Columbus Dispatch: Challenges of property-tax values surge in region again

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Filings in central Ohio surge again this year

Sunday, April 10, 2011 03:18 AM

By Allison Manning and Elizabeth Gibson

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

It's another record-breaking year for tax appeals in some central Ohio counties.

More than 18,000 property owners in seven counties filed applications challenging their property value before last week's deadline. Franklin County was the source of 14,000 of those applications, up from about 8,000 last year.

Delaware County received more than 2,100 this year, a 48 percent jump from last year's record number. And Pickaway County, which just a decade ago received 12 complaints, will sift through a record 165.

The applications are the first step in contesting the auditor's valuation of property. Owners who apply turn in evidence supporting their estimation of what the home, business or land is worth. The county appraiser can agree and grant the request, or instead invite the property owner to appear before the Board of Revision, which is made up of the county auditor and treasurer and a county commissioner.

The Franklin County Board of Revision had projected a record number of filings - 10,000 - and it received even more: 14,000.

The total represents 32 filings per 1,000 Franklin County parcels, the highest rate in central Ohio.

"We're already working beyond capacity," said Franklin County Auditor Clarence E. Mingo. "We're going to have to double our efforts."

County officials added staff members to the Board of Revision this year in anticipation of the increase. The 16 members of the board's administrative staff also have received authorization for overtime, including weekends, to get the work done.

Mingo said he hopes to unveil a mediation program for revision cases this year. In theory, mediation would pull aside and sort out complex cases that otherwise would consume time, allowing routine complaints to be processed faster.

"I would ask homeowners to be patient with us," Mingo said. "We will be doing our absolute best to ensure speedy and accurate decisions, but obviously, a tremendous challenge awaits us."

Delaware County Auditor George Kaitsa expected last year's record number of complaints, 1,462, to be the peak.

This year, the office advertised the process and stayed open late to receive the last of more than 2,100 complaints.

It took Kaitsa's office about a year to go through last year's complaints. This year, he hopes to have values decided by November. About 75 percent of cases avoided a full hearing in front of the Board of Revision last year, because county appraisers agreed with the property owners' requested amount. He'd like to see more of that, and he asked the county's appraisal company to add workers.

"Our goal is to try and compress the time on the Board of Revision cases, so hopefully we can have all of the hearings completed before we set the final values for the year," Kaitsa said.

Last year in Licking County, a high of 965 property owners filed complaints. It took the Board of Revision until last month to finish them.

Auditor Michael Smith hopes a new software system that allows for faster comparison of similar sales will streamline the process for the 718 property owners who filed complaints this year. Already, 50 complaints have been settled, despite the office having lost one appraiser.

"This time last year, we maybe would have taken care of a handful," Smith said. "I think we're just able to do more with less, and with better technology."

amanning@dispatch.com

egibson@dispatch.com

Crime Watch Alert for the Short North Areas

Consider joining the Short North Block Watch Google Group Here

Information about the Italian Village Block Watch is Here

You can also see alerts from the Buckeye Regional Anti Violence Organization (BRAVO) Here

(Send me others and I will post them)

The following came from a friend of mine. They received it from the Italian Village Block Watch:

Sunday (4.3.11) around 9PM, two of my friends, a man and woman, were walking to the Goodale Park area from the CBJ game & dinner. They were walking north on Park Street when a hard-topped Mustang convertible (dark silver or grayish) pulled up to them on W. Millay (an alley) & Park St.

A caucasian man, (mid 20's, 5'8 or 6' tall, with brown hair and noticeable facial tattoos, wearing a white wife-beater and jeans) asked for directions.

The caucasian female, (mid 20's, 5'4, brown hair in a high ponytail) used this opportunity to get out of the Mustang and started jumping the woman, grabbing her by the neck and demanding her purse. Then the man got out of the car and held a "knife/gun object" inside his pant pocket. They demanded money and physically tried to obtain the woman's purse. They victims fought them off and threw all the money they had on the ground then called then ran and called the cops. The muggers drove off quickly.

The cops said the man sounded like a description of someone they have been looking for, but they couldn't track them down yesterday.

Just wanted everyone to be aware and on the lookout as they need to be caught! Plus, Park Street on a Sunday seems like a safe place to walk, especially as a couple.

