Town Looking For Firms To Sell Blighted Properties

As the number of blighted properties falling into town hands continued to increase, officials are taking steps to sell them off.

The Legislative Council's Planning and Development Committee on Monday approved a bid waiver in favor of a Request for Proposals for companies to handle the sale of blighted properties.

And the number of properties that may be sold numbers about a dozen, according to Chief Administrative Officer Curt Balzano Leng.

"The list of blighted properties is a long one," he said.

"We have more blighted properties coming into the town's possession," Leng said. The town would like to compile a list of a number of companies that could handle sales, he said, in order to allow them some flexibility.

"We do research on firms on how they handle municipal blighted properties - it's a problem that can be unique."

The properties generally don't sell for a lot of money, he said. The two most recently sold properties the town sold off the blight list went for about $50,000 for one and $20,000 for the other, he said.

And that may be a deterrent to potential companies to get involved in working with the town, Councilman Tom Rousseau said.

"What incentive would a real estate agent have when there is do little money in it?" He asked. "If I were a real estate agent I wouldn't be overly excited to bid on this.

There is plenty of interest out there to successfully get a list of companies willing to broker the sales, Leng said.

Councilman Al Gorman said local firms may be more hands-on when it comes to the transactions while those farther away might depend more heavily on technology rather than in-person visits to Hamden.

The proposal now goes to the full council next Monday for final approval.