The diocese and its parishes want abuse litigation against parishes to be put on hold for at least another 90 to 120 days so mediation discussions can progress without the distraction of having to defend against potentially hundreds of lawsuits in state courts.
JEFFERSONVILLE โ An agreement has been reached between the Jeffersonville Redevelopment Commission and the Southern Indiana Tourism Bureau regarding the property where the bureau’s offices and visitor center used to be.
City attorney Les Merkley explained the situation during the commission’s meeting Wednesday with the original bureau offices and visitor center located at 305 and 315 Southern Indiana Ave.
He said the building was auctioned at a public sale, and they entered into a purchase agreement with the winning bidder.
SoIN Tourism Executive Director Jim Epperson said a title search was ordered before the start of the auction of the property, but they didn’t receive the results until the end of the auction on Dec. 12, 2023, where they saw the reversion clause.
Epperson said the deed to the property contained a reversion clause that was written in 1996 that states that when the tourism bureau leaves the property, it reverts back to the commission. He said the property was originally sold to the bureau from the commission for $1.
“It was really a protection for both organizations back then,” Epperson said about the clause.
Merkley and Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore said discussions were made and agreement was reached between the commission and bureau.
“I’m satisfied with these terms,” Moore said at the meeting.
The tourism bureau will revert the property back to the commission, which will then be sold. Around $396,000 will go toward the commission, while the bureau will receive $455,000.
“I think the portion that we’re getting recognizes the investment that we’ve made over the years, but also respects the original ownership of the redevelopment commission,” Epperson said.
He said the property will be sold to Neace Ventures, and the closing of the sale will occur by the end of April. He said he thanks the attorneys that worked on this agreement with the city and bureau.
“We had great use of that property for 27 years,” Epperson said.
In February, the bureau moved to an office in downtown Jeffersonville at 228 Spring St., Suite 106. Epperson said there has been an “automatic uptick” of foot traffic to the visitor center particularly with residents.
“When that foot traffic really starts taking off with people crossing the bridge and events on the river stage, we know it’s going to be a great location for us,” he said.
PHILADELPHIA โ When the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan in 2021, Jawad Moradi feared he would be put in prison, or worse.
Five years earlier, he had earned his master of laws degree at Duke University. Because of his U.S. legal education and interaction with colleagues in the United States and elsewhere, he was at risk. And as a member of a minority population that had been targeted by the Taliban, he was even more vulnerable.
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Marquette Savings Bank of Erie has announced plans to sell one of its two Meadville banking properties to a neighboring, non-banking business.
The bank intends to sell its drive-thru-only branch property at 349 North St. to Country Fair Inc., the Erie-based convenience store chain. The branch will close down at 6 p.m. March 29.
Country Fair Inc., with 72 convenience stores located in Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York, has two Meadville-area locations.
Country Fairโs locations are at 18163 Conneaut Lake Road in Vernon Township, and 333 North St., the intersection of North and North Main streets, in Meadville. Its North Street location abuts the Marquetteโs drive-thru-only office on North Street.
โCountry Fair has been exploring the potential for additional parking and storage at its location on North and Main streets,โ Steve Danch, chairman of Marquetteโs board of trustees, said in a statement.
Country Fair Inc. officials did not return Meadville Tribune emails and telephone messages on Thursday and Friday requesting comment about its plans or a timeline for any changes.
On Jan. 18, the Meadville Zoning Hearing Board did approve a request for a special exception for 349 North St. to serve as additional parking and additional storage space for Country Fairโs North Street location. Approval of the special exception was required for the potential land sale to move forward.
Marquette will maintain its Meadville full-service walk-in and drive-thru location at 1075 Park Ave., Danch said. The two bank branches are about three-quarters of a mile apart.
โWith a full-service Marquette branch located nearby on Park Avenue, this sale offers Marquette an opportunity to support and benefit the Meadville community while maintaining a strong presence to serve our customers here,โ Danch said.
No banking jobs will be lost as the North Street employees may transfer to other Marquette locations in the Meadville area, Danch said.
In addition to Park Avenue, the bank has another full-service office in the Meadville area at 16272 Conneaut Lake Road in Vernon Township.