Columbus Dispatch: Persistent buyer goes distance for short-sale property

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On the House | Jim Weiker commentary: Persistent buyer goes distance for short-sale property

Sunday, April 3, 2011 03:11 AM

Two days ago, Charles Roginski and his girlfriend, Nina Calabria, were to drive 612 miles from their Delaware County home to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

They were eager to see what 30 months of short-sale limbo had bought them.

In January, Roginski paid $165,500 - sight unseen - for a two-bedroom, two-bath fully furnished condominium in Grande Dunes resort on the north side of Myrtle Beach.

Roginski is the second owner of the condo.

The first owners bought it new in 2007.

They paid $569,900.

"I'm happy with the way it turned out," Roginski said recently.

He's also happy it's over.

The Grande Dunes property was his 11th short-sale offer since August 2008 and the first to be accepted.

With each rejected deal, his determination edged closer to obsession.

"By the time I thought he'd actually buy one, I figured I'd be ready for retirement myself," joked Calabria, 46.

Roginski's exercise in persistence illustrates both the trials and rewards of short sales, in which a property sells for less than is owed on the mortgage.

Roginski, a 60-year-old director of organizing for the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, made his first short-sale offer on a Westerville condominium. At the time, he was looking to replace his three-bedroom 2,800-square-foot ranch on an acre for something more maintenance-free.

He soon learned that short sales are often an exercise in patience. In February 2009, six months after making his first offer, the bank rejected it.

"At that time, banks were just sitting on these things," Roginski said.

In 2009, he made offers on three other central Ohio properties in short sales.

All were turned down, and Roginski turned his attention to Myrtle Beach, where he and Calabria had vacationed for several years.

He enlisted the help of Sheri Hager, a Century 21 buyer's agent in North Myrtle Beach.

Myrtle Beach, like most secondary-home markets, has been bludgeoned by the housing collapse.

But one happy result for buyers is that agents and banks are accustomed to dealing with short sales and foreclosures. (Hager estimates that 25 percent of her business is in short sales.)

Roginski said banks responded to his offers in Myrtle Beach far more quickly than they did in Ohio.

That doesn't mean they accepted his offers, even though Roginski learned to offer close to the asking price.

Roginski made his first Myrtle Beach offer in March 2010 and made five more by the end of June. All were turned down. Calabria had grown tired of the process and Roginski was heading there himself.

"She'd say, 'Don't you have something better to do?'" Roginski said. "I'll admit, by the end, I was getting tired of it and thinking of giving up."

In November, Hager alerted him to the Grande Dunes condo.

Roginski and Calabria were familiar with the resort but hadn't considered buying there.

With its Ruth's Chris Steak House, golf courses, tennis club, marina and private oceanfront clubhouse, they considered it out of their reach. Roginski had toured one of its condos, but, otherwise, their biggest exposure to the resort was enjoying the half-price happy hour at its outdoor bar.

But Roginski decided to make an offer anyway on a sixth-floor unit listed at $169,900. He planned to offer $164,500, but, at the last minute, he and Hager decided to bump it up $1,000, which, they later learned, put him $500 ahead of a competing bid.

Hager submitted the offer Dec. 2. He learned two days later that it was accepted and, on Jan. 26, he closed on his first short-sale property.

"He definitely was persistent and he was patient, which was the key to the whole process," Hager said. "A short sale is anything but a short process."

This weekend, Roginski is planning to enjoy the fruits of his long labor.

"I'm looking forward to seeing it," he said before heading south. "I've never bought anything like this before."

Business First: Arena District to fill last gap with new office tower, parking garage

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Nationwide Realty Investors Ltd. is primed to fill the last major parcel in the Arena District with a six-story office building and parking garage complex, completing its ambitious plan for a residential and commercial district laid out when Nationwide Arena opened in 2000.

A commitment from Columbia Gas of Ohio Inc. to anchor the 280,000-square-foot office building at the corner of Neil Avenue and Nationwide Boulevard convinced the developer to move ahead on the project, scheduled for completion in late 2014.

“This building essentially completes the commercial component of the original Arena District master plan,” said Nationwide Realty President Brian Ellis. “This project will take up the vast majority of the remaining ground.”

