As part of a means to recuperate losses resulting from acquiring residential and commercial properties, the City of Williamsport approved an intergovernmental cooperative agreement and memorandum of understanding between the Redevelopment Authority/Land Bank, the city, Lycoming County and Williamsport Area School District.

Mayor Derek Slaughter, before City Council approved the resolution, noted how the RDA/Land Bank is actively working to acquire properties and get them refurbished and back onto the tax rolls.

This agreement allows the RDA/Land Bank to capture some of the tax revenue generated on the properties that will be coming back on the tax rolls for a period of five years, Slaughter said.

Councilman Adam Yoder asked August “Skip” Memmi of the RDA/Land Bank how the city was looking over the next couple of years in terms of dispersing and allocating the funding that RDA/Land Bank was allocated for such purposes as purchasing residential-commercial-industrial properties.

Williamsport’s Redevelopment Authority and Land Bank received substantial American Rescue Plan Act funding from the city’s total allocation, with the RDA budgeting about $2.7 million and the Land Bank approximately $2 million for economic development and housing initiatives.

This was part of the city’s $25.4 million ARPA funds, intended to address post-pandemic recovery and blight.

“We’re in the midst of completing a third project that should be done in the next 30 days,” Memmi said. “We have three more properties that are working through litigation and they should be acquired by the RDA/Land Bank within the next 30 days also,” he added. “We have five more properties that we are evaluating and hope to acquire before the end of the year,” he said.

So far, the RDA/Land Bank has spent about half of the allocation given as part of the American Rescue Act funds. The entity anticipates by September that a majority of the balance will be spent, Memmi remarked.

The recapture of those funds through this intergovernmental cooperation agreement will allow the RDA/Land Bank to make up for some of the losses that it has and will likely continue to encounter as it moves the projects forward.

“If they were all profit-making projects we all would be glad to have the private sector take them on,” Memmi explained. However, because there is limited to no profit made, and most often a loss of funds, the agreement is expected to help.

As an example, a recent refurbishment of a property that was damaged in a fire on Mosser Avenue cost the RDA about $185,000.

“We were able to sell the property for $165,000,” Memmi said. Eliminating commission and closing costs the RDA/Land Bank lost about $25,000 to $30,000 on this project, he said.

That is probably going to be how it falls out for every project that is done, he observed. “There is not a profit making at all,” he said. “This intergovernmental cooperative agreement will allow us to recapture tax dollars for five years at 50 % and will allow us to offset some of those losses,” he said.

The school district is set to review the agreement on Tuesday and Lycoming County Commissioners on Thursday.

A majority of the properties under the acquisition process are residential.

However, the RDA/Land Bank is looking at one commercial property at this time.

Due diligence is being done on it before a commitment is made to “take it,” Memmi said.

That is because the property has “substantial environmental issues” that need to be addressed and that must be taken into consideration.

Council President Eric Beiter thanked the RDA/Land Bank and mayor for their commitment.

Council also approved a resolution authorizing an amendment to the subrecipient agreement between the city and Redevelopment Authority.

“This amendment just gives us the ability to give the RDA funds upfront to purchase a home,” according to Jamie Livermore, city finance director.

Currently, “everything is on a reimbursement basis,” she said. “They do the work, pay the bills, send in the bills for reimbursement,” she said. For the larger purchases of the actual properties, the city spoke with UHY, the ARPA consultant, and Memmi and had a meeting with RDA board and it was discovered that it is important that the RDA/Land Bank is able to purchase these properties with this money upfront so they do not have to wait longer because there is a time limit on the expenditures which is at the end of this year.

“This resolution gives them the ability to purchase the property upfront,” Livermore said. “The expenses that go into the properties will still be reimbursement based but this is for the actual purchase,” she said. This was reviewed by Nicholas Grimes, solicitor, and passed by the RDA board.

“We give the money to the RDA, purchase falls through because somebody else came in, or the person who owns the property decides they are going to fix it up, get their act together, what’s the next step?” Beiter asked.

“I would assume that we would actually write the check for purchase, directly to wherever they are paying for the property,” Livermore said.