The Catholic Churchโs shrinking physical presence in Western New York will get even smaller when the Buffalo Diocese sells off valuable real estate to help settle sex abuse claims.
The diocese, which four years ago today filed for Chapter 11 protection, has identified 22 properties, including its longtime headquarters, it may sell to generate funds toward a settlement of the roughly 900 claims in federal bankruptcy court.
But aside from that development, thereโs little indication the diocese is close to reaching a deal with the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents about 900 people who said they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests or other diocese employees.
The bankruptcy case, filed Feb. 28, 2020, already has taken longer to resolve than any other diocese reorganization except for the Archdiocese of Milwaukeeโs, which took nearly five years.
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While Buffalo Diocese officials and an attorney for the creditors committee declined to comment on their mediated settlement talks, abuse victims expressed dismay over the pace of negotiations.
โTheyโre nowhere,โ said Kevin Brun, whose 2019 lawsuit alleging the Rev. Arthur Smith molested him when he was a teenager has been stalled in state court due to the bankruptcy. โIโve been reflecting on how long this bankruptcy process is taking, and my frustration level, it canโt be measured. And Iโm sure other survivors โ in fact I know other survivors who Iโve spoken to that are extremely frustrated as well.โ
The diocese has wracked up nearly $14 million in legal bills, while those who filed abuse claims in bankruptcy court have yet to see a penny.
โI donโt see where the sense of urgency or where the incentive is for these bankruptcy attorneys to settle these cases. I mean, theyโre getting paid right along, regardless of what the final outcome is,โ said Brun, who also has a claim in the diocese bankruptcy case. โI just donโt think theyโre pushing hard enough or negotiating strong enough to bring this to fruition.โ
Michael F. Whalen Jr. said he was hoping Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of New York will soon allow at least some Child Victims Act lawsuits to proceed in state court, as a prod for negotiations to move forward.
Bucki decided in January to keep Child Victims Act lawsuits against Catholic parishes and schools on hold until at least April 15.
โItโs just too long. Too many people are passing away,โ said Whalen, whose news conference in 2018 alleging abuse by the Rev. Norbert Orsolits led to the unraveling of the dioceseโs historical cover-up of clergy sex abuse cases. โI feel sorry for the survivors that have passed and havenโt see closure.โ
The dioceseโs announcement in court papers last October that it would offer at least $100 million toward a settlement elicited mostly scoffs โ both from abuse victims who said it was a paltry amount to address their pain and suffering and from parishioners furious over having to pay for church leadershipโs mishandling of abusive clergy.
Properties will be sold
To get there, the diocese will have to sell at least some of its property.
Already on the market is the former Christ the King Seminary, a sprawling campus of 18 buildings on 117 acres in the Town of Aurora, with an asking price of $5.3 million.
The Buffalo Diocese has set the price at $5.3 million for a bucolic property in the Town of Aurora where it used to have men trained to become priests.
Three potential buyers for the property emerged in 2020 after the seminary closed. One was the Masonic Care Community, which was prepared to make a cash offer, according to a trustee. The diocese put off plans for the sale at the time due to demands of the Chapter 11 process. The Masonic Care Community was still interested in the property but also was busy with other projects at the moment, said the trustee, Christopher Hough.
Other diocese properties have yet to be listed but have been named in court papers as likely targets for sales. The most prominent is the Catholic Center, the dioceseโs longtime headquarters at 785 and 795 Main St. The five-story former home of the Courier Express newspaper was built in 1929 and has an estimated full market value of $6.7 million, according to City of Buffalo property records.
Also on the list of properties to be marketed: three Newman Centers located near university or college campuses in Buffalo, Amherst, and Alfred; three priest retirement homes; a home for expectant mothers and mothers with newborns; a center for families of patients being treated at nearby hospitals; and a large office building in Lackawanna that houses the administrative operations of Our Lady of Victory Charities. About 30 retired priests live in the three homes in Tonawanda, Depew and Lackawanna.