The $50 million project will include a parking garage with at least 1,400 spots to make up for the 525-spot surface parking lot that will be lost to the construction. Ellis said a construction timetable hasn’t been finalized and the parking garage may get started first.

“We’re still looking at the sequencing,” he said. “We don’t need to start construction immediately to meet Columbia Gas’ needs.”

The office complex would be the largest built so far in the Arena District, surpassing the Jones Day law firm-anchored building at 325 John H. McConnell Blvd., which has 165,000 square feet of space.

It will sit directly across Nationwide Boulevard from Jones Day and a five-story, 95,000-square-foot office building anchored by the San Francisco-based engineering firm URS Corp.

The project is contingent on Columbus City Council approving a 10-year, 75-percent tax abatement on the investment.

Legislation is set for introduction on April 11.

‘Great place to grow’

Columbia Gas, a division of Merrillville, Ind.-based utility NiSource Inc., plans to take at least 208,000 square feet when it moves its 650 employees out of leased offices at 200 Civic Center Drive in the RiverSouth District downtown.

Ellis said the building will have two contiguous floors with an additional 20,000 square feet on each floor available to Columbia Gas if needed.

“Columbia Gas really wanted to make sure the project was multitenant, so we sized it accordingly,” he said. “We think the Arena District is a great place to grow.”

The company asked Nationwide to build additional space in case it expands its downtown operations, including information technology and financial functions as well as a control center for NiSource gas distribution in seven states and centralized dispatch operations for five states.

“The main thing is we’ve been able to build in flexibility in terms of what our needs may be and cover any eventuality in terms of growth,” said Columbia Gas President Jack Partridge.

Columbia Gas moved into the 14-story, 240,000-square-foot RiverSouth building when it was completed in 1983. Partridge said the building layout is less efficient than what they’ll get in the Arena District and it was not pre-wired for technology lines when it was built.

A coming lease expiration in December 2014 prompted NiSource’s corporate real estate department to begin looking for options.

Partridge said the company considered new development land and buildings in Dublin and New Albany, as well as Easton in the city of Columbus.

“We tried to look at every option out there and each option had attractive aspects,” he said. “(But) the Arena District is where we ended up.”

View Arena District building in a larger map

Business First: Ibiza replacement plan faces hurdles

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Columbus real estate investor Mike Schiff first demonstrated an appetite for distressed properties in late 2010 with a relatively conservative play with the discounted purchase of a loan on the former Yankee Trader site near the North Market.

Stepping it up a bit, he purchased the nearly vacant Atlas Building downtown in late February with plans to redevelop the historic property into apartments and perhaps offices.

Now Schiff has worked his way into the Short North to the pocked, vacant site at 830 N. High St. that for the last four years has proven a financial black hole for Apex Realty, the would-be developers of the failed 11-story Ibiza condominium tower. A Schiff-led venture began solidifying its development rights for the property this week when it took over a contract from Columbus’ Core One Properties LLC to buy out Apex’s mortgage for the site. The loan has an outstanding balance of about $4.6 million but any developer could buy it at a discount and control the real estate.

The Ibiza saga goes back to 2006, when Apex first unveiled its plans for the 11-story tower. After numerous delays, the developer told about 70 would-be condo buyers in January 2010 that it would scuttle its bid for 138 condos and pursue apartments instead. Core Properties showed interest a few months later as it began talking to the Finance Fund, a financier of projects in distressed neighborhoods, about buying out the loan and putting apartments on the site.

Schiff said he wants a mix of offices, retail and residential units in a tower similar in scope to the failed Ibiza.

“It will have a much better shot at success than something that’s strictly residential,” he said.

But those plans still offer plenty of risks. For one, Schiff will have to pay off more than $550,000 in past-due property taxes. And those prospective buyers remain in line for an estimated $1.2 million in deposits Apex has yet to return, according to numerous lawsuits filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. Such litigation, and rumors the developer may file for bankruptcy, may impede any plans.

Schiff also will have to go back to the Italian Village Commission since the project’s “certificate of appropriateness” has long since expired. He said he has lined up two unspecified developers to work through the minefield, but the unveiling of a formal plan will take a few months.

“We think we’ll bring Italian Village something they can be happy with,” Schiff said.

