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Re: (rshsdepot) Johnson City, TN
Yes, it is Tennessee, sorry about that
Henry
On Mon, 15 Jun 2009, James Kelling wrote:
> I think this is the Johnson City in Tennessee.
>
> J. Kelling
>
> >>> root_@_bluemoon.net 6/15/2009 1:25 PM >>>
> Foreclosure catches up with Johnson City's railroad depot
>
> http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9014541
>
> Thanks to Alco83 on the railfan.net forum for the heads up.
>
> Henry
>
> J. Henry Priebe Jr. Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
> www.bluemoon.net Internet Access & Web Hosting
> www.railfan.net Railfan Network Services
>
>
> Foreclosure catches up with Johnson City's railroad depot
>
> By JEFF KEELING
>
> Published June 15th, 2009
>
> The SOS call in 2002 was for Johnson City to Save Our Station, and
> that's what Dorian Jones ended up doing with the former Carolina,
> Clinchfield and Ohio railroad depot at the corner of Buffalo and
> Cherry streets.
>
> But if the century-old building is going to move from its still
> threatened condition to a renovated, usable state, someone other than
> Jones will oversee it -- the property is being foreclosed on and will
> be sold at auction June 23.
>
> Despite getting the property for free in a December 2003 quit claim
> deed, Jones has seen debts mount on the building -- which nearly fell
> to the wrecking ball early in this decade -- since borrowing nearly
> $500,000 against the property in early 2008.
>
> Leaders at the Johnson City Development Authority see the pending
> change as an opportunity to progress with renovations, potentially
> using a combination of private and grant money. They'd like to see the
> building become the site either of a railroad museum and public
> offices, or a privately operated business -- but either way they're
> hoping to see completion of a historic renovation that began with
> Jones.
>
> One of those JCDA members, Craig Torbett, was active in 2002 and said
> the JCDA came close to getting the property itself in order to keep it
> from being demolished. The railroad company was simply leasing the
> land under the building it owned, though, and concerns that the land
> could revert to Tipton Jobe's heirs caused the JCDA to balk.
>
> Torbett said Jones did a great deal of legwork after getting the
> building, contacting all the Jobe family heirs through an attorney,
> and that the property now belongs to him. That should make it easier
> for a buyer to confidently redevelop the property, and Torbett said
> the JCDA is intent on seeing that happen.
>
> I think it's the most prominent historic structure that's on the
> table for development, Torbett said.
>
> JCDA's David Tomita agreed.
>
> It's the last one that hasn't been torn down, Tomita added. You've
> lost the old train station, the Majestic Theater -- this is our last
> chance.
>
> For his part, Jones is washing his hands of Johnson City, where he's
> spent more than a decade buying and working on a handful of downtown
> buildings. He's wrangled with the city government over numerous
> issues, including whether to allow a recreational trail from East
> Tennessee State University to downtown -- along the former CSX tracks
> to pass by the depot.
>
> Jones said the city's decision to pull up the former CSX tracks last
> year to prepare for the trail, instead of trying to renovate the
> tracks for continued rail use -- was an example of what he sees as a
> less-than-ethical leadership approach.
>
> The corruption here is rampant, he said. The people here don't give
> a (darn)... there are cities that are enlightened. This is not one.
>
> Jones said he simply wanted to save the station and get it open for
> some kind of public use -- JCDA members give him credit for shoring up
> a roof that was near collapse -- but that too many things beyond his
> control stood in the way.
>
> >From day one, the City made this impossible. I tried. I couldn't get
> permits, I couldn't get this, I couldn't get that, until seven months
> ago, when it was too late, was I finally able to start pulling
> permits.
>
> Jones got the station and attached freight house in December 2003, 20
> years after the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina railroad sold
> it, along with miles of track, to the East Tennessee Railway
> Corporation.
>
> He has spent the last several years working to renovate it to original
> specifications, and it was the cost of this work that landed the site
> in foreclosure. Jones borrowed $492,800 from Interbay Funding, a Fort
> Washington, Pa., company, putting the building and its internal
> fixtures up as collateral.
>
> Jones has had the building on the market at $495,000 -- it includes
> 11,000 square feet in the two-story station house and another 6,000 in
> the freight house -- for some time now. The JCDA approached him a
> number of months ago, but couldn't agree to a price.
>
> Jones also owns the former Honey Krust bakery building across Buffalo
> at 221 Cherry, and said last week he was walking away from that
> building as well as he prepares to move to Asheville, N.C. That
> 90-year-old building, for which Jones has been asking $575,000, comes
> with a quarter-acre parking lot.
>
> JCDA's Tomita said he plans to be at the auction, scheduled for 11
> a.m. at the Washington County Courthouse in Jonesborough,
> and making sure any prospective buyers know who we are and what we do.
>
> That's because JCDA Executive Director Suzanne Kuehn has outlined an
> array of grant and loan opportunities, several exceeding $200,000,
> that could aid prospective buyers in the station's redevelopment.
>
> Torbett said purchase by the JCDA or another public entity should be a
> last resort.
>
> JCDA's role should always be to get it into private hands, Torbett
> said. If that happens without JCDA involvement and just our support,
> that's the ideal outcome. If it takes more than that hopefully we
> would at least consider a more hands-on role.
>
>
> =================================
> The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of
> existing
> railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
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> =================================
> The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
> railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
> To Unsubscribe: http://lists.railfan.net/rshsdepot-photo/unsub.html
>
J. Henry Priebe Jr. Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
www.bluemoon.net Internet Access & Web Hosting
www.railfan.net Railfan Network Services
=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
To Unsubscribe: http://lists.railfan.net/rshsdepot-photo/unsub.html
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