Properties for Sale

 According to Zillow ,there are a slew of properties for sale in the area of Carbondale bounded by Mill, University, Oakland and Walnut. Around 60 by my count, most I would bet are Home Rentals properties, which means they are not in the best of shape,

Home Rentals

 If you are interested in investing in property in Carbondale, nearly all of Home Rentals' properties are up for sale. apparent;y the company managed to negotiate with the bank holding its mortgages to avoid forclosure but its financial status is likely dicey, to say the least.

Forclosure Addresses

 since I was asked, here are the addresses first Bank and Trust is forclosing on:

409 East Mill, 1130 Walkup Street, 201 S. Oakland,802 S. Johnson, 408 and 408 1/2 N. Springer, 1114 W. Walkup Street,710 N. Carico, 405 East Mill, 702 West Walnut, 502 West Freeman,514 S. Beveridge, 510 S. Beveridge

There may be some more but that would require digging into more fine print.

Home Rentals Forclosures

 According to the classifieds in the current issue of the Carbondale Time, the First Bank and Trust Company of  Murphysboro is forclosing on at least a dozen properties owned by Lindsey Fisher. With the exception of one on North Carico, all appear located south of Walnut Street.

Home Rentals 2

 Asking around today, Home Rentals is not closing up. Instead the agency wants to liquidate over 100 properties and there is a discussion among the anancy principals as to whether to sell off and shutter the company or to keep going on with a smaller portfolio of properties.

Home Rentals

 From what I have heard, the selloff of Home Rentals properties preceeded the agency shutting down. At least the website has not been updated, it appears, since sometime in 2020 as they are still looking for renters for the 2020-2021 school year.

Home Rentals

 According to this Home Rentals is selling off a large number of their properties, about 166 of them at a combined totla of over $12 million. All of the apartments on West College Street between University and Poplar are currently up for sale

Rental Signage

Have noticed quite a few "For Rent" signs in the area between S. University and S. Poplar, and I would venture to guess well over half of them are for Home Rentals properties. Normally, that is not unusual given this time of year but I wonder how many will remain after summer ends and the fall semester starts.

The Carbonale Flats/Evolve project should open by then and last I hear, was over 50% rented, taking potential renters out of the pool for those properties. I also have not heard anything about a high expected influx of new students for the fall, though it could happen, which means that the local landlords are competing for the same slightly smaller pool of potential renters.  My guess is we see more students migrating to the Carbondale Flats project since it has "New" written all over it, while most of the properties in the Poplar/ University area have not had much improvements made on them in years.

Apartments

The new apartments Home Rentals (Lindsay Fisher's company) are putting up on West Monroe Street, just east of the library, are coming along nicely. I'd expect them ready to rent by this summer and imagine they will rent, since new apartments seem to fill fairly well. It is the older and somewhat dilapidated buildings that have problems filling.

West Monroe

It appears there is some planned construction at 310 West Monroe Street, according to the email below from the Preservation Commission.  This appears part of the same parcel that Home Rentals applied for a special uses permit to build a 4 apartment building back in 2011. Council eventually turned down the application after a number of complaints from residents in the area.

The Preservation Commission's Certificate of Appropriateness Committee will
meet on Wednesday, September 11, 2013, at 3:00 pm in Conference Room B on
the 2nd floor of City Hall at 200 South Illinois Avenue, to discuss the new
building to be constructed at 310 West Monroe Street.

500 West Walnut

 Photo courtesy the Arbor District



From second hand information, Home Rentals' plans for its recently acquired property at 500 West Walnut is to maintain it as a single family residence/rental.  The company has looked at the growth of the medical industry in the area and believes, with suitable renovations, it would make an ideal rental for medical professionals moving to the area.  The plan, according to what I understand, it to rent it for a year to new doctors working at one of the hospitals or clinics in the area, while they find or build permanent residences in the area.

Home Rentals has listed the property on its website as available for rent as a residential property at $2950  per month and does specify it is in a area zoned R-1.  However, it also lists the property as having 6-7 bedrooms, making it quite a bit larger that most families would need.