Appraisals were conducted last week of the UB Newman Center at 495 Skinnersville Road in Amherst and a condominium on Bristol Drive thatโs home to the Rev. Paul D. Seil, UB Newman Center director, Seil said in a weekly newsletter posting on Sunday.
โWhile I have been informed numerous times that the condo will be sold (to help fund the settlement to the victims of clergy abuse and the cover-up), that does not mean the same for the Newman Center!โ Seil said in the newsletter. He declined to comment further on Tuesday.
Construction of the UB Newman Center was completed in 2010 at a cost of $2.7 million.
Sales of the properties would further reduce the local Catholic Churchโs vast Western New York real estate empire, which has shrunk dramatically over the past 15 years as dozens of churches and elementary schools closed due to declining church attendance and school enrollments and fewer priests.
Through a diocese spokesman, Bishop Michael W. Fisher declined requests to be interviewed for this story. In a video posted Tuesday to the diocese website, he acknowledged that Western New York Catholics โmust address the realization that we have more parishes than we need for our Catholic population.โ
โThe reality is buildings are closing,โ said Fisher, โbut the church, the people of God, will continue.โ
Most recently, All Saints Catholic Church in Buffaloโs Riverside neighborhood and St. Andrew Church and school in the Town of Tonawanda were slated to be closed later this year and will likely be put on the market. While those properties are owned by parishes, which are separate non-profit corporations, their sales ultimately will benefit a settlement trust because the parishes owed the diocese hundreds of thousands of dollars in โassessments,โ a regular diocesan tax on weekly offertory collections.
But Fisher also said in his video that the recent closures โare not a direct result of our ongoing Chapter 11 proceedingsโ and instead were connected to โwider societal trends that span long before our recent problems,โ such as migration of local Catholics to other parts of the country, smaller families and people identifying as spiritual but not religious.
The diocese and parishes have discussed additional assessments of all parishes as part of funding a settlement but โno actions have been taken at this time and cannot be taken until the bankruptcy court renders its decision,โ he said.
The Buffalo Diocese has asked a state court to stop the public release ofย documents subpoenaed by the State Attorney Generalโs Office during its investigation into the dioceseโs handling of childhood sex abuse allegations against clergy.
Bucki in January allowed the diocese to hire Hanna Commercial Real Estate as real estate broker for the 22 properties.
โWe have the big list, but weโre not authorized to market any of them,โ except for the seminary, said William K. Heussler, licensed associate real estate broker with Hanna.
Heussler said his office will be directed by the court about what properties to list and when.
โI donโt know procedurally what they do and how they deem those ready to sell,โ he added.
The diocese is required under bankruptcy proceedings to monetize its assets for the purposes of paying its creditors, but it doesnโt necessarily mean that it must sell all properties.
In some instances, a loan may be taken against the value of a property, with the loan proceeds used to pay into a settlement trust.
The 22 properties on the dioceseโs revised list do not include five Catholic high school buildings that were part of previous diocese property lists.
Bishop Timon-St. Jude High School in South Buffalo, St. Maryโs High School in Lancaster, Cardinal OโHara High School in the Town of Tonawanda, Notre Dame High School in Batavia and the former DeSales High School in Lockport, now used as an elementary school, are all owned by the diocese. The schools have operated independently of the diocese for many years, but never took ownership of the buildings.
Instead, they lease the space long term for a nominal fee, with the understanding that they pay for property maintenance, renovations, and upgrades.
Could things be about to change in the Charlottesville housing market? Prices are still up, as ever, but sales are down and mortgage rates are coming down with them.
According to fourth-quarter data, last year ended the way it started for the Charlottesville areaโs housing market: properties only getting pricier. But the pattern of property values consistently creeping upward may not continue for much longer, as dropping mortgage rates meets a โtremendous amount of pent-up demandโ from buyers who have not been able to afford todayโs prices, said Anne Burroughs, president of the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors.
โOur own businesses are seeing a lot of buyers coming out of the woodwork as interest rates move down,โ Burroughs told The Daily Progress. โTheyโre ready to move out because theyโve been looking for a home for the past two years. Theyโre saying โIโve got to move, Iโve got to get a house.โโ
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After almost reaching 8% toward the end of October 2023, mortgage rates began trending down, reaching 6.6% in the third week of January. This figure is less than the 6.66% from the previous week, but still up from where it sat at 6.15% a year ago.
