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Rent-to-own deal likely for new county dog shelter
YOUNGSTOWN
The Western Reserve Port Authority plans to lease to Mahoning County a Meri- dian Road building the authority bought last week for use as the county’s new dog shelter, with the county then likely owning the building within 10 years, according to the port authority chairman.
Port authority and county officials discussed details of the project in a Mahoning County commissioners staff meeting Monday.
County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, who attended part of the meeting, raised questions about real-estate taxes and liens on the property and financing of the dog-shelter project in a Thursday email to Audrey Tillis, county budget director, and shared his questions with The Vindicator.
Sciortino is running for re-election this year.
“We think it’s going to be a bright new future for a dog shelter,” said Atty. James Floyd, port authority chairman.
David Ditzler, chairman of the county commissioners, said the new shelter, likely opening at least a year from now, will be much larger than the current 4,800-square-foot, 1970s-vintage Industrial Road pound.
It will house dogs in sizable enclosures, instead of the cramped cages they now inhabit, he added.
“The facility we’re in is terrible. The roof’s leaking in four spots. It’s just deplorable” conditions for the pound animals and employees, Ditzler said.
Gina Bricker and Tom Michaels, assistant county prosecutors, were assembling the detailed information necessary to fully answer Sciortino’s questions, Ditzler said.
Sciortino could not be reached for comment after the meeting.
In an interview, Floyd explained what likely would happen based on a memorandum of understanding between the port authority and the county.
The port authority bought the 8,540-square-foot former Jump Stretch fitness center building at 1230 N. Meridian Road with 6.67 acres in a foreclosure auction last week, bidding $250,000, and having to pay an additional $25,000 as a commission to auctioneer Barry Baker. That building, appraised at $215,000, was built in 1998.
Terms of the auction were approved by Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Some $640,000 in debt accumulated on the property, including $58,097 in unpaid real-estate taxes.
Once court costs, the real-estate taxes and the foreclosing Huntington Bank are paid from sale proceeds, other lien holders will be paid with whatever is left, Floyd explained. “All the real-estate taxes will be paid in full,” he said.
The property no longer will be subject to real-estate taxes under port authority ownership; and that exemption would carry over to county ownership, said Sarah Lown, the port authority’s senior economic development manager.
The county’s architects, Olsavsky-Jaminet Architects, have estimated it will cost $1,425,000 to renovate the building into a dog shelter that will replace the Industrial Road pound.
The port authority will borrow money from a bank to fund the authority’s purchase of the Meridian Road building, Floyd explained.
The authority will then lease that building to the county until the purchase price and loan interest are paid off, which probably will take less than 10 years, with the county then owning the building, Floyd said.
After the executive session with the assistant county prosecutors concerning the transaction’s legal issues, Ditzler said plans call for renovation costs to be included in the county’s lease payments to the port authority.
A fundraising campaign will be launched to obtain donations to help the county with renovation costs, Ditzler said.
Floyd said the port authority believes the financing of the renovations may be shared among various humane organizations.
A capital project fund for a new dog shelter now contains $400,000 derived from dog adoption and licensing fees and fines for dog-law violations, plus $90,470 in private donations.
A lease agreement with the port authority makes it more financially feasible for the county to obtain the new dog shelter, Floyd said.
Lown said port authorities have more flexibility than counties and other governmental units in the purchase or disposal of property.
“The port authority has the ability and the authority to handle projects such as this,” Ditzler said.
“We’re looking for any plan that will save the county money and improve services at the same time,” Lown said.
“This was executive session, so no decisions were made, but the options were explored to make this project move forward in the most efficient way at the least cost to the county,” she concluded.