Bidders list why Austintown deal fell through

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

AUSTINTOWN — Developers who backed out of buying the old Austintown Middle School contend the school district violated state requirements for reports on underground fuel storage tanks at the bus garage there.

Ben Post and Martin Solomon, under the company name This Land is My Land Ltd., say that had they known that, they would have offered less money for the property.

They said they found out about what they call a “pattern of nondisclosures” through public records requests.

They told the district in a Sept. 7 letter that they are backing out of the deal they made in 2005 to buy the Mahoning Avenue property for $2.6 million. They had at first tried to negotiate a lower purchase price.

The old middle school closed after this year, with pupils moving to the new one on Raccoon Road. The district and This Land were supposed to close on the sale Aug. 31.

The developers’ attorney notified the state fire marshal’s office Aug. 30 that their environmental consultant had found unacceptable levels of contamination on the property. The state has directed the district to test soil there.

This Land had given the district what was supposed to be a nonrefundable deposit of $260,000, but now it wants the money back. The school board is refusing to refund it because the developers agreed to buy the property “as is.”

The district is arguing the developers knew storage tanks at the site may have leaked, contaminating the soil. That information was provided to them in their bid packages, said the district’s attorney, Eric J. Johnson, in a letter to Solomon dated July 17.

For complete story, see Monday’s Vindicator and www.vindy.com.