City of Manchester Wants To Demolish Decrepit Building

The Courant has this news item about a former motel and restaurant building in Manchester.

The fight over the former Willie’s Steak House will continue in Superior Court in Hartford Wednesday.

The property owner is battling the town’s plan to demolish the building that used to house a restaurant/banquet hall and motel. Arguments center on the building’s structural integrity and whether the owner even has the right to contest the planned demolition in court.

Last week, town officials testified about the decrepit state of the vacant building at 444 Center St. and estimated the cost of rehabilitation at about $5 million, Town Attorney David Sheridan said Friday. Also, people have been breaking into the building and burning candles inside, Sheridan said. That is an immediate concern, he said, because the building has no electricity, water service or fire detection equipment.

You would think that it should be a safety thing to require that any building within a commercial district maintain, electricity, fire detection and water service.

Judge Michael Sheldon also will consider what Sheridan called a “threshold jurisdictional issue.” In March, the town formally notified property owner Peter Anastasopoulos that the building was a public nuisance and gave him a list of necessary repairs. The notice said if he didn’t take action, the town would, and a lien would be placed on the property. Anastasopoulos had 30 days to appeal the notice, but he did not.

The question for the court, Sheridan said, is whether the owner, by failing to appeal, waived his right to come to court. A property owner, he said, has to exhaust administrative remedies before seeking relief in the court.

“You can’t jump over administrative process,” he said.

Brian Silver, attorney for Anastasopoulos, said his client did not believe the notice meant that the town would eventually tear the whole building down. That is unnecessary, Silver said, because a structural engineer for his client testified in court last week that 85 percent of the structure is sound. Only the original section, which fronts on Center Street, needs to be demolished, Silver said.

As for the $5 million estimate to rehabilitate the place, “it all depends on what kind of Taj Mahal you want,” he said. Anastasopoulos understands that the place needs to be sealed and secured so that water and vagrants don’t get in, Silver said. His client wants to open an Italian restaurant in the building, but does not have the finances now for the needed work, Silver said.

“What the town is trying to do now is just unreasonable,” he said. “They’re trying to make this a punitive thing.”

You can’t fault the town. Abandoned commercial properties should be penalized.