Possible Zoning Issues

According to a mailing sent out by the Arbor District, the huge 2-story house on the northwest corner of Walnut and Poplar (cattycorner to St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church), has sold to Home Rentals and there is already a "For Rent" sign on the lawn ( I happened to notice that just yesterday and was rather surprised, since I had never seen the house for rent before.  As you can see from the city's zoning map, the house is in an area zoned R-1, low density residential, meaning it should be occupied by a single household.  Not sure if it falls within the West Walnut Street Historic District, but if not, it is pretty close.  Of course, that hasn't stopped some other buildings within the district from use as multi person rentals as well.

Since the majority of Home Rentals's customers are students and most of the houses on West Walnut east of the property are already multi household rentals, as are several of the houses in the same block on West Main, behind the property, it will be interesting to see if the city enforces the zoning code there, or if the property succumbs to "zoning creep".

Update:  I have been informed by a blog reader that 500 W Walnut does fall inside the West Walnut Street Historic District.

Oakland Ave. Auto Repair

No sign yet that Oakland Ave. Auto Repair has any plans to move as the shop was directed to do in the letter sent by then Assistant City Manager Kevin Baity last November.  Quite likely they won't either, as the majority of the city council has shown little to no interest in pursuing the matter further.

From the city's viewpoint, I can certainly see why.  The warehouse nee' auto storage facility has sat empty for several years now, gradually deteriorating like many other larger unoccupied buildings in Carbondale (Animal Crackers, Tuscan Lodge, Peerless Linens to name a few).  Now the owners have fixed it up and the repair shop does decent business,generating some sales tax revenue for the city..  I pass the location a couple of times a week and always see a couple of cars inside undergoing repairs.

Also, when Home Rentals sought permission to lease the space to the repair shop, the city gave it, wrongly as it turns out.  Home Rentals, which has proven fairly dogged in its dealings with the city over the years, could validly claim that the company made substantial investments in the building in good faith and take the city to court should the city decide to pursue the movement order.  I'm not a lawyer so have no idea how that would shake out legally, but it certainly seems reasonable from a lay point of view.  Home Rentals, as one of the largest landlords in town, certainly has the money to pursue a legal option, likely moreso than one of the residents of the area, who might want to take action against the city for allowing the business to open up in an area not zoned for it.

More on Council Items

Have received a couple of emails and communications regarding yesterday's post.  Apparently the Arbor District did not actually support the request by Home Rentals for the special use permit for W. Monroe but viewed it as pretty much a given that it would go through.  The organization decided to make the best of what they viewed as a bad situation by making certain that the apartments would meet certain standards when built.  I am told that, in the audio of the council meeting, Arbor District representatives make it clear they do not support the special use permit.

Also regarding the Blue Fish transfer, the applicant, Manny Patel, had checked on his transfer application that he had paid his taxes on time, when in face he had not.  Of concern to the council is the fact that he appears to be having difficulty securing a Best Western franchise for the former Ramada Limited motel he owns on Giant City Road, as the Best Western signs have been installed for several weeks but remain covered with blue tarps.

City Council Items

A couple of items at the last city council meeting haven't gotten much attention.  The transfer of the liquor license for Bluefish Liquor and Cigars from Zach Short aka Short Enterprises to Manish Patel AKA Sunrise Hospitality.  Councilwoman Adams expressed concerns regarding the number of late fees, totaling over $1000, Patel has paid for late payment of the hotel & motel taxes collected by the Ramada Inn, as well as some late taxes owed by Moe's Southwestern Grill, which Patel also owns.  Mayor Fritzler expressed some concerns regarding the comparatively rapid change in owership, given that several changes in zoning were passed through council specifically allowing Blue Fish to open last year.  Council decided to deny the transfer on a 4-2 vote with Adams, Fritzler, Fronabarger and Monty voting to deny.

The other item on the agenda that got most of the attention at council was Home Rentals request for a Special Use permit allowing them to build an apartment building on West Monroe, next to the C'dale Public Library. Most of the people speaking at the meeting spoke in opposition to granting the permit.  Unfortunately, the audio is not posted on the website, but the request was denied.  It was interesting to see that both the Planning commission and the Arbor District Neighborhood Association approved the request before it went to council, where it ran into enough opposition to torpedo it.

City Council and Special Use Permit

Quite a bit on the city council's agenda tonight.  The item that had attracted the most attention is the request by Home Rentals for a Special Use permit, allowing the company to build an apartment complex at 310 and 312 West Monroe, next to the Carbondale Public Library.  A major reason for opposition is that Home Rentals still has properties damaged in the May 2009 storm that have not been repaired and are deteriorating, so why allow them to build new properties when the company is not maintaining the ones it already owns?

