Sep. 17—WATERTOWN — Additional litigation appears on the horizon over a Main Avenue parcel that was initially put up for tax sale auction by the city due to unpaid property taxes.
The City Council will consider a resolution at its Monday meeting to cancel a tax sale certificate now held by the city for 235 Main Ave. and initiate legal action against the property's owner, DealMaker Dodge LLC, whose principal is Watertown developer P.J. Simao. The city would be seeking the unpaid taxes through the suit.
The move comes weeks after Simao dropped his own lawsuit against the city over the disputed property, an action in which it was claimed that the process for redeeming tax sale certificates was flawed and violated the city charter.
Simao has twice provided the city with offers to settle the dispute — once in December and again in March — and reiterated his offer to settle again on Friday, but the offers have been rejected.
The property at issue is the former Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. control center that DealMaker used to host events. The property has been largely vacant for more than 10 years.
When DealMaker failed to pay property taxes on the parcel, the parcel went up for tax sale, with Watertown abstractor Kathleen Burgess acquiring the tax sale certificate for $37,713, leaving DealMaker the option of redeeming the property within two years by paying the taxes with interest, which it chose not do.
The city notified DealMaker in March 2022 that in June 2002 Burgess would have the right to obtain a tax deed for the property. However, the city failed to notify Valentine Family Farm LLC, which holds a mortgage on the property, of the impending transfer. When Burgess learned the property was contaminated by mold, she relied on the city's failure to notify the mortgage holder as a way to decline to take title and seek a full refund from the city.
The suit brought by DealMaker contended that, per the city charter, a person can have their money refunded if the city has made a mistake in the process, but the approval of the refund has to be done through a resolution of the city council, which did not occur in this case.
The city tried to rectify the matter by giving the mortgage holder an additional 90 days to redeem the property, but it is claimed in the suit that the city erred by a day in calculating the 90-day redemption period, making the notice to the mortgage holder erroneous.
In July 2022, City Manager Kenneth A. Mix refunded Burgess's money, which the suit claimed was done without council authorization as required by the city charter.