At the height of the pandemic, the federal government lowered mortgage rates more than it had in decades, ranging from 2% to 3%. This resulted in an almost 150% increase in people refinancing their properties, which in turn led to homeowners being less inclined to sell their houses, with mortgage rates almost three times larger than the previous year.
While Burroughs is unable to predict the Federal Reserveโs behavior, she said the agency has been indicating it intends to continue lowering the rate.
โWe canโt predict when theyโre going to decrease, and we donโt know how much of an impact it will have,โ she said. โBut itโs going to help ease us out of the lock-in effect of homeownership, because the idea of selling a home after refinancing it at 2% is hard to swallow.โ
Burroughs said she believes that if interest rates were to fall into the 5% range, homeowners may feel more comfortable with selling.
โIf rates continue to slide down, you have more competition and have more buyers getting off the bench so to speak,โ Josh White, president-elect of the regional Realtor association, told The Daily Progress.
As for the temperature of the marketโs fourth quarter in 2023, sales activity remained cool. In the Charlottesville area, which includes the city as well as the counties of Albemarle, Greene, Nelson, Louisa and Fluvanna, there were 817 house sales, which is 100 fewer sales, or 11% less, than that time last year.
The decrease is due to the rise in housing prices โ the median price tag went up by 9% year over year, from $400,000 to $435,000 โ in conjunction with the decline in active listings. The fourth quarter ended 2023 with 674 available houses on the market, 9% fewer from a year ago.
โPrices are up and sales are down, which sounds counterintuitive, but it has to do with the issue of offer and demand,โ said Burroughs.
In Albemarle County, the median sales price rose by almost $50,000 year over year, reaching $522,160 with 25 fewer listings. Median sales prices were up to some degree in every county that the Realtor association covers; the price increased by 20% in Nelson County, a locality that has not reported an increase in the past four quarters.
Fluvanna County was the only exception where the median sales price dipped by 3%, which amounts to $10,000.
โThe prices were going up everywhere, they didnโt go up as much in Charlottesville though. There was only one market where sales went down, Fluvanna, which is the most affordable county in our footprint,โ said Burroughs. โThings are pretty much tracking with the level of activity in those counties.โ
The prices of resale houses are increasing in tandem with the sales prices of new developments. In the Charlottesville area, new permitting activity slowed significantly, with 50% fewer permits issued for construction on multifamily properties in 2023 compared to the year prior. As a whole, 1,239 residential building permits were issued last year, 405 fewer permits than 2022.
However, Burroughs pointed to the amount of permits granted from 2020 to 2022, which indicates there are new developments coming out of the permitting process not yet on the market.
โTheyโre being built so weโre going to see them come online. Permit activity has dropped, but there will be an influx of developments and properties for sale, but then it will drop back down,โ said Burroughs.
The price of new houses remains high, as construction costs as well as the number and wages of workers are still struggling to recover from the pandemic. The median sales price for new construction in the Charlottesville area is on par with prices in Richmond at around $492,000, according to Burroughs.
Regarding unemployment, the rate in the Charlottesville-area footprint was 2.5% in November 2023, which remains relatively unchanged from a year ago.
In the upcoming months, Burroughs recommends potential buyers get a good grasp on their financial situation and understand what are the specific โneedsโ and โwantsโ they are looking for in a house.
โThe sales cycle is going quickly, so buyers need to be prepared and have a good advocate,โ said White. โThey should use the value and knowledge of buyersโ agents to guide them through the process.โ
Given houses are not selling as quickly as they used to, per fourth-quarter data, sellers should work to price their real estate as accurately as possible, said Burroughs. Houses that are prepared for buyers to immediately move in are more likely to sell faster.
MADISON (WKOW) — The two consultants hired by the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued their recommendations after reviewing six proposed sets of new legislative maps.
The consultants are Dr. Jonathan Cervas, a professor at Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology, and Dr. Bernard Grofman, a professor at UC Irvine School of Social Sciences.
