Former owner offers $20,000 for old Berow & Monroe building

Members of the Watertown City Council are expected to introduce a resolution tonight that approves selling the old Berow & Monroe building to the West Virginia man who failed to pay back taxes on the Court Street property in June.

Mayor Jeffrey E. Graham said council members will not vote on the $20,000 offer from former owner Alex Rahmi because it needs four votes for approval and Councilmen Joseph M. Butler Jr. and Jeffrey M. Smith will be out of town and will not attend the meeting.

On Feb. 6, council members informally agreed to give Mr. Rahmi a chance to buy his property back because he was the only potential developer who submitted a proposal for the deteriorating three-story building at 138-140 Court St. But they also stipulated that Mr. Rahmi had to provide information about his experience in completing similar economic development projects.

According to a Feb. 16 memo from the city Planning Department, Mr. Rahmi has not done that yet. The memo, written by Kenneth A. Mix, the city’s planning and community development coordinator, says Mr. Rahmi will owe the city $25,157.31 in back taxes and other city expenses by the time the sale transaction could be completed next month.

In November, the Planning Department requested proposals, but Mr. Rahmi was the only developer who submitted one by the Jan. 24 deadline. The department had sent out requests to seven possible developers, five of whom had previously expressed an interest in the building.

The Planning Department had suggested that projects for the three-story building include a mix of retail and residential units. Mr. Rahmi’s plans call for retail businesses on the ground floor and upper-floor apartments.

City officials have said the building is in rough shape because of a leaking roof drain system. They agreed in November to pay a contractor at least $2,500 to fix the broken, cracked and plugged drainage system so the building does not deteriorate any further.

The city obtained the building after Mr. Rahmi failed to pay $17,476.96 in back taxes in June. Mr. Rahmi said he was set to give the city a check for that amount at the time, but council members decided not to accept it.

Mr. Graham also said he and Councilwomen Teresa R. Macaluso and Roxanne M. Burns are expected tonight to approve a series of policies and guidelines pertaining to alcohol sales at events at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds and other city-owned facilities.

Mr. Graham said he does not expect any changes to the new policies when they are voted on tonight. “They were all hashed out last week,” he said.

The city has been working on the policies after learning that the Parks and Recreation Department was not following state Liquor Authority regulations regarding alcohol sales at city facilities.

The council meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the third-floor council chambers at City Hall, 245 Washington St.