Council meeting at which the council is expected to vote on it.
The building has been the property of the town since 2011, when the former owner owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes but could not be located.
Since then, McDaniel said parts of the property, the site of a former mill, were found to be contaminated. The town has received federal grant money to start a remediation process, and a final effort to bury and cap the contaminated soil is due to be completed this spring, Finance Director Terry Hart said.
After the remediation is finished, Hart said, town officials will continue to try to find a buyer. Appraised at a value of $195,000, the building is one of the biggest foreclosed properties that the town has on its list.
"We are definitely going to try and sell it," she said.
In the meantime, McDaniel said, the building can be used for storage.
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