Schenectady moves to foreclose on Jay St. property

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

The city is moving to foreclose on the vacant lot left after the building at 100-102 Jay St. was demolished in March 2015 following a fatal fire.

The city is moving to foreclose on vacant land at 100-102 Jay St., and attorneys retained by victims of the Jay Street fire plan to consolidate their claims for pretrial.

The city of Schenectady issued a notice of foreclosure for 100-102 Jay St., which was demolished in March 2015 following a fatal fire. The owner, listed as Ravena Holdings LLC in property records, owes taxes since 2014.

Corporation Counsel Carl Falotico said the owner has until June 24 to pay the back taxes or the city will take title to the property.

The owner owes $10,125 in taxes from 2014, a total of $39,235 from 2015 and $8,298 to date in 2016, according to the tax liens. That’s a total of $57,658.

Falotico said 100-102 Jay St. was one of a number of properties the city has moved to foreclose on in the last week. None of them has been contested as of Monday, he said.

A fire at 104 Jay St. next door in the early morning of March 6 of last year spread to 100-102 Jay St. Both buildings were destroyed and demolished later that month. The owner of 104 Jay St., Ted Gounaris, who lives in Nassau County, is current on his taxes.

Ravena Holdings, which is listed with a New York City address in property records, purchased its property in 2012 for $595,000, according to property records. The building was six stories and assessed at $642,600.

The landlord of the apartment building was Vytas Meskauskas. He has retained attorney Phil Rodriguez of Schenectady.

Rodriguez said Monday he was unaware of the notice of foreclosure.

Ravena Holdings filed a notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, against the city last May. It is seeking compensation for loss of the building, rent, personal property and demolition charges, according to the claim.

Ravena Holdings did not have insurance on the building and the sprinkler system was off at the time of the fire, according to city officials.

Mayor Gary McCarthy said ultimately he would like the city to take title to both properties to allow for future development at the vacant site across from City Hall.

“The goal has always been to have site control for the entire site,” he said. “I assume we’ll have title to [100-102 Jay St.] sometime in July. I would still like the other site. But there are other complicating factors with that. Combined they would have a greater value and would complement the activity in downtown.”

The owner of 104 Jay St. also filed a notice of claim against the city, along with about a dozen others filed by families of the deceased and former building tenants, some who were injured in the fire.

More than a handful of lawsuits have been filed against Gounaris and building manager Ideal Property Services.

Attorney E. Stewart Jones, of E. Stewart Jones Hacker Murphy, said on Monday that the attorneys involved in the case are planning to consolidate all of the claims against the property owner and manager for pre-trial discovery.

Jones said he would like to get everybody in a room and move forward with the claims sometime this summer.

“What we would really like to do, and what we’re pushing hard to accomplish, is get everybody together with an arbitrator and see if we can settle these cases,” he said. “There is a finite amount of money, and the claims themselves are worth far more than available insurance and assets.”

Jones said the claims against the city are still pending and the attorneys are not seeking to include the city at this time.

“Those are very difficult cases under existing New York law,” he said. “We’re at the stage where if we can’t resolve the cases we’ll begin taking depositions.”

Jones added that the city would eventually have to provide code enforcement documents related to the two buildings that have been sealed since the fire.

The Daily Gazette filed Freedom of Information Law requests for code documents for 100-102 and 104 Jay St. The requests were denied citing an ongoing investigation by the Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office.

The building at 104 Jay St. was inspected the day before the fire. At the time, Building Inspector Eric Shilling said the owner was cited for an expired fire alarm system certification, but said that doesn’t mean it wasn’t working at the time.

Those inspection documents, along with past inspection documents for 100-102 Jay St., have been sealed from the public since Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney convened a grand jury investigation shortly after the fire.

It is unclear where the investigation stands or if anyone is facing criminal charges. Carney has repeatedly declined comment regarding the status of the investigation.

“The city would have to provide those documents in the context of the lawsuits against the city,” Jones said. “Initially there was indication that the DA’s office wanted to review everything and then disclose everything. I’m sure that is not going to occur.”

Jones is representing Ethel Roberson, the mother of Robert Thomas, 31, who died in the fire; also Heather Rollins, the mother of Jermaine Allen’s young son. Allen, 37, died in the fire along with his girlfriend, Berenices Suarez, 33. And Jones’ firm is representing Jesse Pappalau, who was a tenant of 104 Jay St.