A sale of the Tyrone YMCA building that had been in the works for months is not going to happen.
A Y representative, Peter Dutrow, told The Daily Herald yesterday that the YMCA was waiting to hear back from the prospective buyer by April 1. Dutrow said officials did not hear back from the buyer by the deadline so the building is “back on the market.”
In January, Dutrow said relatives of the perspective buyer visited Tyrone to see the building. At the time, he said a contract had been signed with the potential buyer to have financing in place to purchase the building. Dutrow said the financing was in place and the deal was to have been finalized in February. Dutrow has not been personally involved in the negotiations and he did not elaborate on what led to the deadline being pushed to April 1.
The negotiations for the sale of the building were going on at the same time the Y has been facing compliance issues regarding repairs to a portion of its exterior. The borough has extended numerous deadlines to have the problems that materialized last summer corrected.
To date, no action has yet been taken by the borough regarding the problems that became evident when a piece of a cornice came crashing down on the sidewalk at the front of the “Y” building last July. Borough code officer Tom Lang said the incident happened during or shortly after what he described as an extensive rainstorm.
Borough officials closed the sidewalk and the surrounding area in front of the building for safety reasons. Since then the “Y” installed a metal fence around the sidewalk and the parking spaces outside the front entrance of the building. After the incident, Lang inspected the remaining cornice area and turned up some other concerns.
The borough informed the “Y” that a structural engineer needed to inspect the entire facade of the building and supply the borough with a copy of a report and a schedule for repair of any items that needed to be addressed. Lang informed the “Y” that his inspection showed cracked cornices and brick that was missing mortar. The borough was concerned for residents who use the parking lots, street and sidewalk area surrounding the building.
Lang issued a compliance order in October to remove property maintenance violations at the building. The compliance order allowed for a 60-day period for the problems to be fixed. In November, The Y asked the borough for more time and Lang said Tyrone granted the request to allow the Y to complete the sale of the building. The borough gave the YMCA until Jan. 12 to comply with the order.
This morning, Lang told The Daily Herald the borough had given the Y even more time beyond the Jan. 12 date because of the potential sale.
Lang had previously noted if the building were sold, the new owner would assume the full responsibility for the repairs. He said the “Y” was required to reveal the compliance order to a new owner.
Lang said under the borough’s code, it is unlawful to sell a property until the provisions of an order have been complied with by the seller or until the borough received a notarized statement that the new owner had received a copy of the compliance order or violation and accepted full responsibility to make the needed corrections or repairs.
This morning, Lang indicated he was not aware the sale had fallen through. With word of the news, he said, “The borough will have to make contact with the Y board to see what our next course of action will be.” Lang said the needed repairs to the exterior have not been done.
The YMCA was closed shortly after the flood that hit downtown Tyrone in September of 2004. Much of the building had already been closed off to the public even before the flood because it was not in compliance with current codes. The building needed major repairs and renovations to bring it up to code. Funding for such work was not in place and the flood left officials with no choice but to shut the YMCA down.
