Annie Lytle School Purchased

[Cliffs_Daughter]

DW,,, when you say bought more than they knew, any idea, how much more?  Im trying to follow .. is it possible ,they are entitled to the entire tract of property?

I'm certainly not in DogWalker's mind right now, but I THINK he's implying Tarpon got more baggage than they expected.

[Dog Walker]

I think that they looked on the tax deed sale, saw 44,000 sq/ft near the interchange of I-10 and I-95 for $86,000 dollars and didn't look any further.  They certainly got more "baggage" than they expected including all of us!  

Judging by the reaction that Timkin and I saw in their representative I think they were not aware of the soundness and attractiveness of the building and the awful state of the interior.

I also think that they MIGHT have legal grounds to undo the re-plat that cut the building out of the surrounding property based on the historic designation for the building.  If I were the owner, I would have a really good property lawyer take a look at the process that was used.  If the Historic Preservation Commission did not approve the re-plat it might not be proper.

[Dog Walker]

We (me and spouse) attended the Special Masters Hearing this morning and were the only people there who were not Code Enforcement employees.

The Special Master imposed a fine of $250 per day on Tarpon IV, LLC, the new owners, since they have not responded to any of the efforts by the Code Enforcement office to get in touch with them.  This lien on this building also means that Tarpon IV, LLC cannot sell ANY of their properties in Duval Country without paying off all of the liens that have been put on Annie Lytle since they purchased it.

Tarpon IV, LLC owns more than forty properties in Duval County, several of them are in Springfield and three of them are on Ionia Street.  This might be of interest to several of the people on this forum.  If you are interested in exactly which ones, go on the Property Appraiser's web site and search for "Tarpon".

We learned from the head Code Enforcement officer that the city has a contractor who is boarding up the building and securing the fence.  The cost of this contractor is also in place as a lien on all of Tarpon IV, LLC's property.

Code Enforcement is only re-inspecting Annie Lytle every three months, so I am going to call the chief inspector every time I see an opening in the fence or the building.  The contractor is going to love that!  If the destructive creeps are caught inside the fence or building after they have broken in then they can be charged with burglary, not just trespass.

Since the owners of Tarpon IV, LLC are not responding to Tim anymore, maybe this action by the City will finally get their attention.

In any case, the Code Enforcement office has been reminded again that there are some of us out here who really care what happens concerning this building.

If any of you are interested in keeping track of  what is occurring with the school, the code enforcement case number is 2001-14120.  The first four numbers are the year the original case complaint was filed.

[Cliffs_Daughter]

Thank you so much for attending!

My own office had its monthly advisory meeting so I couldn't break free to go, though I would've loved to meet the CE people. Not my division, but it's always good to know others in the city.

Interesting about how they can assess a lien on ALL of their properties in the county like that.

[Dog Walker]

Interesting about how they can assess a lien on ALL of their properties in the county like that.

I found that to be new information and very interesting myself.

[billy]

Someone at the City yesterday told me the hearing was not until December 6th.

[Timkin]

DW,,,, Glad to know you attended the hearing.. I sure would not think Tarpon would go on indefinitely ,not responding to Code Enforcement.  Sheesh,,, sure sounds like the bill would be mounting on their properties.....  Have heard nothing at all from them in quite sometime..

Assuming they never respond , wonder what eventually happens? does the City end up with all of these properties?

[iloveionia]

They don't respond, They don't even pay property taxes.
The city responds with demolition.

See below for Historic Springfield:
From coj.net:

070986-0000 TARPON IV LLC 1430 LIBERTY ST N (green demo sign, completely open, we looked at this last week)
071462-0000 TARPON IV LLC 1647 PEARL ST (on my original at risk list to be demolished)
071516-0000 TARPON IV LLC 404 7TH ST W (demolished)
072215-0000 TARPON IV LLC 1721 IONIA ST (arson, then demolished)
072370-0000 TARPON IV LLC 1540 CLARK ST (empty lot on corner, has been for sometime though, I don't remember a house there)
072448-0000 TARPON IV LLC 1416 WALNUT ST (empty lot)
072500-0010 TARPON IV LLC 1323 IONIA ST (pink duplex, virtually stands alone on Ionia)
072599-0000 TARPON IV LLC 0 2ND ST E (empty lot)
072708-0000 TARPON IV LLC 1140 IONIA ST (had work done, now just sits)
072738-0000 TARPON IV LLC 0 WALNUT ST (empty lot)

DON'T YOU SEE THE PATTERN?? What are we missing here?
They don't pay property taxes either. I don't get it.
They lose all their houses in Springfield to demolition, swear they had more on Ionia than what is listed above.

[ChriswUfGator]

This investor group does not bode well for the building.

From their track record, it would appear they couldn't care less about what happens to the structures they buy...

[Timkin]

Which poses the question....What the hell are they doing??  Purchasing Tax sales, Not paying taxes on the properties, not maintaining them.

Is this company meant to operate a for-profit business?

Sheesh... might as well set fire to millions of dollars.  It makes no sense at all .

[Dog Walker]

Tim,  It does on the scale that they do it.  They might lose on eighty percent of the properties they buy but the other twenty percent is hugely profitable.  They are a multi-million dollar investment firm that does a huge number of these tax deed purchases.  They have acquired thousands and thousands of properties in Florida for just a few million dollars.

If the property market stays flat, however, they might run out of money before things start coming back.

[Timkin]

Looks like in this case, they would give it away to unload it.. Still... Who would take it on when someone owns the surrounding property?

[Noone]

Someone at the City yesterday told me the hearing was not until December 6th.

Is anyone planning on going to this hearing?

[Dog Walker]

The hearing has already been held.  Read above.  It is not on Dec 6.

[Timkin]

Is there any developments on this.  One of my facebook contacts indicated she heard the School and property was sold...I would have thought it would be all over MJ if that were the case .  Anyone?