Cervas and Grofman were asked to review six proposals submitted by:
- A group led by Rebecca Clarke (Clarke)
- Governor Tony Evers
- A group led by Billie Johnson (Johnson)
- Democratic senators
- The Wisconsin Legislature
- A group led by Stephen Joseph Wright (Wright)
Cervas and Grofman said, from a social science perspective, the Legislature’s plan does not deserve further consideration. They said the Johnson plan appears to have a substantial number of fails of the “bounded by” constitutional criteria. They also noted the plans from the Legislature and Johnson are “partisan gerrymanders” from a social science perspective.
They said the four other submitted plans are “similar on most criteria” and are “nearly indistinguishable” from a social science point of view.
“On average, each plan, including those submitted by Governor Evers, the Democratic Senators, the Clarke Petitioners, and Wright Intervenors-Respondents plans remain tilted toward the Republicans on all three of our metrics. However, Governor Evers, the Democratic Senators, the Clarke, and Wright plans do create a competitive environment such that most of the time, the party that wins the most votes will win the most seats. These plans reflect the political competitiveness of the state,” the report said.
“The Court can instruct us to take one or more of the plans and improve it with respect to one or more of the court-mandated criteria. Or the Court can instruct us to draw onย more than one of the proposed maps and offer the Court a map intended to improve performance on most or all of the Court mandated criteria,” Cervas and Grofman wrote. “In the process of reviewing plans, we have done extensive explorations of the geography of Wisconsin, and we are confident that we can do so. If the Court were to instruct us to create such a map, we are poised to produce it quickly.”ย
The consultants were given the option of drawing their own maps. According to the report filed Thursday with the Supreme Court, the consultants chose not to do that. “Since it is only the Court that determines whether any map is in compliance with the Wisconsin Constitution and statutory law, we are not offering a plan of our own. We were free to make technical corrections in submitted plans, but we did not feel it necessary to do so,” the report reads.
All parties, including those who submitted maps, have until February 8 to submit briefs in response to the report by Cervas and Grofman. The Wisconsin Elections Commission gave the Wisconsin Supreme Court until March 15 to enact new legislative districts ahead of the primary on August 13.
Read the full report here:ย
Q: My widowed mother passed away a few months ago. I have been making payments to the condo association while my sister and I have been cleaning it. We want to sell it. What do we need to do next?
โ Kelly A: It is hard to lose a loved one, and sorting their affairs can be challenging. You and your sister are off to a good start in settling your motherโs affairs.
This process can be easier if your mother had a will. This estate planning document will instruct you on how your mother wanted her estate dealt with. If you are unsure if your mother had a will, look for it when cleaning her apartment. In my experience, most people stash important papers in a safety deposit box, freezer or bedroom closet.
You will need to go through the probate process to be able to sell her apartment. If you found a will, it may have instructions on conducting the โtestateโ probate administration. Many people pass away โintestateโ or without a will, so the law will provide procedures for this situation.
The rules also deal with a decedentโs primary residence differently than their other assets. Unless the will is written in a particular way, you and your siblings will likely inherit the property.
You will need to use the probate process to gain the ability to sell the apartment and finalize the rest of your motherโs affairs. Depending on the particulars, you will need to become the โpersonal representative,โ sometimes called the โexecutor,โ of her estate.
If her estate is limited, you and your siblings may qualify for a simplified probate, skipping some formalities and paperwork.
You will need to work with an attorney who can guide you through the correct process.
Once the legal formalities are underway, the rest of the process is similar to selling any apartment. You engage a real estate broker and attorney to help you market and sell the property.
If you can, it is best to continue paying the apartmentโs bills, like the condo dues, mortgage payments, and utilities, as falling behind in these payments can further complicate matters.
Gary M. Singer is a Florida attorney and board-certified as an expert in real estate law by the Florida Bar. He is the chairman of the Real Estate Section of the Broward County Bar Association and is a co-host of the weekly radio show Legal News and Review. Send him questions online at www.sunsentinel.com/askpro or follow him on Twitter @GarySingerLaw.