56. Large Property Owner Sharon PA --- Observations

In reviewing the notes I have kept, on October 10, 2014, a meeting to introduce the concept of a structure and land revitalization bank was held. County and municipal elected officials,  employees of the county and the different municipalities, Mercer County Regional Planning Commission employees, Penn-Northwest Development Corporation staff, Community Action Partnership of Mercer County staff, Mercer County Housing Authority senior management, etc. were in attendance. A leading advocate there for a land bank was Assembly Member Mark Longietti. Among the persons presenting was Professor John Kromer and Phyllis Chamberlain, Executive Director of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania. The kick off meeting on October 10, 2014,  and subsequent meetings were was moderated by Mr. William Miller. Further meetings were held on  November 10, 2014 and a final meeting in April of 2015.

I believe that I was the only citizen observer, the only home owner at the meetings.

At the April 2015 meeting a large property owner in Sharon, PA,  confidently shared to the group that five and half years ago he began acquiring houses in Sharon, PA. He had begun with ten houses. He as of then had 152 houses and has another on the radar. He was paying some $100,000 a year in real estate taxes. He remembered his boyhood home and neighborhood and his concern about the decline in the community. He bought bad houses in bad neighborhoods. He declared that he took no salary. He believed that he could restore Sharon's housing stock in 20 to 25 years with or without the government. He had made a commitment to his Mother to undertake the project to revitalize Sharon, PA. He was adding investors.

In recent months this large property owner has made public statements about his commitment to revitalization. At one meeting a participant made pointed questions to him about the results of his efforts. Rather than reply to the questions posed to him the owner asked the participant if he was being threatened by the participant.

The owner at a recent meeting expressed concern about the burden an increase to a rental property fee. He believed that it was an unnecessary burden. He expressed the opinion that it would be challenged in court. He believed that such an increase kept investors from considering Sharon.

It is curious that the owner of a large number of rental properties has among them abandoned and blighted properties crying out for abatement, intervention and redemption. Perhaps revitalization is a concept that the owner does not comprehend.