Core Properties CEO Jeff Coopersmith did not get specific in outlining his reasons for walking away from the project after nearly a year of trying.

“We basically sold our contract (to develop the site) in order to recover some of our expenses,” he said. “... We just couldn’t figure out how to make it work economically within our risk parameters. It was just too big of a risk.”

Columbus Dispatch: New developer to take over Ibiza's Short North site

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Retail, residential, office space planned in Short North tower

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 03:06 AM

By Jim Weiker

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A Columbus developer plans to build an office and residential tower on the site of the failed Ibiza condominium project in the Short North.

Schiff Capital Group has assumed control of the site at N. High Street and Hubbard Avenue, principal Michael Schiff said.

Schiff said he plans an eight- to 10-story building to include retail and restaurants on the ground floor, three or four floors of office space and some sort of residential space - probably apartments - on the upper floors.

"We believe that we have a real formula for success there," Schiff said. "The Short North is the hottest area in central Ohio right now, and this is the heart of the Short North."

The deal appears to mark the end for Ibiza. The project, announced in 2006, was to have been the largest condo project in the Short North, with 135 units in two 11-story towers.

But the project was crushed by a collapsing real-estate market, although an estimated 60 buyers deposited a total of about $1million for condominiums in the project. At least 17 investors have sued the developer, ARMS Properties, or its sister company, Apex Realty Enterprises, for their money back. In addition, Franklin County has sued ARMS for about $551,000 in unpaid property taxes.

"All along, the principals at Apex Realty Enterprises and ARMS Properties have promised their investors that if a new developer takes over the project, each person who deposited money would be made whole," said Brian Laliberte, a Columbus attorney who represents 15 investors. "We certainly hope that Apex and ARMS will follow through on that promise."

ARMS officials, who could not be reached for comment, had tried to strike a deal with Columbus developer Core Properties to build apartments on the site. Core backed out of the project after determining that the risk was too high, said Jeffrey Coopersmith, Core's managing partner.

Schiff assumed Core's primary position with the chief lender on the project, the Finance Fund.

"This is a great site, but it requires a different approach than what we're used to doing," Coopersmith said. "We were perfectly happy to give Mike our position."

Schiff said he hopes to work out the details of the development in 60 to 90days and "be able to proceed with construction soon after that."

The development also would include a parking garage off High Street, he said.

"This is a very important site for the entire city," Schiff said. "We see it as becoming a true focal point and meeting place in the Short North."

jweiker@dispatch.com

Columbus Dispatch: More people signed contracts to buy homes in Feb.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- More Americans signed contracts to buy homes in February, but sales were uneven across the country and not enough to signal a rebound in the housing market.

Sales agreements for homes rose 2.1 percent last month to a reading of 90.8, according to the National Association of Realtors' pending home sales index released Monday. Sales rose in every region but the Northeast.

Signings were 19.6 percent above June's index reading, the low point since the housing bust. Still, the index is below 100, which is considered a healthy level. The last time it reached that point was in April, the final month people could qualify for a home-buying tax credit.

Contract signings are usually a good indicator of where the housing market is heading. That's because there's usually a one- to two-month lag between a sales contract and a completed deal.

But the Realtors group also noted "a measurable level of contract cancellations" that also occurred in February. Many buyers canceled after appraisals showed the properties were valued much lower than their initial bids.

A sale is not final until a mortgage is closed.

"Therefore, the latest pickup in pending home sales and mortgage applications might not necessarily end up in a measurable pickup in mortgage closings and translate into an increase in existing home sales," said Yelena Shulyatyeva, an analyst at BNP Paribas.

The pace of sales varied from region to region. Signings fell 10.9 percent in the Northeast. They rose 2.7 percent in the South, 4 percent in Midwest and 7 percent in the West.

High unemployment, strict lending standards, and a record number of foreclosures are deterring would-be buyers, who fear home prices haven't reached the bottom.

Sales of previously owned homes fell last year to the lowest level in 13 years. Economists say it will be years before the housing market fully recovers. The rise in foreclosures has pushed the median price of previously occupied homes to its lowest point in nearly 9 years.

New-home sales have fared even worse. Americans are on track to buy fewer new homes than in any year since the government began keeping data almost a half-century ago. Sales are now just half the pace of 1963 - even though there are 120 million more people in the United States now.