Brownsville Apartments up for judicial foreclosure sale
Mike Tony/For the Observer-Reporter
The vacant Brownsville Apartments building is the subject of a judicial foreclosure sale on Wednesday.
Mike Tony/For the Observer-Reporter
The shuttered Brownsville Apartments building will be sold as-is.
One of Brownsville’s largest buildings is up for sale.
The vacant seven-story, 41,140-square-foot high rise at 100 High St. known as Brownsville Apartments is slated for a judicial foreclosure sale to be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Fayette County Courthouse.
The 45-unit property previously provided senior housing but has been vacant since March 2018, emptied out after Brownsville borough officials and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) identified major fire safety issues.
The building was posted as uninhabitable in February 2018. HUD hired a relocation company to move residents out, and they were afforded a new place to live.
“It’s structurally sound,” Brownsville Borough Council President Jack Lawver said. “(It was just) let go for a long time.”
HUD provided the building’s owner, Sage Partners, L.P., of Charleroi, a mortgage loan of $589,000 in April 2001, and Sage Partners subsequently defaulted, said Patricia A. Campbell, a HUD public affairs officer.
HUD referred the foreclosure action to the Department of Justice, Campbell said, adding that the property will be sold as a judicial foreclosure under Pennsylvania state laws to be conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service.
“There’s a lot of work that needs done to it,” Lawver said.
Approximately 30 residents were relocated after borough officials repeatedly cited fire safety concerns with the building. In December 2017, borough code officer Myron Nypaver reported that the building had a “basically nonexistent” smoke detection system.
A fire at Brownsville Apartments in February 2017 called attention to what South Brownsville Fire Chief Ron Barry informed borough council were several major safety concerns with the apartment complex. Barry reported a lack of a working fire alarm system, lack of a functional standpipe system and the housing of a wheelchair-bound tenant on the sixth floor who had to be assisted down six flights of stairs.
Significant physical deficiencies found by a Real Estate Assessment Center inspection report in 2017 included blocked emergency exits, missing or damaged smoke detectors, cracks and holes in ceilings, missing or damaged windows and window screens, and obstructed or missing accessibility routes.
The building was constructed in 1900 and is comprised of 31 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom, and 10 efficiency apartments. The sale will be an “as is” sale with no restrictions on future use, according to HUD. Ten percent of the bid amount is required at the time of the sale in certified funds.
Lawver is hopeful that the building will get a new start.
“It’s a great building,” Lawver said.