The Public Library has drafted a resolution requesting the Council deny the Special Use permit. Below, from the Arbor District email list, is a portion of the library's resolution:
 
The Public Library has a strong interest in the property in question; we reaffirm our opposition to the apartments and agree that the library would be willing to take stewardship of the property if, for example, it were donated to the library." 

Board members also noted that if there is to be any hope of renewal in this neighborhood we cannot have more apartments added. We talked about the fact that the property could be maintained as green space, and  could possibly be used to expand library parking, as I will be seeking grant funds to make our annex building (formerly part of Brush school) a more usable and attractive space. Right now, when we have book sales in that building, or large events at the library, our parking lot is completely filled with customers.

In short, if the special use permit passes, there will be yet another apartment complex in Carbondale, where there are already more apartments than the landlords can fill. This is an historic neighborhood, and in my opinion there are better options. We, and our neighbors are very concerned that if an apartment complex is built, the property will not be well maintained. To illustrate this point, I have attached a few examples of what tends to become of Home Rentals' property over the years. " 


According to an email sent out yesterday to the Arbor District list, an anonymous donor has offered to purchase the Monroe Street properties and donate them to the Library for maintenance as a green space next to the facility.  However, they would have to negotiate the purchase from Home Rentals, who has proven loathe in the past to sell any properties it owns, except for significantly more than the appraised value of the property

Commission Meetings

Looks like a plethora of Carbondale commission meetings this week. One of your taxing bodies, the Carbondale Park District board meets tonight at 6 p.m. in room 108 of the Civic Center.  Then the Planning Commission meets Wednesday at 7 p.m., also in the Civic Center.  Looks like the main item on that agenda is Home Rental's request to rezone property on West Monroe from Professional Administrative to Medium Density Residential (AKA Student Housing).

The Sustainability Commission meets at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Civic Center with bike trails, recycling and the Kopper's plant cleanup likely on the agenda.  Finally, to wrap up the week, the board for Carbondale Community High School meets at 7 p.m. in the CCHS Cafeteria.

Stotlar House

Drove by the Stotlar House this morning around 8 and still no demolition equipment in the yard. There were about half a dozen automobiles parted at various spots on the lawn and drive, though, so I'd bet some sort of meeting or walk-through was taking place.

Wanna Rehab Your House?

This is the list of resources provided to Home Rentals by the Preservation Commission should HR decide to rehab the Stotlar House rather than demolish it:

Local
Property Tax Assessment Freeze--property taxes on the building can be frozen for over a 122 year period after rehab is completed.

State
Landmarks Illinois has the Preservation Heritage Fund Grant which provides assistance to preserve or protect significant structures and sites in Illinois

Federal
Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit--offers a dollar for dollar Federal income tax credit equal to 20% of the construction costs.

Low Income Housing Tax Credit--Offered a tax credit for the rehab of low income housing. Either 9% per year for 10 years for projects not receiving Federal subsidies or 4% for those subsidized. (Don't think the Stotlar House would qualify).

National Trust for Historic Preservation--A number of grant and loan programs are available.

Certificate of Appropriateness Meeting

Sat in on the Preservation Commission's Certificate of Appropriateness Committee meeting (geez, that's a long name) this afternoon. I was right, the sole topic was the Stotlar House. Basicallythe meeting boiled down to, here's some information about resources available if Home Rentals chooses to restore the house, please don't tear it down, but there's really not anything we can do to stop you if you do.

The Home Rentals representative (I think he is the construction manager but didn't catch his name), was sympathetic to the committee's requests but said he estimated that, due to vandalism (apparently all wiring and metal plumbing has been ripped out of the house, which is what happens when the entire rear end of your building is left wide open to the elements), it would cost approximately $200,000 to rehab the building or about the same as it would cost to demolish the building and replace it with one that was architecturally similar to those in the surrounding neighborhood.

The committee pointed out that rebuilding the property would automatically give it the current special uses status it has, while demolition and rebuilding would require the building to either conform to the commercial status the area is zoned for or for Home Rentals to re-apply for a special uses exemption.

The Home Retails rep did say they did not plan to bring in demolition equiptment as soon as the moratorium expires on March 1 and they would meet with planner Meagan Jones next week to further discuss the committee's recommendations